Nova Scotia’s Kejimkujik National Park and Historic Site is home to old-growth forests, white sand beaches, diverse wildlife and abundant natural beauty. But long before it was established as a national park in 1969, it was the site of Mi’kmaw fishing villages, hunting territories and burial grounds for thousands of years. Now, the Mi’kmaq will once again play a central role in deciding how that land, which is the keeper of their stories and memories, is cared for.

A new agreement between the Mi’kmaq and Parks Canada will allow both parties to govern almost all of Nova Scotia’s parks and historic lands together. Announced in December 2025, the Toqi’maliaptmu’k Arrangement, which means “we will look after it together,” reflects a relationship based in mutual respect and allyship — one that has taken decades to nurture and create.

Roughly 30 years ago, that relationship was essentially non-existent, Eric Zscheile says. He has been a legal advisor to the Mi’kmaq, who operate as one nation, since 1992 and negotiates on their behalf with the federal and provincial governments. 

Nova Scotia’s national parks (excluding Sable Island), as well as many more throughout Canada, were created from land that was directly taken from First Nations, often through “dubious land surrenders,” Zscheile says. For generations, the Mi’kmaq had no say in how unceded land was protected, used or accessed, and there was a deep sense of distrust toward the federal agency as a result. 

 “Most Mi’kmaq refused to even go into a national park because of the past,” Zscheile says. “There was a feeling that it was government appropriation.”

Then came the Marshall Case, a 1999 landmark decision in favour of Mi’kmaw fisherman Donald Marshall that affirmed First Nations’ Treaty Right to fish, hunt and gather for their livelihood. After that, Zscheile says, things slowly began to shift.

“ People within Parks [Canada] started looking at what was happening legally when it came to the rights of Indigenous Peoples and their relationship with Indigenous Peoples, not just in Nova Scotia but across the country,” he says. “There started to be a concerted effort to say, ‘I think we have to do things differently.’ ”

Eric Zscheile says that many Mi’kmaq “refused to even go into a national park because of the past.” But in recent decades, the relationship with Parks Canada has shifted. Photo: Darren Calabrese / The Narwhal

In the years since, progress has been gradual. Mi’kmaw leaders have worked with Parks Canada on a number of projects to help repair the community’s relationship with both the agency and the land they’d historically been excluded from. In 2012, they formed an arrangement to allow Mi’kmaq to enter national parks for free.

They’ve also worked to incorporate Mi’kmaw place names into official signage and interpretive displays, create visitor programs highlighting Mi’kmaw history and culture and organize harvesting, protection and restoration projects. One such project focused on white birch conservation and gave the Mi’kmaq access to white birch for traditional crafts, including building canoes.

Today, Parks Canada is lovingly seen by the community as the “least offensive federal agency,” Zscheile says. That’s thanks to years of collaboration and a willingness to listen and work together as equal partners. 

That status as equal partners is now official, according to the Toqi’maliaptmu’k Arrangement, which took nearly a decade of negotiations to bring to fruition.

The arrangement is unprecedented and monumental in its scope. While similar agreements exist in Gwaii Haanas in B.C., Newfoundland’s Torngat Mountains and Saoyú-ʔehdacho in the Northwest Territories, those partnerships apply only to individual parks. This agreement’s underlying principle is to recognize and implement Aboriginal and Treaty Rights within lands that have traditionally been governed, managed and utilized by the Mi’kmaq. 

Because of that wide scope, it’s the first agreement to apply province-wide and covers all Parks Canada-administered national parks and national historic sites in Nova Scotia.

The only exception is Sable Island Reserve, which was left out because it remains unclear if Mi’kmaq traditionally frequented and used Sable Island, Jonathan Sheppard, says. Sheppard is superintendent of Kejimkujik National Park and National Historic Site, one of the locations covered by the arrangement. Discussions about the governance and management of Sable Island are ongoing between Parks Canada and the Mi’kmaq.

The choice to create a province-wide agreement, rather than one focused on individual lands, was largely based on the Mi’kmaw preference for a collective approach because the Mi’kmaw communities in Nova Scotia operate as one unified political group, Sheppard says.

“[It was] really important for the ideas associated with self-governance and self-determination that this is a pan-Nova Scotia initiative, because it is ultimately about a nation-to-nation relationship and the nation-to-nation decision-making governance structure,” he says.

A shared vision 

Fundamentally, the arrangement is a framework to formalize the modern-day relationship while recognizing and implementing the Peace and Friendship Treaties, signed in the 1700s between the Crown and east-coast Indigenous communities.

 “This was not about negotiating rights and it was not about creating rights or extinguishing rights,” Sheppard says. “It was really about implementing rights originating from those original Peace and Friendship Treaties.”

In practice, the framework will be guided by a co-management board that will be made up of an equal number of Parks Canada and Mi’kmaw representatives. There will also be technical committees made up of Knowledge Holders, Elders and harvesters focused on specific topics, including language, culture and heritage; archeology; natural resource stewardship and harvesting; and economic opportunities.

While exact details will be developed over the coming months, the arrangement will include opportunities for practices on the land, including in protected heritage places. This will allow for practices such as ceremonies, Indigenous-led conservation activities and place-based learning and knowledge sharing.

The 10-year agreement has an option to extend or renew, although the Mi’kmaq are free to opt out at any point if they are dissatisfied. 

“ It was really clear to Parks Canada that there was a lot of overlap in vision about land stewardship, and that formed the basis for the agreement,” Sheppard says.

The Mi’kmaw concept of Netukulimk teaches about the respectful use of resources and only taking what you need from the land. It’s one of the principles Sheppard says aligns with Parks Canada’s vision for ecological integrity and preservation. Another is Msit No’kmaq, which suggests that all living beings are sacred and interconnected.

Etuaptmumk, or two-eyed seeing, is the concept at the very core of this new partnership, according to Lindsay Marshall, the Mi’kmaq relations advisor for the Cape Breton Field Unit for Parks Canada and a former chief of Potlotek First Nation.

Coined by Mi’kmaw Elder Albert Marshall, it means “looking at something with your western eye, and also with your Indigenous eye to come up with something truly beautiful and unique, and to understand it more,” he says. It is about combining both wisdoms to create a more holistic, in-depth approach. 

While the timeline to establish this arrangement was long, Marshall says it was the Mi’kmaq who set the pace, not the government. This required patience from Parks Canada at times, patience that helped demonstrate respect. So far, Sheppard says, the public response has been positive.

“ I’m really proud of the way the approach has been at the speed of the communities and not rushing, not being forceful in any way,” Marshall says. “That shows understanding and appreciation for culture.”

For First Nations in other provinces who may want to develop their own arrangements, Marshall suggests a similar strategy: go slow and build a real relationship before rushing into anything. 

And to federal agencies that may want to build partnerships with Indigenous communities, Marshall stresses the importance of doing the homework first. 

“Before you even set foot in the community, you should learn about the community,” he says. “You go at [their] speed and you approach with respect.”

Heal the people, heal the land 

For Clifford Paul, the moose management co-ordinator for the Unama’ki Institute of Natural Resources, this new arrangement is an opportunity for true healing among the Mi’kmaq.

“The Mi’kmaq language hasn’t been spoken in these areas in a long time,” Paul says. “The language belongs there. Our people belong there.”

It is also a chance to draw on Indigenous wisdom to help heal the land at a time when the environment is in dire need of protection. The Mi’kmaq have a proven track record of helping to improve the ecosystems in Nova Scotia’s parks, Paul says. In recent years, for example, they reintroduced pine martens into the boreal forest and helped to rectify an overabundant moose population through harvesting.

While the latter project was highly controversial — both with people who oppose hunting and non-Indigenous hunters who opposed being excluded — Paul says the Mi’kmaq successfully demonstrated their ability to get the job done safely while providing positive social impacts to their communities.

Restoring the spiritual connection between the Mi’kmaq people and the land is another crucial part of this deal, Paul says. Although the arrangement is about resource management and economic opportunities, it is also about harvesting knowledge from these sacred lands after hundreds of years of severed access.

“ When we go to these places and do our storytelling, it widens the breadth and scope of our Traditional Knowledge,” he says. “ You heal the people by taking them back to the land.” 

The Narwhal’s reporters are telling environment stories you won’t read about anywhere else. Stay in the loop by signing up for our free weekly dose of independent journalism.

A B.C. Supreme Court justice has ordered a group of people blocking a logging road in the Walbran Valley on southern Vancouver Island to stop. The decision to grant an injunction to Tsawak-qin Forestry Limited Partnership, a joint partnership between the Huu-ay-aht First Nations and Western Forest Products, alongside an enforcement order is expected to set the stage for the RCMP to remove people from the area.This fight over British Columbia’s old-growth forests comes four years after the start of the historic Fairy Creek protests, where more than 1,100 people were arrested.

The Walbran Valley blockade began in late August and has prevented a logging company from working and accessing tools, equipment and vehicles on the other side of the blockade. Pacheedaht Elder Bill Jones, who was at the forefront of the Fairy Creek protests, is one of the parties named in the court filing, and the only person to respond to the application. Others named include Will O’Connell, John Doe, Jane Doe and “persons unknown.”

At the blockade, people have constructed a fence which prevents vehicles from passing through. In a statement posted on Tsawak-qin Forestry Limited Partnership’s website, Pacheedaht Chief Arliss Daniels called the Walbran blockade “an unlawful obstruction,” and asked the blockaders to “immediately vacate the area.”

After hearing arguments from both sides on Sept. 9 and Sept. 11, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Amy Francis concluded on the morning of Sept. 12 that “counsel for Mr. Jones has made no effort to explain or suggest that the protesters’ conduct is legal. This is because it is illegal.” “The court in such circumstances, has no choice but to protect the lawful conduct and business of the plaintiff, and to address the illegality of the defendant’s behaviour,” Francis said. “In these circumstances, I find the rule-of-law considerations must prevail, and the balance of convenience weighs in favour of granting the injunction.”

Five years after pledging reform, B.C. faces renewed resistance

On Sept. 9, while the Vancouver court was hearing arguments related to the injunction, The Narwhal visited what blockaders are calling Cougar Camp, where about a dozen people were gathered with tents and a sheltered kitchen area behind a fence made from rough planks of salvaged cedar. Inside the camp, a large sculpture of a cougar sat in the middle of the logging road, made from wood gathered from debris left behind by loggers. At the cougar’s paws were several small, hand-made wooden signs bearing slogans: “Defend the old growth” and “Protect the sacred.”

O’Connell was one of the people at the camp. He learned of plans to log eight parcels of land — known as cut blocks in the logging industry — in the Walbran Valley more than a year ago and told The Narwhal he had hiked the stands of trees in the valley multiple times. When he saw satellite images revealing logging had begun, he knew he would try to stop it.

“It was a wonderful clarity, because I spent five years feeling like there should be more I’m doing for the old growth,” he said. “I should be doing something because I’m feeling a continuous sadness for the loss of these places and the betrayal of the government, who is continually not acting.”

Just up the logging road from Cougar Camp lies one of the cut blocks where Tsawak-qin Forestry Limited Partnership began logging in August 2025.

The latest conflict over the future of British Columbia’s remaining old-growth trees arrives amid the fifth anniversary of the release of the old-growth strategic review, co-authored by professional foresters. It warned “the priorities that currently drive our forest management system are backwards” and urged a “paradigm shift,” offering 14 recommendations to improve forest management in B.C.

The NDP government promised to implement them all. While logging has been deferred in some of the priority areas identified in the report, old-growth trees are still being taken out of B.C. forests.

O’Connell called the B.C. government’s failure to fully implement the review panel’s recommendations and continue allowing logging in areas identified to host old-growth trees “gut-wrenching.”

“There are greater travesties happening in the world than the destruction of our last ancient forests, but this is our forest, this is our backyard and it’s something we can change and we can choose to do it differently.”

This conflict sits at the centre of a complex relationship between First Nations, the B.C. government, logging companies and environmental advocates.

B.C. court hears arguments from both sides 

The request in court to stop the blockade at Cougar Camp was made by Tsawak-qin Forestry Inc and Tsawak-qin Forestry Limited Partnership to protect its permitted logging operations in the Walbran Valley from interference.

The company’s request said the Fairy Creek blockade “resulted in a significant breakdown in the rule of law” and warned the situation in the Walbran “risks spinning out of control again,” unless the court intervenes. 

As Fairy Creek blockaders brace for arrests, B.C.’s failure to enact old-growth protections draws fire

A statement posted on the company’s website on Sept. 8 states the Pacheedaht First Nation Chief and Council, whose territory the cut blocks are on, consented to Tsawak-qin’s plans for logging in the Walbran.

“Our planned activity incorporates specific measures to integrate cultural and ecological priorities, including the protection of culturally significant trees, support for traditional bark harvesting and respect for Indigenous Knowledge,” the statement reads.

A statement from Pacheedaht Chief Arliss Daniels included on the company’s website calls the Walbran blockade “an unlawful obstruction.”

“Blockaders must immediately vacate the area,” Daniels said. “Our lands are not to be misused or disrespected under any circumstances.”

An aerial view of one of the Walbran Valley cut blocks that Will O’Connell says he walked multiple times before logging began in August 2025.

The legal representatives for both sides made their respective cases on Sept. 9 and Sept. 11 at the B.C. Supreme Court. On Sept. 9, following a call-out for support from the Fairy Creek social media accounts, around two dozen observers sat in on the morning proceedings. 

The lawyers representing Tsawak-qin argued the blockade was unlawful and undemocratic, preventing the forestry company from legal harvesting activities. The blockade put 11 forestry jobs and millions in revenue at risk, the lawyers said, at a “critical time” of year for harvesting, as the machinery can’t operate in heavy rain. Additionally, the company raised concerns about safety, saying a fire truck and emergency transport vehicle were inaccessible behind the blockade. At one point, the judge reprimanded a number of observers for laughing when the company’s lawyers once more invoked the idea of democratic process, asking them to be respectful. 

A lawyer for the Tsawak-qin described the Cougar Camp as a “sophisticated, targeted and well-funded blockade” organized by the same group that carried out the Fairy Creek blockades.

Ben Isitt, the lead lawyer representing Bill Jones, argued in court the value of the forests for biodiversity and cultural survival outweigh the claims of economic harm by the logging company. The threats to life and liberty posed by climate change, the defence said, is a threat to everyone, with disproportionate impacts on the Canadian Arctic, coastal communities and Indigenous Peoples. In addition, the defence claimed Jones’s constitutional rights as an Indigenous person would be harmed, and that the ecological impacts to the forest would also cause harm to his cultural and Aboriginal Rights. 

Outside of the courtroom, Isitt described the court proceedings as an “uphill battle.”

“Case law in B.C. has moved in a disturbing direction, placing more weight on the interests of industry than on Indigenous interests and ecological concerns.” 

“In a planet that’s burning, it’s non-negotiable for Bill [Jones], protecting those forests. That’s the context for this dispute,” Isitt said. “And ultimately, we need the province to step in and honour its commitments.” 

In her decision Justice Francis said the case is “not about the wisdom of government forest policy.” “It is decidedly not about the court’s views on whether and where old-growth logging should occur in this province, even in the context of climate change, in an injunction application,” she said. “Those are matters outside of the constitutional competence of the courts.”

 At Cougar Camp, ‘waiting for the RCMP’

Meanwhile, under a pale grey sky at the camp, several people made coffee, planned meals and watched over a toddler. Others helped to build a small cabin to offer Bill Jones and other Indigenous Elders who might visit the camp a little more comfort than a tent or vehicle. By the end of the day, the cabin would have a split red cedar door and a small wood stove.

“We’re building this whole thing up and we’re here and we’re just waiting for the RCMP to come in and destroy everything we created in terms of a community and infrastructure,” O’Connell said.

Members of Cougar Camp used slash wood salvaged from nearby cut blocks to construct a cabin for Pacheedaht Elder Bill Jones while waiting to hear the court’s decision on the injunction request.

Ahead of the court’s decision, the RCMP declined to comment on a timeline for enforcing the injunction and did not immediately respond to questions about what enforcing the injunction would look like.

The RCMP’s enforcement of injunctions against the Fairy Creek blockades was criticized by its own watchdog agency, the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission. RCMP officers took “frequent unreasonable actions” during the Fairy Creek blockades, according to the commission’s 2024 report, and used “disproportionately intrusive” methods while enforcing the injunction.

“The commission is concerned about similarly broad and intrusive strategies being implemented during future protests, leading to similarly unreasonable searches and arrests,” the report concluded.

The RCMP did not immediately respond to questions about whether any actions or changes had been undertaken in its approach to enforcing injunctions since the report was released.

In court, the defence argued the injunction filed by the logging company is too broad, putting the safety and civil liberties of people at the blockade at risk. They argued the injunction area should only apply to the forestry tenure, and that a police enforcement order was unnecessary given the small number of people at the camp. Speaking outside the courtroom, Isitt warned “there’s a very high risk that the police will act with disregard for people’s basic human rights, as they did at Fairy Creek. So, if the judge feels she must issue an order, the terms need to be narrow, need to be carefully fashioned, to limit the risk of police abuse to the greatest extent possible.” 

One of Tsawak-qin’s lawyers dismissed this concern, telling the court, “The police are accountable, and there are methods for keeping them accountable.”“Blockaders seek to avoid accountability for their unlawful acts, for taking matters into their own hands when they have a concern with public policy,” the company’s lawyer said.

Francis granted an enforcement order, but denied a clause that would have empowered the police to take “any action that is reasonably necessary to prevent persons from contravening any provision of this order.”“I am very reluctant to endow the police with extra enforcement powers beyond those that were granted in the Teal Cedar injunction application,” she said referring to the injunction from the Fairy Creek blockade.

O’Connell recalled once thinking the Fairy Creek blockades could turn the tide. But the hope that blocking logging roads will actually save ancient trees has receded to a trickle.

“We all did everything we could,” he told The Narwhal. “It’s just hard to be here expecting to lose and still doing it.”

— With files from Zoë Yunker, Michelle Cyca and Lindsay Sample

The Narwhal’s reporters are telling environment stories you won’t read about anywhere else. Stay in the loop by signing up for our free weekly dose of independent journalism.

As economically devastating tariffs threatened by U.S. President Donald Trump loom, B.C. Premier David Eby has directed his cabinet to prioritize economic development and make it easier for corporate interests to feel confident investing in the province. 

Eby’s new mandate letters for cabinet focus heavily on finding ways to support B.C.’s industries — including forestry, mining and oil and gas development — by speeding up permitting processes and reducing regulatory burdens, spurring concerns from conservation groups that environmental initiatives and protections could be sidelined.

“There were virtually no environmental directions in the letters that weren’t qualified by industry interests or by economic considerations,” Jessica Clogg, the executive director and senior counsel at West Coast Environmental Law, said in an interview. 

“The most extreme interpretation is it’s a whole-scale abdication of the values and direction that we thought this government stood for,” she said. 

In his letters to cabinet ministers, B.C. Premier David Eby said the province is facing a “profoundly challenging geopolitical environment,” noting the threat of tariffs from U.S. President Donald Trump. It remains to be seen how tariffs would impact trade, including though ports like Deltaport in Metro Vancouver. Photo: Alana Paterson / The Narwhal

The NDP government’s focus on boosting economic growth and easing the permitting process is explicit in Environment and Parks Minister Tamara Davidson’s mandate letter, which directs her to have the B.C. Environmental Assessment Office “develop specific measures that will expedite authorizations and permitting for major projects,” with input from other ministries with permitting authority, including the forestry and mining ministries.

Davidson’s mandate letter also makes it clear Eby is keen to eliminate environmental assessment requirements for certain projects: it directs Davidson to get rid of assessments in cases where the process “is duplicative, delays projects with environmental advantages or offers only limited value while impeding projects that will benefit the province as a whole.”

Davidson is responsible for executing the government’s plan, announced in December, to exempt new wind power projects from environmental assessments. The wind power exemption was followed by Eby’s announcement last week that the North Coast transmission line — which will deliver power for the liquefied natural gas (LNG), mining and other industries — will not be subject to an environmental assessment. The project will instead receive permits and authorizations from the BC Energy Regulator, which is largely funded by the oil and gas industry.

‘At what cost?’: wind energy projects now exempt from environmental assessments in B.C.

“Proposed measures such as exempting whole classes of projects from environmental assessment or arbitrarily limiting timeframes for permitting are nothing but a recipe for conflict and uncertainty,” Clogg said in a statement. 

Meanwhile, Energy Minister Adrian Dix’s mandate letter directs him to find ways to “dramatically accelerate” permitting for clear and low-carbon energy projects while maintaining “world-leading environmental standards.”

Government remains committed to 30-by-30 conservation goals, old-growth protections

Sarah Korpan, government relations manager for the environmental law charity Ecojustice, said the new mandates signal “the environment is nothing more than an afterthought” for the NDP government. “They fail to carry forward even the bare minimum of previous commitments related to the prioritization of biodiversity and ecosystems,” she said in a statement.

The Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, Sierra Club BC and Wilderness Committee also issued statements expressing alarm about the lack of environmental urgency in the mandate letters.

“These aren’t just gaps in the mandate letters — this is a deliberate and near-total exclusion of any commitments to biodiversity and species-at-risk protection,” Wilderness Committee conservation and policy campaigner Lucero Gonzalez said in a press release. “Despite what Premier David Eby seems to believe, B.C. is not immune to the biodiversity crisis, and prioritizing logging, mining and oil and gas corporations over ecosystems amidst an extinction crisis isn’t just negligence — it’s an environmental and moral failure.” 

The B.C. government says it remains committed to old-growth forest protections, even as conservation groups raise concerns that new mandate letters for ministers appear to sideline core environmental commitments. Photo: Taylor Roades / The Narwhal

In an emailed statement a government spokesperson said the NDP’s commitments to protecting old-growth forests and 30 per cent of the province’s land and water by 2030 remain intact.

“Our government’s inclusive land use planning process will not only provide greater certainty about what areas of the province need to be protected, but also clearly identify those areas where resource development and industrial activity can occur,” the statement said.

“Choosing between the economy and protecting the environment is a ‘false choice,’ ” the statement continued. “We can and we must do both.” 

Mandate letters emphasize economic growth, red-tape reduction

In his mandate letters, Eby said B.C. is facing a “profoundly challenging geopolitical environment.”

“Close friends and neighbours to our south are contemplating imposing draconian tariffs on our products that would hurt both Americans and Canadians,” he wrote. “Global inflation, snarled supply chains and war are threatening global economic growth and prosperity as well as the transition to a low-carbon economy.”

The premier gave comparatively little attention to the marquee initiatives his government was working on prior to last October’s election to address declining wildlife populations, protect remaining old-growth forests and conserve nature in the face of a deepening global biodiversity crisis. 

Eby’s letter to new Forests Minister Ravi Parmar, for instance, is a stark departure from the letter issued to Parmar’s predecessor one year ago. The 2024 mandate letter to former forests minister Bruce Ralston mentioned old-growth forest protections multiple times and directed Ralston to work with the minister of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship to speed up implementation of recommendations made in a strategic review, including the immediate deferral from logging of old-growth forest at the greatest risk of biodiversity loss. 

But Parmar’s letter mentions old-growth forests only once. 

B.C. Premier David Eby directed Forests Minister Ravi Parmar to protect old-growth forests while ensuring 45 million cubic meters of timber is available for harvest every year. Photo: Louis Bockner / The Narwhal

Eby directs Parmar to fulfill the NDP government’s “commitment to protect old growth,” while ensuring 45 million cubic metres of timber are available for harvest each year, roughly the same amount available today. 

The government spokesperson noted work to implement old-growth forest commitments has begun. 

“It is critical that we continue taking action, with the understanding that the scope of work to fulfill all the recommendations will take place in the years ahead,” the statement said.

Only two of the 2020 review’s 14 recommendations — “engage the full involvement of Indigenous leaders and organizations” and “defer development in old forests at high risk, until a new strategy is implemented” — were at an advanced stage of implementation, according to a government update published in May 2024. Nearly half the recommendations were still in an “initial action” stage. 

Eby also directed new Water, Land and Resource Stewardship Minister Randene Neill to balance conservation measures with economic diversification that supports the technology, tourism and resource development industries. Neill’s mandate letter doesn’t mention biodiversity, the old-growth strategic review or B.C.’s wildlife protection strategy, called “Together for Wildlife.” The only reference the letter makes to B.C.’s commitment to conserve 30 per cent of land by 2030 comes alongside a directive to enable mine exploration and development in the province’s northwest in partnership with First Nations.

“The commitment, in theory, is there to 30-by-30, but there’s nothing in the mandate letters that gives me confidence that we’re going to be moving with any speed towards that goal,” Clogg said.

According to the government spokesperson, B.C.has established 13 conservancies and two provincial parks since August 2017.

“The B.C. government remains committed to protecting 30 per cent of land and water by 2030,” the spokesperson said. “Expanding our parks and protected areas secures the rich biodiversity B.C. is known for and ensures these special places will be here for future generations.”

Kaska organization sees path forward for proposed Indigenous-led protected area

Gillian Staveley, the director of culture and land stewardship at the Dena Kayeh Institute, which is working to establish a Kaska Dena Indigenous protected area called Dene K’éh Kusān in northern B.C., said she’s “cautiously optimistic” after reading through the mandate letters.

“We know that a lot of nations, a lot of British Columbians want to see more land protected in the province, and they also want to address that pressing need for critical minerals, especially in these urgent and challenging times,” Staveley said in an interview. “I truly believe you can achieve both, but it’s going to take cooperation and partnership and willingness for us to seek that balance together.”

Dene K’éh Kusān, a proposed Indigenous protected area in northeast B.C., would safeguard a significant portion of northern mountain caribou ranges. Photo: Taylor Roades / The Narwhal

Staveley said she believes the mandate letters show Eby remains committed to the 30-by-30 conservation target and she’s confident there’s a path forward for the Dene K’éh Kusān protected area.

“We know that it’s going to take initiatives like ours, like the Kaska [Indigenous Protected and Conserved Area] for B.C. to achieve that goal,” she said “We know that they’re going to need to work with us and we’re sitting here with open arms, ready to get to work and make that a reality.”

In the meantime, Staveley said she and her team at the Dena Kayeh Institute are continuing to engage the public more broadly to increase understanding of Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas.

The future of conservation in Canada depends on Indigenous protected areas. So what are they?

Dene K’éh Kusān would protect 40,000 square kilometres in Kaska Dena territory, safeguarding a largely intact expanse of land that’s home to numerous species at risk. 

“A lot of people see the value in that, but they also see the value in the robust economy that we’re trying to create through conservation,” Staveley said.

“We are quite hopeful for what the future is going to look like,” she said. “We’re not going to let, necessarily, what isn’t written within the mandate letters impact the work that we need to be doing going forward.”

Lack of incentives to spur more sustainable forestry, conservation economy disappointing, conservation group says

Ken Wu, the executive director of the Endangered Ecosystem Alliance, told The Narwhal that Eby’s emphasis on the economy in the new crop of mandate letters isn’t a bad thing, but said the minimal mentions of protections for old-growth forests and other endangered ecosystems left him uneasy.

In an interview, Wu noted none of the mandate letters mention the biodiversity and ecosystem health framework the BC NDP promised to address growing biodiversity and species loss. The government initially said it would finalize the framework in the spring of 2024, but, almost one year later, the initiative remains in draft form. Nor did the mandate letters mention any plans to add new old-growth logging deferrals, which were meant to serve as temporary protections until a new long-term approach to forest management was finalized.

Did B.C. keep its old-growth forest promises?

“It’s certainly not ‘paradigm shift’ material in their mandate letters, that’s for sure,” he said, referencing the recommendation in the landmark old-growth strategic review that B.C. implement a paradigm shift to manage forests primarily for biodiversity and not allow timber production to continue to eclipse other values.  

In the statement, the government spokesperson said the biodiversity and ecosystem health framework is now expected to be finalized this year, but did not provide any details on the next steps, noting the ministry is “assessing current mandate priorities.”

“There’s a greater emphasis on the economy and that’s important,” Wu said about the letters. 

But he added that he wished the mandate letters were more explicit about the incentives and regulations needed to transition the province’s forestry sector towards younger, second-growth forests and higher-value products and to develop conservation-based economies in regions where protected areas are created or expanded.

“The biggest commitments are mentioned, but they certainly haven’t been emphasized,” he pointed out. 

Wu said the Endangered Ecosystem Alliance will hold the BC NDP government and the opposition parties to account on these issues. He also said it’s crucial for environmental groups to communicate to the public the value of a healthy environment — including to B.C.’s economy.

Neither the BC Conservatives, the BC Greens or the Business Council of British Columbia were available to comment by publication time.

Updated Jan. 22, 2025, at 1:45 p.m. PT: A quote from Gillian Staveley was corrected to say “…we’re sitting here with open arms….”

The Narwhal’s reporters are telling environment stories you won’t read about anywhere else. Stay in the loop by signing up for our free weekly dose of independent journalism.

Editor’s note: Zain Haq was deported on Jan. 26. On Jan. 23, Haq and his wife Sophia Papp told The Narwhal that Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada denied their spousal sponsorship application for permanent residency, without giving them a substantive explanation — which they say the department is legally required to provide. In a statement, the department said: “Every individual facing removal is entitled to due process, but once all avenues to appeal are exhausted, they are removed from Canada in accordance with Canadian law.”

Federal officials should intervene to halt the imminent deportation of climate activist Zain Haq from Canada, federal Green Party Leader Elizabeth May said on Monday.

“It’s globally precedent-setting,” May told The Narwhal. “No climate activist has been deported for so-called crimes that amount to non-violent civil disobedience in defence of the climate.”

Haq, a 24-year-old Pakistani national, has been arrested about a dozen times in British Columbia since 2020 for participating in non-violent acts of civil disobedience, including protesting fossil fuel subsidies and the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion. 

The Canada Border Services Agency revoked Haq’s student permit in 2022, making him inadmissible to Canada, alleging he wasn’t making progress on his degree at Simon Fraser University. (Haq has said the university supported him and that he was on track to complete his studies.) The border agency’s initial intervention happened before Haq pleaded guilty in 2023 to five counts of mischief, criminal convictions that Haq said were later included as part of the deportation order. 

A spokesperson with the Canada Border Services Agency told The Narwhal the agency can’t comment on Haq’s case, citing privacy reasons. The spokesperson noted foreign nationals must comply with study permit conditions, adding that “being engaged in lawful protest activities would not, in and of itself, render an individual inadmissible to Canada.”

Haq was set to be deported on April 22, 2024 — on Earth Day — when a federal judge denied his deportation appeal. Following community pressure, and more than 2,600 signatures on a petition urging the government to let Haq stay in the country, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Marc Miller stepped in to cancel Haq’s deportation.

May urged the minister to again intervene before Haq is forced to leave the country on Jan. 25. “Zain Haq is a wonderful human being and I would trust him with my life,” May said, noting her own arrest for a similar protest against the Trans Mountain pipeline in 2018.

Green Party Leader Elizabeth May is hopeful Immigration Minister Marc Miller and Public Safety Minister David McGuinty will intervene before the deportation. “For God’s sake, Marc and David, stop this deportation,” she said. “I beg you.” Photo: Rebecca Simiyu / The Narwhal

May joined Haq, his lawyer and his wife Sophia Papp for a press conference in Vancouver on Monday, at which they also called on Miller and Public Safety Minister David McGuinty to act before it’s too late. 

“Let’s stand up for justice, for human rights, for democracy, and for climate justice,” May said at the press conference.

Haq and Papp, a Canadian citizen, are awaiting a decision by the immigration department on a May 2023 spousal application they made for Haq’s permanent residency. Haq said he has a ticket booked for Jan. 25, from Toronto to Karachi, Pakistan, but remains hopeful he won’t have to use it if Miller intervenes again.

“The thing that the government has to decide on is that if my deportation goes through, the kind of message that sends to my generation,” Haq told The Narwhal. He said it would signal “a lack of realization that the government can be convinced to take action on climate change.”

Neither Miller’s office nor the immigration department responded to questions by the original publication time.

Who is Haq, why is he being deported and how did he get where he is today? Read on.

Who is Zain Haq, and why is he being deported?

Haq, a Pakistani national and former university student, co-founded Save Old Growth, a campaign calling for B.C. to end old-growth forest logging. He has been arrested for actions including blocking a road in 2021 to the Vancouver International Airport, with the environmental group Extinction Rebellion, to protest government fossil fuel subsidies. He pleaded guilty to five counts of mischief, served a seven-day jail sentence and was under house arrest for 30 days in 2023. (Papp told The Narwhal she also was arrested for similar actions, but the stakes weren’t as high for her: “I got off with a slap on the wrist and paying a fine, and no criminal record.”) 

Haq and Papp have been married since 2023, and say they had an interview with the immigration department in early January on their spousal sponsorship application. Photo: Rebecca Simiyu / The Narwhal

Haq also went on a hunger strike in 2021 to support protests against old-growth forest logging in the Fairy Creek watershed on southwest Vancouver Island, becoming part of the largest act of civil disobedience in Canadian history. He also made headlines when he went on another hunger strike to support ultimately successful efforts to persuade Simon Fraser University to divest from fossil fuels. 

Haq said his actions are no different than those of Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault, who was arrested in 2001 and charged with mischief for scaling Toronto’s CN Tower to raise awareness about climate change.

“I mean, there’s a sitting cabinet minister, the minister of environment, who was charged and jailed for the same criminal offenses as I have been,” Haq said.

In 2021, Fairy Creek became the scene of the largest civil disobedience action in Canadian history, with more than 1,100 arrests made. Photos: Jesse Winter / The Narwhal

Speaking to The Narwhal, May said Canada could be the first country to deport an individual for climate activism — which would also spell bad news for the environment. “So far Canada’s record, especially in this province of British Columbia, is not good,” she said.

“Holding on to Zain Haq … is an essential message to young people, climate activists and land defenders everywhere.”

Haq’s status in Canada has been in limbo

Haq and Papp married in the spring of 2023, and applied for a spousal sponsorship in May 2023. If the application is successful, Haq will become a permanent resident — but he needs to be in Canada to see it through.

When Miller stopped Haq’s deportation last year, he gave Haq a temporary resident permit. Haq has applied to extend the permit, which expired last October, so he can complete the spousal application process. In early January, the federal immigration department interviewed Haq and Papp about their spousal application, giving Haq hope. But then the immigration department couldn’t locate his temporary resident permit, and the border agency told him it would proceed with the initial deportation order.

If Haq is deported, his application for permanent residency under spousal sponsorship will be cancelled — meaning he will have to apply from Pakistan, a process he says could take three to five years.

Randall Cohn, Haq’s lawyer, told The Narwhal he’s requested a deferral multiple times — “just asking for time to figure out what’s going on with the missing application” — which the border agency denied. 

“I think that if it weren’t for the political context, this is exactly the sort of circumstance where [Canada Border Services Agency] would not bother to act,” Cohn said.

“I mean, there’s a sitting cabinet minister, the minister of environment, who was charged and jailed for the same criminal offenses as I have been,” Haq said. Photo: Rebecca Simiyu / The Narwhal

Cohn said there’s a strong precedent for foreign nationals who become inadmissible to Canada but who are living in the country with their spouses to request permanent residency under humanitarian considerations — which is what Haq has done.

Both Haq’s sentencing judge and a Canadian Border Services Agency officer said they don’t have any concerns that Haq poses a risk to public safety, Cohn said. “The idea that we have to get the minister, for the second time, to pay attention to this one person and give an order, especially when obviously he’s got other things to deal with, you know is, I think, unfortunate.”

Speaking to the press on Monday, May called Haq’s situation “a miscarriage of justice that looks to me like a pile of bureaucratic errors that allowed a deportation order to be revived at all.”

“I think that if it weren’t for the political context, this is exactly the sort of circumstance where CBSA would not bother to act,” Haq’s lawyer Randall Cohn said. Photo: Rebecca Simiyu / The Narwhal

What’s next for Zain Haq?

Haq said he understands the debate about acceptable actions in the context of the climate crisis — but ultimately believes his activism was in line with Canadian values to protect the natural world. Pointing to the raging wildfires in Los Angeles and southern California, he said, “We can all agree that we are in a state of emergency.”

“And I think if we were deporting climate activists, despite their establishment and assembly in Canada, I think the message we’re sending is that it doesn’t matter how bad things get, we’re going to do what we’re going to do, and we don’t care how the world changes,” he said. 

May said she’s confident Miller and McGuinty will step in and stop Haq’s deportation again.

“I know and respect David McGuinty and Marc Miller and I love them,” May said at the press conference. “They are good men of integrity.”

“For God’s sake, Marc and David, stop this deportation,” she said. “I beg you.”

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There are plenty of reasons to be concerned about the natural world these days.

Almost 2,000 species and ecological communities at some risk of extinction in B.C. alone. Endangered caribou habitat at risk from proposed logging. Pollution flowing into the sea around Canada’s busiest port. Concerns about the impact of recreation on sensitive wildlife. Worries that the provincial government isn’t investing anywhere near enough in fish and wildlife management.

But at the same time, there are people around the world working hard to conserve and restore the ecosystems that ultimately underpin all life on Earth — and many of them are here in B.C. Yaq̓it ʔa·knuqⱡi ‘it First Nation is restoring bighorn sheep habitat in the Rocky Mountains, farmers in the northwest are using regenerative practices to foster biodiversity and across the province First Nations are working with fire ecologists and the BC Wildfire Service to bring back cultural burning practices to restore diverse ecosystems.

Yaq̓it ʔa·knuqⱡi ‘it First Nation is working to restore bighorn sheep habitat in the Kootenays. Photo: Mike Graeme / The Narwhal

As 2024 comes to a close, The Narwhal reached out to conservation advocates about the nature wins that gave them hope this year. Here’s what they had to say:

Salmon habitat is being restored and protected in the Fraser Valley

Lina Azeez, the habitat programs director with Watershed Watch Salmon Society, highlighted the purchase of a private island in the Fraser River near Chilliwack, B.C. For years, the organization and First Nations have been raising the alarm about potential development of the island — and pushing for protections. This year, the Nature Conservancy of Canada reached an agreement to purchase Carey Island with funding support from the federal government and private donors.

“We’re really excited about that because it’s great for salmon,” Azeez said.

It’s particularly good news for juvenile salmon migrating during the spring melt from the streams where they hatched to the open ocean, she added. They can tuck into little protected areas in the island, eat and grow stronger before continuing their journey.

The protection of Carey Island is good news for young salmon that tuck into its small streams to eat and grow stronger on their journey to the ocean. Photo: Jayce Hawkins / The Narwhal

Elsewhere in the Fraser Valley, Watershed Watch continued its work to replace flood infrastructure that blocks salmon from about 1,700 kilometres of rearing and spawning habitat. This year, the organization helped get a new fish-friendly floodgate installed in the Nicomen area.

While there’s still a lot of work ahead to address roughly 180 pieces of flood infrastructure still blocking salmon habitat in the region, Azeez said it’s been wonderful to see salmon return to the areas where the organization has already helped install fish-friendly infrastructure, such as Bonaccord Creek in Surrey.

A conservation area was expanded to protect endangered caribou

Ken Wu, the executive director of the Endangered Ecosystem Alliance, pointed to B.C.’s progress on meeting its commitment to conserve 30 per cent of land in the province by 2030. “The major protected areas expansion has already begun,” he said in an interview.

In June, West Moberly First Nations, Saulteau First Nations and the provincial and federal governments announced a major expansion of the Klinse-za / Twin Sisters Park, which now protects about 2,000 square kilometres, including endangered caribou habitat, in northeast B.C.

This new provincial park is the largest created in B.C. in a decade

“Our sacred Klinse-za / Twin Sisters area will now be protected for our people forever,” Chief Rudy Paquette of Saulteau First Nations said in a press release at the time. “This is another step in the process by which we are proving that we can recover endangered species and protect the sacred lands of First Nations people, while also providing for healthy ecosystems and diverse economies.”

A large swath of old-growth forest is protected on Vancouver Island

“The leadership that we see around conservation from Indigenous Peoples, you know, in B.C. and across Canada and around the world is certainly, I think, the biggest sign of hope when it comes to protecting nature and staving off the worst of the biodiversity crisis,” according to Torrance Coste, associate director with the Wilderness Committee.

He highlighted the leadership of the Ahousaht and Tla-o-qui-aht First Nations, which announced this summer that 760 square kilometres of old-growth forest in Clayoquot Sound are now protected in a series of conservancies the nations will manage.

Over half of Clayoquot Sound’s iconic forests are now protected — here’s how First Nations and B.C. did it

“The Ahousaht Hawiih (hereditary chiefs) celebrate this decision alongside partners and people around the world as a significant win for climate, biodiversity, reconciliation between Ahousaht and British Columbia, and of course for the benefits to the Ahousaht Nation,” Tyson Atleo, hereditary representative for Ahousaht, said in a press release at the time. “We are pleased to preserve these resources for future generations but now call on the government, industry and public to support our management of these conservancies into the long-term future.”

There’s increasing awareness of Indigenous Peoples’ role as stewards 

Hunter Lampreau is the Skú7pecen Journey Director of Qwelmínte Secwépemc, a collective of eight signatories from the Secwépemc Nation focused on land and resources. He highlighted collective member Simpcw First Nation’s 2023 declaration of the Raush River watershed as an Indigenous Protected and Conserved Area, which protected critical southern mountain caribou habitat, as a recent positive development. 

He added he and his team are also working with the province on significant new protections for biodiversity within the territory of the Secwépemc signatories as well.

The Simpcw First Nation declared an Indigenous Protected and Conserved Area in the Raush Valley, southeast of Prince George. Old-growth cedar and hemlock forests in the valley are part of the province’s vanishing inland temperate rainforest, an ecosystem scientists warn is nearing collapse following decades of industrial logging. Photo: Supplied by Lenard Sanders / Conservation North

“There’s an increasing awareness that in order for any significant wildlife and habitat efforts to get anywhere, Indigenous participation is required,” said Lampreau, who is also the elected Indigenous co-chair for the First Nations-B.C. Wildlife and Habitat Conservation Forum.

“Dedication to advancing reconciliation through wildlife and habitat stewardship, despite all the noise of a political election, it’s a good news story for wildlife and habitat,” he said in a follow-up email, referring to B.C.’s fall election. “Our ability to work on them together is far greater than our ability to work on them alone.”

Environmental groups are looking for progress on conservation, biodiversity framework in 2025

Heading into 2025, Wu said he’ll be watching for the review of B.C. forests outlined in the agreement-in-principle the NDP reached with the BC Greens and pushing the government to address policy gaps that allow for continued logging of the largest old-growth trees.

The provincial government should be driving a transition from logging old-growth to second-growth forests with more incentives and regulations, Wu said.

“They’ve got to support a B.C. conservation economy strategy,” he added. “In regions where communities are affected by the large protected areas expansion, they need to come in and support the development of diversified industries.”

Lampreau added there could be significant policy improvements on the horizon as well. He pointed out the provincial review of the Wildlife Act hinges on a thoughtful approach to reconciliation.

But Lampreau cautioned the spread of misinformation, which upended proposed amendments to the Land Act, could also pose a risk to the Wildlife Act review if care isn’t taken to support the relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people and to clearly and transparently communicate any proposed amendments. “Advancing citizen to citizen, and Indigenous Nation to community, reconciliation is an important step in reconciliation,” he said.

The NDP government backtracked on some of its conservation and reconciliation initiatives this past summer after facing political blowback over proposed changes to the Land Act and conservation announcements. But the party, which was re-elected with a slim majority in the fall provincial election, reiterated its commitment to conserve 30 per cent of land by 2030 in the campaign.

Coste said in the new year, he’ll be looking for the government to both lay out a road map for reaching the 30-by-30 goal and to offer more clarity about how it plans to address competing ecological and industry interests.

“For 150 years, resource values have been prioritized,” he said. “Now balance looks like prioritizing healthy ecosystems, water [and] salmon over resource extraction and limiting resource extraction to areas where it doesn’t impact these other values.”

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After a tense election campaign in British Columbia, the NDP and Greens have buried the hatchet and reached an agreement in principle to work together on shared priorities — including a pledge to protect the Fairy Creek watershed, a largely intact old-growth valley on southwest Vancouver Island. 

The agreement says the B.C government will “move forward to ensure permanent protection of the Fairy Creek watershed” in partnership with the Pacheedaht and Ditidaht First Nations and “pending the resolution of existing legal proceedings and community negotiations.” 

In 2021, Fairy Creek became the scene of the largest civil disobedience action in Canadian history. Following more than 1,100 arrests, and at the request of Pacheedaht First Nation, the B.C. government deferred just over 1,180 hectares of Fairy Creek old-growth forest from logging.

The Fairy Creek blockade became the largest civil disobedience action in Canadian history before logging was deferred in some of the old-growth valley on southwest Vancouver Island. Photo: Jesse Winter / The Narwhal

The deferral is set to expire in February.

Discussions about the future of Fairy Creek are ongoing, deputy premier Niki Sharma told reporters at the NDP press conference announcing the agreement in principle, saying the commitment to work toward permanent protection of the watershed does not mean the valley’s fate will be decided any time soon.  

“We had really frank conversations about this item, about the things that are in our hands and that are not,” Sharma said. “That’s why expressly it mentions [it is] subject to conversations with Pacheedaht and Ditidaht in the agreement because we know that that’s an important step.”

While Sharma would not commit to a potential timeline for implementing permanent protections for Fairy Creek, Green Party MLA Rob Botterell said the caucuses hope to “get to yes on protection” in 2025.

“We want to be as open and transparent with everyone about the types of issues that will need to be dealt with,” Botterell told The Narwhal. “As we work together on that, we’re going to find out just how quickly we can address those types of issues.”

The Pacheedaht and Ditidaht nations were not immediately available for comment.

The new agreement does not formally bind the Greens to support government legislation, unlike the more restrictive confidence and supply agreement the two parties signed in 2017. Instead, it lays out a list of priorities for the NDP and Greens to work on achieving together “in good faith and with no surprises.” It will be reviewed annually with the option to add new priorities in future years.

“Instead of focusing on our differences, we chose to shine light on our common ground,” Green MLA Jeremy Valeriote said at a hastily organized press conference on Friday in Victoria.

Many old-growth cedar trees are found in and around the Fairy Creek valley on southwest Vancouver Island. Photo: Taylor Roades / The Narwhal

“There were some difficult conversations, some bumps in the road, but a generous amount of good faith and trust, and also some humor and some heart-centered, heartfelt exchanges,” Valeriote said. “We are different political parties. We have different philosophies, but we have a lot of shared values and I think British Columbians have those same shared values — more that brings us together than separates us.”

The Narwhal asked the B.C. Ministry of Forests if the Fairy Creek logging deferral will be extended under the agreement with the Greens, but did not receive an answer before publication.

Inside the Pacheedaht Nation’s stand on Fairy Creek logging blockades

BC NDP, Greens commit to collaborating on future of forestry, watershed management and regional transit 

The agreement also commits the B.C. government to work with the BC Greens to undertake a review of B.C.’s forests with First Nations, workers, unions, business and community “to address concerns around sustainability, jobs, environmental protection and the future of the industry.” 

The two parties will work together to establish the terms of the review, which are subject to the approval of both parties. The agreement says the Greens will be involved in all elements of the review and the resulting report will be made public within 45 days of completion, but lacks a timeline for that work to be done. 

The agreement between the BC NDP and Greens includes a commitment to examine the future of the forest industry with a focus on environmental protection, sustainability and jobs. Photo: Taylor Roades / The Narwhal

The agreement also zeroes in on watershed management, pledging to strengthen local collaborative processes and “identify clear actions to improve local governance.” It says actions will be implemented in the later years of the BC NDP’s mandate. 

On climate, the government promises to review CleanBC in 2025, one year earlier than a scheduled review. CleanBC is the government’s plan to reduce carbon emissions to meet legislated targets. The BC Greens will help establish the review’s terms of reference, which must be approved by both parties. The Greens will also be involved in all elements of the climate review.

The government has also committed $50 million annually for electric heat pumps for the next two fiscal years, “ensuring they are accessible to low and moderate-income households.”

And on transit, the agreement commits to implement “frequent, reliable, affordable” regional transit on key inter-regional routes on Vancouver Island, along Highway 16 and along Highway 1, “with a focus on the Sea to Sky corridor transit” in 2025. 

“I’m ecstatic to finally bring regional transit to the Sea to Sky corridor,” Valeriote said. “Regional transit was top of the list for West Vancouver-Sea to Sky voters and I really feel fortunate to be able to deliver on that commitment.”

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As members of B.C. Premier David Eby’s new cabinet headed to their swearing-in ceremony on Nov. 18, they were greeted by about two dozen people chanting slogans and waving signs that said, “No new pipeline,” “Stop PRGT” and “Respect Gitxsan sovereignty.” START – Apple News Only Block Add content to the Apple News only block. You can add things like headings, paragraphs, images, galleries and audio clips. The content added here will not be visable on the website article

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While the demonstration outside Government House was small, it served as a reminder that tough decisions await B.C.’s new ministers responsible for the environment and resource extraction. 

The Prince Rupert Gas Transmission (PRGT) pipeline is likely to be the first major project decision facing Tamara Davidson, B.C.’s new Minister of Environment and Parks. 

Davidson, the rookie MLA for North Coast-Haida Gwaii, is a member of the Haida Nation and the province’s first Indigenous environment minister. She’s tasked with deciding whether or not to send the 800-kilometre PRGT pipeline back to the drawing board for a second environmental assessment following a major route change.  

Davidson is far from the only newly minted minister with big environmental and energy decisions ahead. 

All but one of the BC NDP cabinet members responsible for the environment and oversight of natural resource development are first-time ministers — and three are first-time MLAs.

About two dozen people gathered outside Government House as the new B.C. cabinet was sworn in, carrying signs opposing the Prince Rupert Gas Transmission pipeline. The 800-kilometre pipeline would ship fracked gas to a proposed LNG facility on the Pacific coast near the Alaska border. Photo: Mike Graeme

Each new minister is tasked with tackling thorny policy issues, controversial resource extraction projects and high-profile legislation — from the PRGT pipeline and LNG export projects to mining reform, Indigenous Rights and the government’s commitment to help tackle the global biodiversity crisis by protecting 30 per cent of the province by 2030.

Eby’s marching orders to the ministers, known as mandate letters, won’t be public until early 2025. 

The premier, whose party squeaked back into power with a slim majority, said the mandate letters will be issued once the BC NDP’s negotiations with the BC Greens have concluded. “We’re in intense conversations with the Greens on how we can work with that party,” Eby told reporters after the new cabinet was sworn in, alluding to his party’s need to garner support from the two Green MLAs to bolster its chances of staying in power for the next four years. 

Who are the new ministers responsible for environmental and resource extraction oversight in B.C.? And what are some of the thorny decisions they will soon have to make? Read on.

Deciding the fate of the Prince Rupert Gas Transmission (PRGT) pipeline 

The PRGT pipeline will transport fracked gas from B.C.’s northeast to the proposed Ksi Lisims liquefied natural gas (LNG) export facility on the Pacific coast near the Alaska border. When the pipeline underwent an environmental assessment a decade ago, it was for a different route to a different LNG project. Despite the pipeline’s name, it will no longer go to Prince Rupert, B.C., but to the Nass estuary at the north end of Pearse Island.The area is the site of the proposed floating Ksi Lisims LNG export facility, which would be capable of producing up to 12 million tonnes of LNG annually — making it the second-largest LNG facility in B.C. after LNG Canada. Ksi Lisims, backed by the Nisg̱a’a Nation, is still undergoing a provincial environmental assessment and has not yet been approved by the B.C. government.

New Minister of Environment and Parks Tamara Davidsonis tasked with deciding whether or not to send the 800-kilometre PRGT pipeline back to the drawing board for a second environmental assessment following a major route change. Photo: Province of B.C. / Flickr

The PRGT pipeline was rerouted from its original destination via an amendment application filed with the B.C. Environmental Assessment Office in June. Without the pipeline, Ksi Lisims would lack a gas supply, making the pipeline crucial to the project’s viability.

In late August, as pipeline construction work began on Nisg̱a’a territory, Hereditary Chiefs from Gitanyow Nation burned agreements and set up an on-going blockade to stop traffic related to the project from crossing their territory, which border Nisg̱a’a lands. The chiefs are among those who say they will take whatever action is necessary to stop the pipeline project.

Indigenous leaders burn pipeline agreement, set up B.C. road blockade

By Nov. 25, enough physical work must be completed on the pipeline to meet the threshold to receive a “substantially started” designation from the province, which would lock in the 2014 environmental assessment certificate. If the project fails to meet the threshold, the proponents will be required to start the environmental assessment process from scratch.

While the technical work of assessing whether the project meets the “substantially started” designation will be done by the assessment office, Davidson — the first Haida Nation member elected provincially in B.C. — will be the face of the decision.

During the election campaign, the BC Greens said they supported letting PRGT’s environmental assessment certificate expire.

Overseeing the biggest fossil fuel boom in B.C.’s history

After seven years serving as B.C.’s health minister, longtime NDP MLA Adrian Dix now helms a revamped ministry called Energy and Climate Solutions. Dix will oversee the province’s electricity, alternative energy and oil and gas sectors. 

As minister, Dix will shepherd the biggest fossil fuel boom in B.C.’s history, as fracking operations intensify in the province’s northeast to supply the new LNG export sector with gas. While the BC NDP championed LNG during its previous two terms in government, the Greens oppose new LNG projects and want to phase out fracking operations.

Dix brings a wealth of cabinet experience to a file “critically important” for the province’s future, according to Eby. The former health minister is also tasked with ensuring B.C.’s energy policies align with its climate goals.

“The demand for clean electricity has never been higher, whether it’s because of [artificial intelligence] or hydrogen or existing operations like mining that want to decarbonize,” Eby told reporters after the swearing-in ceremony. “I need someone who can deliver and Adrian is that minister.”

After seven years as health minister, Adrian Dix is now B.C.’s minister of energy and climate solutions. In his new role, Dix is responsible for overseeing both the fossil fuel sector and efforts to lower carbon emissions. Photo: Province of B.C. / Flickr

In his new role, Dix will also be responsible for the Climate Action Secretariat — previously part of B.C.’s environment ministry — and guide efforts to achieve B.C.’s emission reduction targets while helping the province prepare for and adapt to climate change.

Asked by The Narwhal about the optics of overseeing both the fossil fuel sector and efforts to lower carbon emissions, Dix said it makes sense to take a holistic view of energy production and emissions reduction.

“I think it’s important to face these issues together and not in separate places,” he said during a media availability following the swearing-in ceremony.

Dix is also responsible for shepherding the new publicly funded North Coast transmission line, which would run from Prince George to Terrace. The $3-billion line would provide hydroelectricity for a range of industrial customers, including LNG Canada, Cedar LNG, the Port of Prince Rupert, hydrogen projects and new metal and critical minerals mines. B.C. wants federal taxpayers to cover half the cost.

Electricity for the high-voltage line would come in part from the publicly funded $16-billion Site C dam on B.C.’s Peace River. As The Narwhal previously reported, BC Hydro has suggested replacing an environmental assessment for the North Coast transmission line with a speedier “alternative streamlined process.”

“I think it’s very exciting work,” Dix said of his new responsibility for the transmission line, which will affect property owners, farmland, waterways and at-risk species. “[It’s] very important for economic development projects, but also for climate change … for jobs and clean energy.”

Making decisions about Mineral Tenure Act reform 

One big change in the new cabinet is that mining is no longer under the energy ministry’s umbrella. B.C.’s mining industry will now be overseen by a stand-alone ministry helmed by Surrey-Fleetwood MLA Jagrup Brar, who previously served as minister of state for trade. 

In his new role, Brar is set to introduce reforms to the Mineral Tenure Act. The law is likely to be one of the first pieces of legislation put forward in the spring session, following a decision by the B.C. Supreme Court ordering the province to overhaul its mineral claims system.

Surrey-Fleetwood MLA Jagrup Brar leads B.C.’s new stand-alone ministry of mining and critical minerals. In his new role, Brar is set to introduce reforms to the province’s Mineral Tenure Act. Photo: Province of B.C. / Flickr

The ruling was the result of a legal challenge brought by the Gitxaała Nation and Ehattesaht First Nation, arguing B.C.’s system for assigning rights to minerals is based on a “colonial holdover,” which allowed claims to be made in their territories without consultation.  

The province’s existing online system allows almost anyone to make a mineral claim with a few clicks and a fee There is no duty to consult or notify relevant First Nations before making the claim or exploring the area with handheld tools. 

Brar will also oversee the next steps in B.C.’s critical minerals strategy. “Critical minerals” is a broad term that covers a range of materials needed to produce electronics, including cell phones and computers, wind turbines, solar panels and batteries — crucial components of the energy transition. 

According to the province, B.C. is home to deposits of 16 of Canada’s national list of 34 critical minerals. It is the only place in Canada to produce molybdenum, an element primarily used to improve steel alloys.

B.C. launched the first phase of its critical minerals strategy in January, aiming to streamline critical minerals projects and capitalizing on available federal funding. 

According to the province, 17 new critical minerals mines are proposed across B.C.

Reviewing the Fairy Creek deferral deadline and old-growth logging

Langford-Highlands MLA Ravi Parmar is the new forests minister, responsible for the province’s old-growth forests strategy and weighty decisions such as whether to extend the Fairy Creek old-growth logging deferrals.

Parmar will be in charge of delivering on the NDP’s campaign promise to finish implementing landmark recommendations from the 2020 old-growth forest strategic review, which called for a major shift in how B.C. manages its forests. Only two of the old-growth review’s 14 recommendations are at an advanced stage of implementation, according to a May update from the province, while nearly half were still in the “initial action” stage. 

Ravi Parmar joins the BC NDP cabinet as minister of forests, charged with delivering on the party’s campaign promise to finish implementing landmark recommendations from the 2020 old-growth forest strategic review. Photo: Province of B.C. / Flickr

The review resulted in logging deferrals in pockets of old-growth forest around the province, mostly with the support of local First Nations. That includes the Fairy Creek area in Pacheedaht First Nations territory. 

In 2021, the largely intact old-growth valley on the south west coast of Vancouver Island became the site of the largest civil disobedience action in Canadian history. Following the arrest of more than 1,100 people, and at the request of Pacheedaht First Nation, the B.C. government deferred just over 1,180 hectares of Fairy Creek old-growth forest from logging in June 2021.

That deferral expires on Feb. 1, 2025, putting Fairy Creek near the top of the list of decisions Parmar will have to make during his first months as minister.

Fairy Creek, on southwest Vancouver Island, was the site of the largest civil disobedience action in Canadian history. Old-growth logging deferrals in the valley, on Pacheedaht territory, are set to expire in February 2025. Photo: Taylor Roades / The Narwhal

Whether the order is extended or ended could hinge on the NDP’s negotiations with the Green Party caucus. During the campaign, the Greens platform included commitments to defer logging of at-risk old-growth forests and called for compensation for First Nations for any lost revenues due to logging deferrals.

Protecting 30 per cent of the province by 2030 

Following former minister Nathan Cullen’s election loss, Eby named first-time MLA Randene Neill as minister of water, land and resource stewardship. Neill, who represents the Powell River-Sunshine Coast riding, will be in charge of realizing the NDP’s commitment to protecting 30 per cent of the province’s land by 2030. 

B.C. plans to achieve the 2030 protection target partly by creating new Indigenous protected areas, according to Cullen’s 2022 mandate letter.

“Indigenous-led conservation through land-use planning processes is the way that we’ll achieve durable and diverse conservation,” Cullen told The Narwhal in an interview in May.

Fog drapes the ocean’s surface in Clayoquot Sound, home to 10 new B.C. conservancies in partnership with Ahousaht and Tla-o-qui-aht First Nations. Photo: Melissa Renwick / The Narwhal

Under Cullen, the ministry began hosting discussions about land management with First Nations, local communities, municipal governments and industry. By May, work on new regional land-use plans was focused on prioritizing local ecosystem health and biodiversity and determining how economic activities — from logging and mining to farming and fishing — fit within those priorities. 

As Cullen’s successor, Neill is expected to oversee the completion of the new land-use plans. But she will not have to wade into the most contentious policy her predecessor faced: plans to amend the Land Act to better align the law with the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, by creating a pathway for the province to make joint decisions with First Nations about public land use.

New Water, Land and Resource Stewardship Minister Randene Neill is in charge of realizing the NDP’s commitment to protecting 30 per cent of the province’s land by 2030. Photo: Province of B.C. / Flickr

After abandoning plans to introduce the amendments this spring, Eby confirmed in October that his government would not re-introduce the proposed Land Act changes. He said the province needs to do a better job at communicating the benefits that come from partnerships with First Nations.

Implementing B.C.’s Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples 

The planned Land Act changes were part of a broader commitment to align provincial laws with the United Nations declaration, a key priority for B.C.’s Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act. While the act received unanimous consent when it passed in the legislature in 2019, it has become contentious as the broader implications of its implementation become clearer. BC Conservatives Leader John Rustad promised to repeal the law if his party formed government following the Oct. 19 provincial election.

Even though the Land Act changes are off the table, making the path forward somewhat murky, the BC NDP government has promised to continue implementing the declaration. The party’s  campaign platform made multiple commitments to working with First Nations on policies that cross ministerial boundaries. Leading that effort is another new MLA: former Vancouver city councillor Christine Boyle.

First-time MLA Christine Boyle is B.C.’s new minister of Indigenous relations and reconciliation. She is the first woman to hold the portfolio in more than a decade. Photo: Province of B.C. / Flickr

Boyle, who succeeded former environment minister George Heyman to represent the urban Vancouver-Little Mountain riding, helped lead the effort to integrate the UN declaration into the City of Vancouver’s operations during her time on council.

“Our [team] is one of the most diverse the legislature has ever seen,” Boyle posted on BlueSky, commenting on the election of four Indigenous women, including Davidson, to the BC NDP caucus. “Getting to work to build a better province for everyone.” 

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In May, a fast-growing wildfire darkened skies and forced the evacuation of thousands of people in B.C.’s northeast. It was an early start to the 2024 wildfire season. By Oct. 1 — the official end of the wildfire season — more than 5.3 million hectares of B.C. had burned, making this year the second-worst wildfire season the province has ever recorded.

The province’s northeast — the epicentre of fracking operations to supply new liquefied natural gas (LNG) export projects — has also suffered from persistent drought conditions that have affected much of B.C. over the past two years, harming crops and threatening fish.

And months before the wildfire smoke began drifting across the landscape, a record-breaking cold snap devastated the province’s orchards and wineries.

About one-third of British Columbians said they have been impacted by extreme weather events this year, according to an August poll conducted by Leger and 61 per cent said they expect to see extreme weather events happening more frequently in the future.

But climate action and environmental issues have largely been given short shrift during B.C.’s provincial election campaign, which comes to a close on Oct. 19 (unless you count the climate change skepticism and conspiracy theories espoused by some candidates running for the BC Conservatives, led by John Rustad).

While issues like affordability, housing and healthcare have taken centre stage during this election campaign, party platforms and announcements reveal what a re-elected BC NDP government or a newly minted BC Conservative government could mean for B.C.’s environment and climate action commitments, as well as what a BC Greens caucus would push for.

Where do B.C. parties stand on the carbon tax?

• Both the BC NDP and BC Conservatives will repeal the province’s consumer carbon tax 
• The BC Greens will “fix the tax” instead of axing it, by making it fairer and demonstrating its benefits

The BC NDP recently flip-flopped on B.C.’s consumer carbon tax, which it previously supported. If the federal government changes the law requiring a consumer carbon tax, “we will end the consumer carbon tax in British Columbia,” party leader David Eby told reporters last month, nodding to federal Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre’s promise to “axe the tax” if his party forms government after the next federal election — a move now supported by the federal NDP.

“We will ensure that the big polluters pay a carbon price in our province to make sure that we’re taking action on climate change,” Eby said in September.

The BC Conservatives, meanwhile, have led the charge to “axe the tax” in B.C. Rustad, the party’s leader, has said carbon pricing is “an economic disaster and an environmental failure” that “drives up costs on everything from groceries to gas, hitting families and businesses hard while doing absolutely nothing to lower emissions.” However, most of B.C.’s carbon tax revenue is returned to residents through the provincial climate action tax credit, which is income-tested. This year, the finance ministry estimated 65 per cent of B.C. households received the quarterly credit, while 80 per cent are expected to get the credit by 2030.

BC Greens Leader Sonia Furstenau criticized Eby’s change of heart, advocating instead for tweaks to the province’s consumer carbon price. “This is a government with no principles and no direction,” Furstenau said in a statement. “Fix the carbon tax, make it fair, show how it can improve lives and invest in the transition we need.” 

What on earth just happened with B.C.’s carbon tax?

What do B.C. election platforms say about LNG?

• The BC Conservatives will double B.C.’s production of liquefied natural gas (LNG)
• The BC NDP, which has championed multiple LNG projects, will direct some of the revenue raised from oil and gas projects, including LNG development, into a “clean economy transition fund”
• The BC Greens will ban new LNG approvals and phase out fracking

Two LNG export projects are under construction in B.C., with one more approved and another four in planning and environmental assessment phases. B.C.-based LNG export production will begin next year when LNG Canada expects to start shipping liquefied gas overseas. 

The BC Conservatives are bullish on natural gas, promising to double the province’s LNG production. 

The BC NDP’s election platform only mentions LNG once, saying some of the revenue raised from LNG projects will be directed into a “clean economy transition fund” to help “attract even more global investment in renewable fuels, clean tech, manufacturing and critical mineral mines.” While in government, the NDP approved Cedar LNG, green-lighted the LNG Canada project and issued construction permits for Woodfibre LNG.

The BC Greens platform pledges to end new approvals for LNG projects, phase out fracking and “commission a comprehensive and independent health impact assessment to evaluate the health effects of LNG and fracking activities in B.C.”

A voter’s guide to climate issues this B.C. election

Where do B.C. parties stand on nuclear energy?

• The BC Conservatives will embrace nuclear power, banned in B.C. since 2010
• The BC NDP and BC Greens say nuclear power is not needed to meet the province’s future energy needs

BC Conservatives Leader Rustad, who was a member of the BC Liberal government that implemented B.C.’s ban on nuclear power in 2010, now calls the decision to take nuclear off the table a political move rather than one grounded in good policy.

“We’re going to actually have to have a conversation about the possibility of using nuclear power in British Columbia if we want to be able to increase the ability to have affordable, reliable, clean energy,” Rustad told attendees at the Union of BC Municipalities convention in Vancouver in September. 

BC NDP Leader Eby rejects that conclusion, pointing to B.C.’s abundant clean energy options, from long-standing hydro power generation to wind, solar and potentially geothermal.

BC Greens Leader Furstenau is similarly dismissive of Rustad’s suggestion the province needs nuclear power, calling it “a nonsensical conversation to be having in B.C.”

“We have everything we need in B.C. to create an abundant amount of clean energy,” Furstenau told reporters at the annual municipalities convention. “We should lean into that with everything we’ve got and get moving into the 21st century.”

B.C.’s Conservative Party wants the province to reconsider its nuclear energy ban. But does it make sense?

What do B.C. election platforms promise for at-risk species?

• The BC Greens promise stand-alone legislation to protect species at risk
• The BC NDP backtracked on a 2017 commitment to introduce stand-alone legislation to protect species at risk, instead promising a “made-in-B.C. strategy” to protect biodiversity and watersheds
• The BC Conservatives will introduce “made-in-B.C. species at risk legislation” 

There are 1,952 species and ecosystems officially at some risk of extinction in the province, according to the B.C. government’s conservation data centre — and advocates say the province’s lack of stand-alone legislation to protect species at risk of extinction remains a glaring gap. In its 2017 campaign platform, the BC NDP committed to bring in a provincial law governing endangered species. But it quietly reneged on that promise after coming to power.

Both the BC Greens and BC Conservatives have promised, if elected, to introduce legislation to protect the province’s growing number of at-risk species if elected.

“We are in the midst of a biodiversity crisis and standing at a crossroads: either we take bold action to protect our ecosystems or we risk losing iconic species like caribou, spotted owls and orcas forever,” the Greens stated in its platform.

The BC Conservatives platform says the NDP government has underfunded and mismanaged wildlife in the province, resulting in “a decline in our iconic ungulate species, and out-of-control predator populations.” 

It says a Conservative government would introduce “made-in-B.C. species at risk legislation so wildlife protections are shaped by B.C.-based experts — not Ottawa — and are reflective of our unique ecosystems.”

The BC NDP platform makes no mention of legislation to protect at-risk species. Instead, the party has committed to working with First Nations and other partners on a “made-in-B.C. strategy” to protect biodiversity and watersheds, if re-elected.

Late last year, the NDP government released a draft biodiversity and ecosystem health framework. It said the framework would set the direction “for a more holistic approach to stewarding our land and water resources” and eventually lead to legislation to protect biodiversity.

While the party initially aimed to finalize the framework by the spring, the strategy’s future now rests on the outcome of the election.

Your B.C. election guide to old-growth forest and other key nature issues

What are B.C. parties promising for old-growth forests?

• The BC Conservatives promise to set aside two-thirds of forests from industrial forestry, but the party doesn’t specify whether it will protect B.C.’s old-growth forests
• The BC NDP promise to finish implementing the recommendations of the 2020 old-growth forest strategic review, which called for immediate logging deferrals in forests at the highest risk of biodiversity loss 
• The BC Greens promise to defer logging in at-risk old-growth forests and compensate First Nations for lost revenues

The BC Conservatives promise, if elected, they will ensure two-thirds of B.C.’s forested areas are set aside from industrial-scale forestry activity and remain in their “original forested state.” But the party doesn’t specify whether it would protect disappearing old-growth forests, which are both rich in biodiversity and sought after by industry. Critics say the plan fails to protect old-growth forests and at-risk ecosystems.

In an analysis of each party’s stand on environmental issues, the Endangered Ecosystems Alliance, a conservation charity, raised concerns the Conservatives would focus protections on “mainly subalpine, rocky and muskeg landscapes with small and stunted trees of low to no timber value,” while allowing “logging to continue in areas where biodiversity conservation is supposed to be prioritized.”

The BC NDP says it will protect more old-growth forests, if re-elected, by working with First Nations to finish implementing the landmark recommendations from a 2020 old-growth forest strategic review, which called for a major shift in how B.C. manages its forests to prioritize biodiversity and ecosystem health. The party said it will create a fund to help mills re-tool so they can process smaller second-growth trees instead of old-growth trees.

The BC Greens have promised to defer logging in the most at-risk old-growth forests and fully fund their protection, compensating First Nations for any lost revenues due to logging deferrals. In an Oct. 4 press release, the party pledged to increase the number and size of community forests “to promote biodiversity, wildfire protection, rural development and ecosystem resilience.” The Greens also promised to stop clearcut logging and “switch to practices like selective logging, commercial thinning and longer rotation cycles that mimic natural forest changes.” 

Did B.C. keep its old-growth forest promises?

Which B.C. parties commit to protecting 30 per cent of the landscape by 2030?

• The BC NDP remains committed to achieving the global 30-by-30 conservation target, but has made only marginal progress 
• The BC Greens will work with First Nations to achieve the 30-by-30 target
• The BC Conservatives plan to abandon the province’s commitment to protecting 30 per cent of B.C.’s land

At the United Nations biodiversity conference in December 2022, Canada and 195 other countries committed to conserve at least 30 per cent of land and water globally by 2030 as part of international efforts to reverse the unprecedented decline of biodiversity. 

In 2022, BC NDP Leader Eby tasked Stikine Nathan Cullen, in his role as minister of water, land and resource stewardship, with working to achieve the 30-by-30 goal. As of the end of last year, the government claims 19.7 per cent of B.C. is protected — although limited development and industrial activity is allowed in some areas, and critics say some areas in the tally fail to meet biodiversity goals. 

Both the BC NDP and the BC Greens say they are committed to working with First Nations towards the 30-by-30 goal.

BC Conservatives Leader John Rustad told The Narwhal in May he would abandon B.C.’s plans to conserve 30 per cent of land in the province by 2030, a move that could jeopardize Canada’s international commitments.

BC Conservative Leader says his party would kill ‘nonsense’ plans for new protected areas

Where do B.C.’s parties stand on Indigenous Rights?

• The BC Conservatives will repeal the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act 
• The BC NDP and BC Greens will stay the course on commitments to Indigenous Rights, and promise to work with First Nations on conservation goals

Rustad has said the BC Conservatives would repeal the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (DRIPA), a law he previously supported. The Tŝilhqot’in National Government and the First Nations Leadership Council denounced the Conservative position in public statements.

Both the BC Greens and the BC NDP commit to staying the course on the province’s commitments to Indigenous Rights. The BC Greens will also invest in Indigenous-led conservation and Indigenous Guardians programs. 

‘The risk is really high’: B.C. ministers backtrack on reconciliation initiative amid mounting political backlash

— Compiled by Jacqueline Ronson

The Narwhal’s reporters are telling environment stories you won’t read about anywhere else. Stay in the loop by signing up for our free weekly dose of independent journalism.

Plans for new logging in endangered caribou habitat threaten to undermine hard-fought population gains for a struggling herd, warns a Kootenay-based conservation group as the province considers two logging proposals.

Earlier this year, wood product companies Stella-Jones and Pacific Woodtech submitted plans to log in the Seymour River watershed, northwest of Revelstoke, B.C. The area, which includes rare old-growth inland temperate rainforest, offers crucial habitat for the Columbia North caribou herd.

Eddie Petryshen, a conservation specialist with the organization Wildsight, worries new logging will put the Columbia North population at greater risk of extinction at a time of renewed hope for its recovery. The herd, down to roughly 130 animals in 2004, now has about 210 caribou.

“We know as industrial disturbance increases, these caribou populations decline,” Petryshen told The Narwhal in an interview. “We need to start looking out for their needs and it certainly isn’t another 600 hectares in their core habitat being logged.” 

When Eddie Petryshen, a conservation specialist with the Kootenay-based organization Wildsight, visited some of the areas the companies are planning to log, he found old-growth trees and signs of caribou. Photo: Bailey Repp / Wildsight

In July, Petryshen visited several areas, known as cutblocks, the companies plan to log in the coming years. He found forests that had never been logged — younger stands that had regrown after wildfires and “beautiful valley bottom old growth” where some trees measured one-and-a half-metres in diametre.

In one of Pacific Woodtech’s proposed cutblocks in the upper Seymour, Petryshen found a heavily travelled wildlife trail and caribou droppings.

“It’s core caribou habitat,” he said. “You don’t want disturbance in those areas.” 

Rare B.C. caribou populations losing ground, but no federal emergency order in sight

Some southern mountain caribou herds have already been wiped from the B.C. mountain ranges they once called home. In 2014, the federal government released a recovery strategy that aimed to achieve self-sustaining caribou populations large enough to support First Nations harvesting. But more herds have been lost since then. 

While southern mountain caribou are listed as threatened under Canada’s Species At Risk Act, the scientific committee that advises the government on the status of at-risk species determined the southern group of herds, including Columbia North, are endangered.

These deep-snow caribou, found only in Canada, rely on layers of snow each winter to reach the scraggly hair lichens that hang from old trees.

Deep-snow caribou herds across southeastern B.C. have struggled to survive industrial incursions into their habitat. Some herds have already been lost. Map: Shawn Parkinson / The Narwhal

In 2018, the federal environment minister determined southern mountain caribou faced imminent threats to their recovery. As required under the Species at Risk Act, the minister recommended the federal government issue a rarely used emergency order to protect the caribou. 

An emergency order would allow Ottawa to make decisions that typically fall to provincial governments, such as whether to issue logging permits. But the federal cabinet chose not to issue the order, opting for a more collaborative approach.

When Petryshen heard earlier this summer that Environment and Climate Change Canada Minister Steven Guilbeault had recommended an emergency order to protect caribou in Quebec, his mind immediately went to the deep-snow caribou in B.C. “A lot of the same issues apply here,” he said.

Nowhere near enough of the Columbia North herd’s habitat is protected, Petryshen warned.

“We are losing it as we speak,” he said.

Companies proposing to log in caribou habitat produce utility poles and laminated wood

The Columbia North caribou herd’s range spans more than 4,600 square kilometres, stretching northeast from Shuswap Lake in the southern Interior region of B.C. across several mountain ranges to the Rockies.

“It’s a massive area,” Petryshen said, describing old-growth cedar and hemlock forests scattered in valley bottoms, the “super rugged” terrain of the North Columbia mountains and the “long, rolling ridge lines” of the lower elevation Seymour Mountain range.

The Columbia North herd and several neighbouring herds are unique among southern mountain caribou populations because they spend more time at lower elevations during certain seasons, biologist Rob Serrouya, co-director of the Wildlife Science Centre for Biodiversity Pathways, exlained in an interview.

In practice, that means the overlap between the herd’s habitat and “valuable timber is much more pronounced,” he said. 

The area Stella-Jones and Pacific Woodtech are proposing to log overlaps critical habitat for the Columbia North caribou herd. Photo: David Moskowitz

The areas Stella-Jones and Pacific Woodtech have proposed to log fall within core habitat for Columbia North caribou — areas where a 2014 federal recovery strategy said there should be minimal disturbance, a spokesperson for Guilbeault noted in a statement to The Narwhal. 

Stella-Jones is a major North American supplier of pressure-treated lumber and produces utility poles at its southern B.C. mills. In its proposal, the company lays out plans to log more than 300 hectares of forest, including old-growth trees, in the Seymour River watershed between 2024 and 2027.

In an emailed statement to The Narwhal, a spokesperson for Stella-Jones said the company “is currently in the preliminary stages of creating a final operational plan for harvesting activity in this area.”

Stella-Jones is engaging with First Nations and other stakeholders on wildlife management, and “remains committed to responsible harvesting practices,” the statement said.

Pacific Woodtech produces laminated veneer lumber products at its Golden, B.C., mill. The company took over the Golden mill from Louisiana-Pacific two years ago. While Louisiana-Pacific is listed as the proponent on the recent logging proposals, which outline harvesting plans in the area for 2024 to 2029, Pacific Woodtech has applied to the B.C. government to have the pertinent forestry licenses and associated road permits transferred over.

Pacific Woodtech did not respond to The Narwhal’s request for comment by publication time.

An old-growth forest in the core habitat of the endangered Columbia North caribou herd was logged in early 2021. The area is about 110 kilometres north of Revelstoke, B.C. Photo: Eddie Petryshen / Wildsight

Logging in core habitat for the endangered Columbia North caribou herd occurred in area known locally as Devil’s Garden, north of Revelstoke, B.C. Photo: Eddie Petryshen / Wildsight

A spokesperson for B.C.’s Ministry of Forests said the government has received Pacific Woodtech’s request to take over Louisiana-Pacific’s forest tenures. Before a decision is made, the province will consult with First Nations and review potential impacts on community, environmental, economic and business values, the spokesperson said.

The B.C. government also has yet to decide whether to allow the two companies’ logging proposals to proceed.

The spokesperson for Guilbuealt said the federal government “believes that a collaborative approach is the best way to address threats to species at risk.” But added that “Environment and Climate Change Canada encourages partners to adapt practices in a manner consistent with recovery objectives.”

Serrouya said the biggest successes for caribou he’s seen over his career are the result of collaborations between governments, First Nations and industry.

But “forestry right in core critical [habitat] does increase predation risk to caribou. There’s no way to sugarcoat that,” he said.

Logging leads to more moose and deer, which attract more wolves to endangered caribou range

While caribou evolved to rely on old forests, the shrubs and herbaceous plants that flourish after logging offer more attractive habitat for moose and deer.

As moose and deer populations grow, they attract wolves and cougars, Serrouya explained.

For struggling caribou herds, this increase in predators on the landscape can be disastrous. 

By the mid-1990s, logging had dramatically changed the dynamics between predator and prey in the Columbia North herd’s habitat and the population was in steep decline. 

Then things started to change. A land-use planning process in the 1990s led to new protections, which helped slow the pace of logging in the herd’s core habitat. 

In the early 2000s, the B.C. government also started giving out more moose hunting tags targeting adult females. Within a few years, moose numbers declined by about 70 per cent, Mateen Hessami, a community-based wildlife ecologist with Biodiversity Pathways, said in an interview.

The shrubs and herbaceous plants that grow after a forest is logged can attract moose and deer. This in turn draws wolves and other predators into endangered caribou habitat. Photo: Bailey Repp / Wildsight

As moose numbers fell, wolves dispersed across the landscape. With fewer predators in their core habitat, the caribou population began to stabilize, he explained.

The provincial government also culls wolves in the herd’s range each year — but Hessami said fewer wolves are killed in the Columbia North herd’s habitat compared to other caribou ranges because of the moose management program. 

The program has also benefited hunters, who can fill their freezers while supporting caribou recovery, Hessami, who studied the moose reduction program as part of his graduate research, explained.

At the same time, Serrouya said, “some measures of habitat were improving.” 

Habitat protections helped stem the decline of old forests, Serrouya said, and the young forests that attracted moose to the area started to age. As the trees grew taller and the canopies closed, the shrubs and herbaceous plants moose prefer to eat dwindled. For caribou, it meant the habitat they’d lost was starting to recover.

But Petryshen warned each new cutblock or road carved into endangered caribou habitat locks in decades of predator control. 

“I think the public needs to know that and understand that’s the trade-off that the province is apparently making to continue to subsidize the forest industry,” he said.

‘Death by a thousand clearcuts’: Canada’s deep-snow caribou are vanishing

Hessami’s modelling suggests if all logging in Columbia North core habitat stopped today, the forests would likely recover enough by about 2040 that there would be little need to kill wolves in the area. The herd would be self-sustaining.

In a statement to The Narwhal, a spokesperson for B.C.’s Ministry of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship said the province has “long acknowledged that habitat protection, restoration and management are crucial for caribou recovery.”

B.C.’s caribou recovery program is engaging with First Nations to set habitat objectives for the Columbia North herd “to ensure that caribou have a pathway to reaching self-sustaining populations,” the spokesperson said.

What that means for Stella-Jones and Pacific Woodtech’s proposals remains to be seen. A spokesperson for the Ministry of Forests couldn’t provide a timeline for making a decision about the logging plans, but said risks to caribou would be thoroughly analyzed.

For Petryshen, the answer is clear. With caribou populations under immense pressure, he’s calling for a moratorium on logging in core caribou habitat.

“The situation is dire,” he said, “we’ve got to stop pretending that we’re adequately protecting habitat while it’s continuing to be logged.”

The Narwhal’s reporters are telling environment stories you won’t read about anywhere else. Stay in the loop by signing up for our free weekly dose of independent journalism.

This story is part of In the Line of Fire, a series from The Narwhal digging into what is being done to prepare for — and survive — wildfires.

It’s not quite 7 a.m. and Michelle Nortje is engaged in her daily ritual, hiking the switchbacks and curves of the trails in the woods behind her house on the water’s edge of Gun Lake, about 100 kilometres north of Whistler, B.C. 

Her dogs — two giant Alaskan Malamutes, Grizz and Slim — amble beside her. The colour of their thick coats, in variants of white, brown and pitch black, matches the newly burned forest surrounding Nortje.

Last summer, the out-of-control Downton Lake wildfire devoured the forests behind Nortje’s lake-side home, burning almost 10,000 hectares. It destroyed 43 properties and damaged 11 others. Within a week, Nortje was out searching for her trails. “At first it was hard,” she says. 

In the sand-like soil she saw trees that were burned but still standing. Slowly, she began to make out her favourite paths. “The trees that were landmarks are still there,” she says, pointing towards a big fir tree at the edge of the fire zone wearing a hat of green needles above its burned trunk. 

At the edge of Nortje’s property, several trees bear a flash of red. Strips of dusty red flagging tape say “cutblock boundary” in capital letters. To Nortje, it’s a sign the forest’s upheaval may have just begun. 

Flagging tape denotes a block of burned forest slated for clear-cut logging above Gun Lake, B.C.

Michelle Nortje watched a 2023 wildfire ravage the forest above her house on Gun Lake, in B.C.’s interior. Only when the smoke cleared did she realize her home had survived the blaze.

Nortje’s rural neighbourhood is in the crosshairs of a relatively new industry in B.C., as logging companies set their sights on the burn zones of B.C.’s string of record-breaking wildfires. 

The industry, known as “wildfire salvage,” is on the rise. In almost every year since 2018, logging cutblocks in five wildfire zones in B.C.’s Interior were each larger than the land-mass of the city of Vancouver, according to The Narwhal’s analysis of provincial data. According to an email from B.C.’s Ministry of Forests, wildfire salvage logging in 2022 made up about 10 per cent of the province’s annual cut — a 100-fold increase over the past decade.

In B.C., wildfire salvage typically means clear cutting a burned area. Salvage logging offers an opportunity for companies to access discounted wood at a time when the forest sector is in crisis following a century of industrial logging, wildfires and the spruce beetle and pine beetle infestations. As mills close around the province and workers are laid off, the B.C. government has announced policies to expedite wildfire salvage logging, making it cheaper and faster for companies to harvest in burn areas. 

The Narwhal’s analysis of five wildfire areas in B.C.’s interior found 16 per cent of the logs were classified as high-grade, meaning they were mostly undamaged and could have come from living trees.

But “salvage” is not always the right word. B.C.’s logging rules allow companies to harvest living trees in wildfire zones. The Narwhal’s analysis of provincial data for active logging in five wildfire areas in B.C.’s Interior found more than half the logs harvested — including from old-growth forests — were classified as construction grade, meaning they could have come from trees that survived the fire.

Biologists say trees in burn zones can offer rare islands of habitat for wildlife, including species at risk of extinction like spotted owls and caribou. And even when dead or dying trees are harvested, salvage logging can also pose risks to biodiversity, soil health and water systems. 

“All this natural regeneration is starting,” Nortje observes. “If you come in with your heavy machinery and stir all that up, how is that good for rehabilitation?”

Gun Lake is about 100 kilometres north of Whistler, B.C. Map: Shawn Parkinson / The Narwhal

Salvage logging is a familiar practice in B.C. forests under stress; it was the primary way B.C. responded to the pine and spruce beetle infestations, leading to a sharp spike in the volume of trees companies could log in the province’s north and southern interior. Logging levels increased by about one-third overall, with a heavy focus on pine trees. Now, as beetle infestations subside, wildfire salvage is the new game in town. 

“We are working hard to remove barriers and expedite wildfire salvage,” the B.C. Ministry of Forests explained in an email to The Narwhal. 

Species and ecosystems evolved with fire-damaged B.C. forests 

B.C.’s forests are no stranger to fire. In damper places like the temperate rainforests on the coast and the interior wet belt, fire has been an infrequent guest, burning rarely and in lighter patches. To the north, in forests of spruce and pine, fires historically come more often and engulf larger areas. 

But many species and ecosystems evolved in tandem with fire and benefit from a landscape left undisturbed after a burn. 

Many species and ecosystems evolved in tandem with wildfire and benefit from a landscape left undisturbed following a burn.

Lodgepole pine trees produce special, waxy cones that wait for the melting power of wildfire to release their seeds. And while fire generally takes a toll on forest soil, it also provides nutrients from the carbon of combusted plant life, helping catapult a succession of plants and shrubs into growth. Burned, dead trees play an integral role in ecosystems, providing nesting spots for birds like tree swallows, holding water in the soil and shielding the earth from the drying effects of wind and sun. 

Fire zones get another leg up in the recovery process from the places where green trees remain. These patches might lie in wet gullies, or they might have been spared from the blaze thanks to a lucky gust of wind. Sometimes green zones are found in old-growth forests, where big trees’ thick bark protects them from what would otherwise be a fatal burn. Either way, green trees in fire zones can offer refuge for a plethora of wildlife and a jump start for regenerating the burned forest next door. 

“It can be in their DNA that they’ve withstood the fire,” fire ecologist Kira Hoffman says in an interview. “They can have species that are going to be really good at creating the next generation of forest.”

Added together, that mixture of dead and living forest is known as the fire’s “biological legacy.” It’s akin to a shock absorber, cushioning the forest’s landing after a fire blow and increasing the chances biodiversity — the mix of different living things in an ecosystem — makes it through. 

Grizzly bears travel on logging roads that lead to fire salvage harvesting operations.

Experts say salvage logging has the potential to remove nature’s shock absorbers just when forests need them most. 

“All of the things that we want to see in our forests become really hard after you’ve salvage logged,” Jesse Zeman, executive director for the B.C. Wildlife Federation, tells The Narwhal. 

Predation is one example; species like elk and moose have been shown to avoid salvage-logged areas to avoid getting picked off by predators like wolves, which capitalize on the easy access afforded by logging roads. Salvage-logged forests may also possess fewer of the smaller species that together make significant contributions to biodiversity; a 2017 study found eight out of 24 species groups experienced “significant decreases” in population following salvage logging. Lichen, bird and beetle species fared the worst. Black-backed woodpeckers, for instance, favour burned trees for nesting. 

According to Phil Burton, a biologist at the University of Northern British Columbia and co-author of the study, losses are particularly pronounced if salvage logging targets rare ecosystems remaining in an area — for example, a burned old-growth forest surrounded by young, logged stands. 

If those older forests are clear cut for salvage, species that relied on their rich assortment of decaying wood may have nowhere to go. Longhorn beetles, for example, covet the dead wood that fires provide; some have sensors that detect smoke from far away. Salvage logging in southwest Oregon was shown to damage habitat for northern spotted owls, who nest only in big, old trees. 

Salvage logging can also change the way water moves through the forest. “Once you go in and salvage-log a big cutblock, the wind hits the ground and it dries the soil right out,” Zeman says. When water hits salvage-logged ground, it can take the soil’s structure and nutrients with it as it flows away. 

One study found watersheds logged for salvage had more sediment in their water than unburned areas.

Sediment from wildfire salvage logging can transport pollutants into fish-bearing waters.

A study of wildfire salvage in the Rocky Mountains in Alberta found salvaged watersheds had 37 times more sediment in their water than unburned watersheds — and 28 times more than forests that burned but weren’t salvage-logged. That sediment can suffocate fish eggs and transport pollutants. The study found some areas had not recovered after 11 years. 

B.C.’s former chief forester Diane Nicholls cited those findings and others in a 2018 guidance document for forest professionals. “Beyond the effects of the wildfires themselves, the potential negative effects of post-fire salvage on some ecosystem values may be difficult to remediate,” Nicholls wrote. She said salvage logging impacts “may require long timelines for remediation (i.e., decades) or they may be irreversible in the context of forest management time horizons.” 

Nicholls called for “an environmentally focused and cautious approach” to planning salvage logging, saying companies should create plans that prioritize which trees to leave. 

“Live trees must be left on the landscape, wherever possible, even if they are within the [timber harvesting land base],” Nicholls wrote. 

She also noted the potential for damage to soil and water resources is high. It may be more effective and less expensive to protect source water than to deal with the impacts of salvage logging through “increased levels of post-logging rehabilitation,” she said.

But Nicholls’ guidance has no legal teeth. 

Salvage logging after wildfires has increased significantly in B.C. since 2017. Graph: Shawn Parkinson / The Narwhal

In an email in response to questions from The Narwhal, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Forests said it does not have regulations that compel companies to address the ecological risks of salvage logging.

The province also doesn’t require companies to leave live trees in burn zones, the ministry said. Nor does the B.C. government track how many live or green trees are logged within wildfire zones. 

“They’re not actually mapped in terms of what percent of trees remain alive,” Burton says, adding better salvage data “is important for conservation as well as timber supply protection.” 

But B.C.’s Ministry of Forests does keep tabs on the quality of wood that companies log. 

Of the salvage logging data The Narwhal analyzed from active cutblocks in the five wildfire areas, 16 per cent was classified as “grade 1,” or premium-grade logs, meaning the logs were mostly undamaged. To qualify for that high-value grade, at least three-quarters of the log must be undamaged by fire or other impacts. 

Because they’ve sustained such light damage, these trees are the most likely to still be alive and green. 

Trees with thick bark, including old-growth Douglas fir and Ponderosa pine, have better odds of surviving a wildfire.

Of the trees included in The Narwhal’s analysis, nearly half were classified as “grade 2,” or construction-grade timber. Up to half of this grade of tree can exhibit damage from impacts like fire. Because B.C.’s grading system isn’t fire-specific, even construction-grade logs can be green and unburned but have other subtle issues such a curve in the wood or a knot.

Burton says trees in either of these grades may either live or die following a fire. “It’s important to distinguish between scorching and charring,” he says. A “scorch” just makes it into bark’s more superficial layer, while “char” means the burn went deeper into the wood’s living layer. 

That’s why trees with thick bark, like old-growth Douglas fir and Ponderosa pine, tend to have better odds of surviving a fire. Sometimes even charred trees can survive if a fire blazes through quickly, burning only one side of the tree. 

Even if trees eventually die from fire damage, Burton says they can play a key role in the ecosystem during the years they still stand. 

“That’s more or less intact solid wood,” he notes.

B.C. wildfires: what you need to know

B.C. rules offers logging companies a discount for wildfire wood

A loophole in B.C.’s wildfire salvage logging rules means forestry companies can often get premium wood at a substantial discount.

The loophole is tied to the way B.C. calculates “stumpage” — the fee companies pay to the government for logging trees on public land, also known as Crown land.

As long as some wood in a cutting area in a wildfire zone is considered to be “fire damaged” — ranging from mild, superficial burning to severe charring — logging companies can qualify for salvage stumpage rates for the entire area. Those fire-damaged areas can include patches of green trees. The discount increases for every 10 per cent of the stand deemed to be fire damaged, meaning high-value, live trees can be logged at a lower stumpage rate. Sometimes that adds up to a significant discount.

A loophole in B.C.’s wildfire salvage logging rules means companies can sometimes get premium wood at a substantial discount. “One might question whether B.C. citizens are getting fair value for the cutting of largely sound public timber,” says Phil Burton, a biologist at the University of Northern British Columbia.

Tolko Industries is one of an unknown number of companies engaged in salvage logging in B.C. This year, the Narwhal’s data analysis found one of Tolko’s salvage cutting permits in the White Rock Creek fire zone, near Vernon, B.C., paid just 25 cents per cubic metre — a cubic metre is roughly an average wooden phone pole — for the mostly construction-grade live wood the company harvested from the burn zone. That’s around $10 per logging truck — 99 per cent less than the rate Tolko would pay for trees just outside the burn zone. 

“One might question whether B.C. citizens are getting fair value for the cutting of largely sound public timber,” Burton says.

Tolko did not respond to The Narwhal’s request for comment. 

Tolko Industries is one of an unknown number of companies engaged in wildfire salvage logging in B.C.

Typically, the 25-cent rate is reserved for the lowest-quality wood — trees “only good enough for pulp or worse,” according to Chris Gaston, associate professor of markets and economics at the University of British Columbia’s faculty of forestry.

In an email, the Ministry of Forests said the stumpage in a fire-damaged stand is calculated “based on the amount of damage in the stand as a total,” adding, “it would not be feasible to try and calculate damage based on individual logs.” 

Companies are often fined for leaving wood waste on a cut block. But in the case of fire salvage, wood “burned to a point that it can no longer be used to manufacture forest products” is not considered to be waste, according to the province’s fire salvage pricing guidelines. That means companies can access a salvage discount for clear-cutting in a highly burned area, without any consequences if they leave behind piles of severely burned logs.

Zeman says the stumpage rate incentivizes companies to double down on the last remaining green trees in a fire zone. “If you’re getting a discounted rate on green stuff, you’re probably going to focus on those spots,” he says. 

A pricing loophole known as the “grade 4 credit” system can also increase the amount of green wood companies are allowed to salvage log. That’s because companies receive credit for the beetle-killed or burned wood they bring to certain kinds of mills. Those credits allow them to log an equivalent amount of green wood without affecting their annual logging quota, known as their allowable cut.

Major licencees logging in their own tenure areas are also exempt from B.C. rules on cutblock size, meaning salvage logging clearcuts can be bigger than unburned ones. Additionally, they receive an exemption from “adjacency” rules that generally prevent companies from lining up cutblocks next to one another.

Jesse Zeman from the B.C. Wildlife Federation wants companies to leave behind green trees and burned trees big enough for animals to use as shelter or protection from predators.

Zeman sees room to curb some of salvage logging’s worst consequences by leaving the green trees and big, burned trees and harvesting the smaller ones. He also wants to see companies log during the winter months to reduce damage to soil. 

“Is there a better way to do it? The answer is yes,” he says. “Are we doing it a better way? The answer is no.”

B.C.’s non-legally binding guidelines on salvage aren’t enough to change companies’ behaviour, particularly when they’re competing against one another to produce cheaper wood, Zeman says. 

“Unless you have laws and regulations that say, ‘This is how we do it,’ and unless you have enforcement of those laws and regulations, it’s meaningless. ” 

B.C. making it faster, easier to log fire-damaged forests 

B.C.’s policies on salvage logging are changing, but some say it is not for the better. 

Last year, B.C. released an updated version of Nicholls’ salvage guidance. It removed most of the references to “retention planning,” along with Nicholls’ advice to leave live trees standing. 

The Forests Ministry says its new guidance “remains consistent with previous years,” noting, “the guide was streamlined and updated to assist licencees in implementing salvage operations.”

Over the past year, the B.C. government has announced a series of policy changes that make it faster and easier for companies to access salvage logging licences. “We need to get the licences out and get the work done and the replanting beginning as fast as possible,” Forest Minister Bruce Ralston explained during budget debates. 

Ralston’s ministry says wildfire salvage logging helps reforestation efforts. 

“Removing burnt wood and reforesting quickly allows new trees to grow faster, decreasing the amount of time the site is without tree cover and increasing the hydrologic recovery of the site,” the Forests Ministry wrote in an email to The Narwhal. 

B.C. does not require logging companies to leave living trees when they clear-cut after a wildfire.

But an internal briefing note, released through a freedom of information request, complicates the picture. 

Severely burned forests can sometimes benefit from tree-planting to trigger regrowth, says the briefing note, prepared for Ralston in September 2023 by Forests Ministry advisor Garrett McLaughlin. The note says “salvage operations may damage natural regeneration” in forests not as severely burned by wildfires.

B.C.’s salvage logging rules for major forestry licencees don’t distinguish between heavily burned forests and lightly burned forests. “Major licencees are not required to only log in areas of moderate or severe burn intensity,” the forests ministry clarified in an email.

A B.C. government briefing note warns again clear-cut salvage logging, saying a dead canopy can enhance regeneration capacity.

Even in highly burned areas, the briefing note warns against clear-cut salvage logging. “The standing dead canopy can enhance regeneration capacity,” it says, adding in some cases “underplanting” new trees beside dead ones might be a better option. 

But safety concerns make that difficult, Hoffman points out. “The problem is when you go in and replant something, you actually have to take away the overhead hazards,” she says, adding that sometimes intensely burned earth can’t support planted trees anyway. 

Hoffman’s solution is to consider letting the forest grow back on its own. “Nature will do its thing to recover,” she says. “Planting should be very intentional, and should not always occur in some places.”

In some severely burned regions, soils have been depleted and evergreen trees might not grow back for decades. That means tree planting could fail, Hoffman says, pointing out that intensely burned forests will often reseed themselves naturally. “These seeds are more likely to be resistant to future fire.”

Salvage logging can exacerbate future wildfire risk: ecologist 

According to an email from the B.C. Ministry of Forests, salvage logging can reduce “the risk of wildfire impacting these stands in the future.” Wildfire ecologist Robert Gray disagrees with such blanket claims. “If they use the term salvage in its traditional sense then no, you’re not really reducing the risk,” he says. 

“You may be exacerbating it.”

In areas that have historically experienced low-intensity, frequent wildfires, such as the dry forests of B.C.’s southern Interior, Gray advocates for removing the small stuff — younger trees and brush — to reduce the risk of “reburn” where a fire burns hotter, and more intensely, a second time. But he says taking out the bigger trees, which are often more fire-resistant, doesn’t add up. 

“Just wholesale going in there and taking out the large trees, leaving a mess behind, that’s not going to help you answer that question of what happens if this burns again.” 

When a wildfire came to my remote B.C. community, residents headed to the frontlines

According to Darlene Vegh, a Gitanyow Elder and fire expert, salvage logging on the burned forests from the 2018 Mill Lakes fire, north of Kitwanga in Gitanyow territory, led to big build-ups of dead wood and debris. The fire burned about 360 hectares, but didn’t lead to any evacuations. “Now there is more fuel build-up there than there ever was before.” 

“We checked it out this summer and nothing is growing there,” she says. “Very few things are making their way through that.”

First Nation asks for green trees to be left standing

So far, the burned forests above Nortje’s house remain unlogged, but salvage logging is well underway nearby. Private lots close to Nortje’s cabin have been clear cut to the lake’s edge. Northeast of Gun Lake, the fire’s first four commercial salvage cutblocks are complete; fresh clearcuts dot the burned hills. 

Much of the salvage logging in the area has been carried out by Lillooet-based Interwest Timber. On commercial cutblocks, the company is working in partnership with St’át’imc Tribal Holdings, a company it manages on behalf of six co-owning members of St’át’imc Nations.

Travis Peters, lands manager for Xwist’en First Nation, a co-owner of St’át’imc Tribal Holdings, says the current cutblocks are an improvement over earlier proposals put forward by Aspen Planers, which owns mills in the region. “They roped in too many green stems,” he says, referring to the green trees the companies wanted to include in their salvage logging plans. 

Xwist’en First Nation is asking for more green trees to be left standing in wildfire salvage logging operations.

Scott Fiddick, a development manager at Aspen Planers, tells The Narwhal the company is now in the process of proposing new salvage cutblocks in the region and is incorporating feedback from local nations. 

Peters says the nation has told Interwest to leave the remaining green trees standing, and to log only in the more severely burned areas. 

He’s hopeful salvage logging can help replant Douglas fir trees on which mule deer — a key species for the nation that is in decline — rely on for food and shelter.

“If we’ve done it right, we’ll get rid of the licorice sticks and get the trees growing back,” Peters says. 

According to B.C.’s forest billing database, 88 per cent of the salvage wood logged by Interwest for Stat’imc Tribal Holdings was sawlog-grade lumber. Of that, 26 per cent was the highest grade lumber — from trees most likely to survive the fire. Thick-barked Douglas fir is a dominant species in the area’s forests. And one of the logged cutblocks overlapped an area recommended for deferral by B.C.’s old growth technical advisory panel. 

The company has other cutblocks pending.

According to Mike Carson, Interwest’s forest manager, the company is logging only in highly burned areas and isn’t cutting live or green trees in the wildfire zone. 

The salvage logging underway leaves Gerald Michel, lands and resources liaison with Xwist’en, with many questions. “The research I’m reading is saying, ‘Leave it alone, let it regrow on its own,’ ” he says. He’s been unhappy with previous salvage operations carried out by Stat’imc Tribal Holdings and Interwest, saying it resulted in too many big, old trees being logged. This time, Michel has been on the ground at Gun Lake, telling Interwest which areas he’d like the company to leave intact. “We’re trying to lessen the impacts of salvage,” he says. 

“The downfall, basically, is that it [salvage logging] has to be a money-maker.”

Gerald Michel, land and resources liaison for Xwist’en First Nation, says he wants companies to avoid logging big, old trees as part of their wildfire salvage operations.

Companies like Interwest face a predicament when they salvage — leaving the biggest, healthiest trees on the block might be better for the forest, but it means fewer profits. 

“For now, we’re keeping everyone working,” Chris Graham, from Interwest, which employs about 40 people from the Lillooet area, tells The Narwhal. 

Interwest is focusing on the burned trees while trying to bring in some profit, Graham says. “You’re not going to go into stands that lose money, unless governments can fund that kind of thing.” 

First Nations forestry group advocates for tailored salvage logging

New rules for fire salvage may be on the way. 

“You’ve got everybody in the room right now,” BC First Nations Forestry Council’s chief executive officer Lennard Joe says in an interview. He’s a member of the province’s newly formed wildfire salvage leadership committee, which brings together government specialists, the First Nations Forestry Council and representatives from the forest industry to make recommendations on how companies should salvage log and to oversee their implementation. “If there were rooms like that before, First Nations weren’t at that table,” he says. 

After the “economic net-return free-for-all” of B.C.’s pine beetle salvage logging operations, Joe is hopeful these processes signal the coming era of fire salvage will be different. “You’re going to see legislation crossing the floor to develop policies, acts and regulations that will reflect how we’re moving forward,” he says. 

In some cases, Joe thinks salvage logging could reduce pressure on areas unharmed by wildfires and financially support wildfire recovery, from tree planting to rebuilding infrastructure. 

“It’s got to be site sensitive,” he says. “You’ve got to manage a prescription that brings back the best forest.” 

Back on the trail, Nortje reaches out to inspect the newest pops of green bursting through what looks like ashen sand dunes on what used to be the forest floor. 

Michelle Nortje has been documenting the forest’s natural recovery following a 2023 wildfire around her home in Gun Lake, B.C.

Next to yarrow and wild rose, Nortje holds the green leaf of a spirea plant. “It’s really not that attractive,” she says. But fire has given Nortje a new appreciation for unassuming things. “It’s now the rockstar plant, because it’s just everywhere.” 

Nortje has been documenting the forest’s recovery by sharing photos in a Facebook group shared with residents in the community. “It’s amazing how fast stuff comes back,” she says. “Their root systems are still there.” 

As she passes by strips of red flagging tape marking new cutblock boundaries, Nortje worries about sliding backwards. “I just think this disaster is so big,” she says. 

“Is salvage logging going to make it an even bigger disaster?”

Updated on Aug. 14 at 1 p.m. PT: This story has been updated to correct the number of hectares burned in the Downton Lake fire in 2023. The number of hectares burned was 10,000, not 1,000 as previously stated. 

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The forests of Clayoquot Sound became world famous as the battlegrounds of the decades-long “war in the woods” — and now, a vast swath of the rich old-growth trees are permanently protected.

In June, Ahousaht and Tla-o-qui-aht First Nations and the B.C. government announced 760 square kilometres of old-growth forests in the ecologically rich region on Vancouver Island are now safeguarded in ten new conservancies.

In the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, First Nations and non-Indigenous advocates joined forces to blockade industrial logging in Clayoquot Sound, home to trees about a thousand years old. The blockades culminated in the 1993 arrests of more than 850 people, drew support from thousands of activists and garnered global media attention.

The ten new conservancies encompass some of the last-standing old-growth forests on Vancouver Island. Map: Province of British Columbia

The new conservancies, to be managed by Ahousaht and Tla-o-qui-aht First Nations, will nearly double how much old growth is protected in Clayoquot Sound to a total 1,639 square kilometres, or about 62 per cent of the area. New protections include parts of Meares Island near Tofino, where Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation declared a tribal park on part of the island in 1984. 

“For 40 years, there’s been rent being paid on the tree farm licences that are on Meares Island. Every year, it still remained under threat of deforestation. Now, the first phase of protecting portions of Meares Island is done,” Saya Masso, Tla-o-qui-aht natural resources manager, said in an interview.

“That’s 40 years of trying to get our rights implemented. … It’s a monumental occasion.”

Conservation charity Nature United provided $40 million to help Tla-o-qui-aht and Ahousaht pay compensation to the forestry-tenure holder, Mamook Natural Resources, which they share ownership of, along with the other three central Nuu-chah-nulth nations. The remaining 560 square kilometres is mostly second growth and remains under the tenure of Mamook Natural Resources.

Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation natural resources manager Saya Masso, pictured on the Big Tree Trail on Meares Island, called the conservancies a “monumental” achievement. Photo: Melissa Renwick / The Narwhal

Tyson Atleo, hereditary representative for Ahousaht and natural climate solutions program director for Nature United, said the announcement builds on “generations of effort by the Ahousaht to ensure that our rights and interests are upheld.”

“While this is a milestone, this is by no means the conclusion of the work,” Atleo told The Narwhal. “This is just a step in a new direction that is going to require a significant amount of effort and resources to sustain.”

Ahousaht Guardian Byron Charlie released juvenile salmon into the Bedwell River in the Clayoquot Sound. Salmon enrich forest soil and feed other animals, while forests retain water and provide shade that salmon depend on. Photo: Melissa Renwick / The Narwhal

Clayoquot Sound: From the fiery heart of conflict to collaboration

Mike Reid, B.C. program director for Nature United, said Clayoquot Sound has become a symbol of the “conflict between the environment and the economy,” making the announcement of the conservancies all the more momentous.

“This is in the heart of the largest intact temperate rainforest on Earth. Clayoquot Sound is a carbon storage and sequestration powerhouse, containing some of the last remaining old-growth stands on Vancouver Island,” he said.

An old-growth red cedar stands within Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation traditional territory. Some trees in Clayoquot Sound are estimated to be more than 1,000 years old. Photo: Melissa Renwick / The Narwhal

Creating the conservancies required consensus from all five nations who jointly own Mamook Natural Resources. It also took years of fundraising and negotiations as each nation created and pursued their own vision for stewarding their lands and waters.

Reid hopes the decision can serve as a model for other nations and communities looking to improve forestry practices as available old growth dwindles.

“Clayoquot Sound demonstrates that there’s alternatives out there,” Reid said, pointing to carbon credits and tourism as examples of economic shifts away from old-growth logging. “Looking at alternative revenue sources and other kinds of economic development is critical for the nations who are advancing these changes.”

Protecting old-growth forests that have been ‘mismanaged’ for decades

According to Sierra Club BC, more than a third of old-growth trees have been logged on Vancouver Island since 1993, the year the “war in the woods” reached its peak with a summer of high-profile protests. 

Old growth supports ecosystem health by providing water retention, shade, carbon storage and fire resilience, since older and more diverse forests are less likely to burn. It’s also integral to cultural practices like building canoes, totem poles and longhouses. The number of quality logs has plummeted, Tla-o-qui-aht Elder Tutakwisnapšiƛ (Joe Martin) previously told The Narwhal. For trees to grow strong, straight and large, they require the entire ecosystem to be functioning, he said — right down to the salmon in the streams, whose carcasses nourish the soil.

First Nations were pushed out of their stewardship roles and confined to reserves, he said in an interview, adding forests have since “been totally mismanaged by the governments.” 

“They thought the ‘savages’ were just not using it. But we were actually taking care of it.”

Master carver and Tla-o-qui-aht Elder Joe Martin said his ancestors would only harvest trees in the fall and winter to avoid disturbing nesting birds, and would avoid disrupting wolf or bear dens in order to prioritize the health of the whole forest. Photo: Melissa Renwick / The Narwhal

Nuu-chah-nulth culture “can’t survive on second growth,” Masso said. Keeping old forests alive is integral to the Tla-o-qui-aht land use vision and the new conservancies are just the first phase of the nation’s plan. They want to begin selling carbon credits, build up their Guardians program, protect water sources and close mineral tenures and other industrial land uses that for now the conservancy boundaries must wind around.

Masso said most old growth in Tla-o-qui-aht territory is now protected in the conservancies. The nation will develop a sustainable forestry plan for logging in Kennedy Flats, a second-growth forest area.

“It’s flat land, roadside harvest. The highest-return logging is being set up to be our grandchildren’s forestry tenure,” Masso said, explaining flat land is less costly to log than mountainous terrain. “So, I think it’s a win for everybody. We get to keep the forestry industry alive somewhat with a woodlot.”

“It’s always been an expressed interest to keep our foresters active, keep the ability to move big logs around, keep the machinery, keep the knowledge … while also protecting our culture, our drinking water, our fisheries and our access to monumental cedar.”

A step in the right direction, but ‘where to from here?’

The Ahousaht land use vision also includes addressing mineral tenures, getting into carbon credits and strengthening the nation’s Guardians program, according to Atleo. The next phase in their plan is to transition the rest of the tree farm licence into new forest licences and use the land to benefit community members. 

While the conservancies are a monumental achievement, they still have a way to go in realizing their vision, Atleo said. He pointed out the conservancies are still considered Crown land by the province, and he wants to see the nation’s Indigenous Title recognized. 

Ahousaht Guardian Byron Charlie (left) and Kaylyn Kwasnecha, Central Westcoast Forest Society research and monitoring coordinator, record the size a juvenile salmon. Tyson Atleo said many species the First Nation relies on have been decimated and conservancies are just one step towards restoring the land. Photo: Melissa Renwick / The Narwhal

Although Ahousaht is taking on more responsibility for managing lands after decades of being pushed to the sidelines, “We are not seeing an increase of support from the Crown to fund those responsibilities,” he said, noting philanthropic funding made the conservancies possible. Nature United provided Tla-o-qui-aht and Ahousaht some funding to manage the land, but the conservancies cover a huge area the nations will manage indefinitely. “It’s not enough,” he said.

“We’re stretched to make some of these things a reality. We’re taking on the responsibilities of an entire industry sector to improve on behalf of Crown governments.”

“This is a step in the right direction, unequivocally, but where to from here?” 

He said Ahousaht is trying to reverse a century of policies that devastated the environment they rely on.

“It’s not our perfect scenario, right? Historically, we would not have had to make a decision to protect anything, because we would have managed the whole of the ecosystem in a much more effective way.”

He knows it will take time to get there, but for Atleo, a perfect scenario would be implementation of Ahousaht title, decision-making powers in their territory and allowing his people to benefit from the rich land and local economy “in a way reflective of our values.”

B.C. had quieter than usual announcement

Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation hosted a celebration in Tofino in June, commemorating the 40th anniversary of the Meares Island Tribal Park declaration as well as the announcement of the new conservancies. B.C. Minister of Energy, Mines and Low Carbon Innovation Josie Osborne, who is also MLA for the Mid Island-Pacific Rim riding that includes Clayoquot Sound, attended the gathering and celebrated the announcement online. “Gratitude for thousands of years of stewardship by the Nuu-chah-nulth people … and today’s phenomenal announcement,” she wrote. 

Environmental groups also lauded the protections as historic and momentous. Endangered Ecosystems Alliance called it the “biggest old growth protected areas victory in years.”

Tofino is famous for surfing, whale watching and outdoor sports, and brings thousands of visitors to Ahousaht and Tla-o-qui-aht territory. However, the nations don’t profit from the tourism to the same degree as private businesses. Photo: Melissa Renwick / The Narwhal

However, the B.C. government was more subdued in its announcement of the conservancies than it has been with other similar conservation agreements in the past, and did not hold a news conference. An emailed statement from the Ministry of Forests said the parties involved in the Clayoquot conservancies had “hoped to host an event to celebrate this achievement” but that “time constraints did not allow the parties to come together before the agreement was finalized.”

“I support the creation of these conservancies,” Minister of Forests Bruce Ralston said in a news release. “Collaborative work with First Nations is a cornerstone of our vision for old growth in this province. At the same time, the clarity that these conservancies will bring to the area will give our industry partners confidence in the future of forestry.”

Timeline: from the war in the woods to the biggest permanent old growth protection in decades

The First Nations have been working with Nature United to establish the conservancies for about a decade, but the roots of the conservancies go much deeper in history. Here’s a condensed timeline:

1,000 years ago: Some of the oldest trees in Clayoquot Sound standing today begin to grow.

1950s: Forestry companies build the first logging road to Tofino. The forests are logged intensively over the following decades.

1971: Pacific Rim National Park Reserve is created, raising concerns more of the surrounding forest will be logged. 

1982: Canada enacts its sovereign constitution, recognizing and affirming Aboriginal and Treaty Rights.

1984: Tla-o-qui-aht, Ahousaht and non-Indigenous protesters blockade Meares Island, where logging company MacMillan Bloedel plans to log old-growth forest in an area supplying Tofino’s drinking water.

On April 21, Tla-o-qui-aht leadership declares the Meares Island (Wanachus-Hilthuu’is) Tribal Park. While they continue to patrol and steward the area, the province doesn’t formally recognize it as protected. 

1980-90s: A series of blockades takes place in Clayoquot Sound that become known as the war in the woods. The Ahousaht, Tla-o-qui-aht and Hesquiaht demand better logging practices from companies and more meaningful consultation from government. Thousands of activists journey to the remote area. The war in the woods peaks in the summer of 1993 when more than 800 people are arrested — 300 in a single day.

1997: B.C. hands over Tree Farm Licence 54 (which encompasses Clayoquot Sound) to the five nations that make up the Central Region First Nations of the Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council: the Tla-o-qui-aht, Ahousaht, Hesquiaht, Yuułuʔiłʔatḥ (Ucluelet) and Toquaht First Nations. In 1997, the nations create Mamook Natural Resources, a partnership among the five nations. They are now obliged to pay the province rent for the licence.

The company works with environmental organizations to improve its forestry practices, but balancing financial needs with a desire to slow down old-growth logging isn’t easy, Masso says.

2000s: The Tla-o-qui-aht declare three more tribal parks that encompass all of the nation’s territory. The Ahousaht and Tla-o-qui-aht each develop individual land use visions and Guardians programs. In 2011, they begin to work with Nature United to buy up the tree farm licence and convert the woods to protected areas.

2020: B.C. announces a two-year deferral on old-growth logging in nine areas around the province, including in Clayoquot Sound. The next year, old-growth logging takes over headlines again during the Fairy Creek blockades. 

2021: In November, B.C. launches a wider deferral plan to temporarily pause old-growth logging. The program faces criticism for putting an unfair burden on First Nations. Old growth is still being logged in deferral areas and critics say protected old growth is poorly counted.

2023: B.C. commits to protecting 30 per cent of lands and waters by 2030, in line with Canada’s international commitments to curb biodiversity loss.

2024: Ahousaht, Tla-o-qui-aht and the province announce the conservancies on June 18. They come into effect on June 26.

— With files from Shannon Waters

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