When governments make announcements on a Friday afternoon, it’s usually because they don’t want much scrutiny. 

That was clearly the case on Sept. 11 when the B.C. government released a consequential old-growth strategic review report, barely giving reporters a chance to glance at the fine print and recommendations prior to a press conference with Doug Donaldson, Minister of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development. 

Donaldson’s ministry simultaneously sent out a news release announcing the “protection” of nine areas in B.C., totalling almost 353,000 hectares, to kickstart the NDP government’s “new approach to old forests.” 

Sounds good, right? 

But wait. As the adage goes, the devil is in the details.

“If you look at the facts … it still essentially preserves the core of the old-growth logging industry,” said Ken Wu, executive director of the Endangered Ecosystems Alliance. 

“Left as it is, it will liquidate most of the remaining endangered old-growth.” 

So what did the government commit to? And what did the old-growth strategic review report say? 

Read on. 

Did the B.C. government implement permanent protections for old-growth?

In a word, no. 

Donaldson announced that development will be temporarily deferred in nine old-growth areas while consultations about future designations are held. “The areas that are announced today are already areas where harvesting is not taking place, and therefore the economic impact in the immediate term is going to be insignificant,” he told reporters. 

“Deferrals aren’t protection,” said Wilderness Committee national campaign director Torrance Coste. “They’re two-year deferrals, hopefully to buy time for those forests to be protected.”

Eight of the areas are in southern B.C. — omitting the northern boreal forest and rare and endangered interior temperate rainforest from logging reprieves.

It’s business as usual everywhere else in the province, including in the central Walbran and Fairy Creek on southern Vancouver Island, in endangered caribou habitat in the Anzac Valley north of Prince George and on the Sunshine Coast, where residents stapled felt hearts on old-growth trees as part of an unsuccessful effort to protect the Clack Creek forest from clear-cutting and other old-growth is slated to be logged.

“It’s largely talk and log in a lot of cases, with loopholes big enough to drive thousands of logging trucks through,” observed Wu, the founder of the Ancient Forest Alliance.

Retired B.C. government forester Judy Thomas surveys a clear cut near the Anzac Valley, just north of Prince George, B.C. Photo: Taylor Roades / The Narwhal

What about the development deferrals?

Clayoquot Sound, with more than 260,000 hectares deferred from development, represents almost three-quarters of the deferrals in size.  

But when GIS mapper Dave Leversee crunched the numbers, he found that about 137,000 hectares of the land newly “deferred” from development in Clayoquot Sound is already under some form of protection, including parks, Wildlife Habitat Areas and Clayoquot management reserves. 

Less than nine per cent of the total area announced for a development deferral consists of old-growth forests of medium to good productivity, meaning there are optimal conditions for supporting the biggest trees, Leversee discovered.

“There’s a lot of non-forested areas in that number: rocks, mountain peaks, swamps, things like that,” he said of the 260,000-hectare Clayoquot Sound “old growth development deferral” area on the government’s map.

An aerial view of old-growth forests in Clayoquot Sound, part of a temporary deferral that will prohibit logging in this area for two years. Photo: TJ Watt / Ancient Forest Alliance

It’s much the same story in the Kootenays, where Stockdale Creek and Crystalline Creek in the Purcells are on the list of development deferrals.

Wildsight conservation specialist Eddie Petryshen pointed out that only 0.1 hectare of the 9,600 hectares deferred in Crystalline Creek area, a tributary of the south fork of the Spillimacheen River, was slated for logging.

In Stockdale Creek, just 223 hectares out of 11,500 hectares that received a development deferral were on the chopping block, Petryshen said, noting that both areas provide important grizzly bear and wolverine habitat and connectivity.

“It’s a far cry from the numbers they’re talking about,” Petryshen told The Narwhal.

“While both these watersheds are intact, have very high biodiversity values and need to be protected, most of the old growth in these drainages is not believed to be under immediate threat from logging.” 

After Clayoquot Sound, the largest temporary deferral from development consists of 40,000 hectares in the Incomappleux Valley east of Revelstoke, an inland rainforest with trees up to 1,500 years old. 

“The deferral areas appear to cover a lot of inoperable forest, or forest that’s already been clear cut,” said Valhalla Wilderness Society director Craig Pettitt. 

The society is suggesting that 32,000 hectares of the Incomappleux deferral unit be allocated “to actual endangered forest elsewhere, instead of protecting inoperable or clear cut areas outside of the ancient forest.”

Pettitt said he is happy the Incomappleux has been acknowledged. But he said the inland temperate rainforest — hosting some of B.C.’s rarest ancient forests — is “severely underrepresented” in the government’s announcement. 

Clear-cut logging of spruce in B.C.’s interior. Less than one-third of the world’s primary forests are still intact yet in B.C.’s interior a temperate rainforest that holds vast stores of carbon and is home to endangered caribou is being clear-cut as fast as the Amazon. Photo: Taylor Roades / The Narwhal

And then there’s the deferral of about 5,700 hectares in the Skagit-Silver Daisy area, on the edge of Manning Park, where the B.C. government had already announced that logging permits in the Skagit River headwaters would no longer be permitted, but mining exploration has been causing friction with Americans downstream.  

Also on Vancouver Island, more than 2,200 hectares were deferred from logging around McKelvie Creek — the last unprotected, intact watershed in the Tahsis region, in Mowachaht/Muchalaht territory. And just over 1,000 hectares, an area roughly the size of two and a half Stanley Parks, were deferred in H’Kusam, near Sayward.

The remaining deferrals consist of just over 4,500 hectares in an area known as the Seven Sisters, northwest of Smithers, and more than 17,000 hectares around the Upper Southgate River in Bute Inlet on B.C.’s mid-coast. 

Coste said the Wilderness Committee is waiting on shapefiles and more information from the government so it can determine what portion of the nine deferrals lie in the 415,000 hectares of old forest left in B.C., home to trees expected to grow more than 20 metres tall in 50 years.

“That will be the real test,” he said.

Wait, what did the old-growth strategic review report actually say?

The report, commissioned by the B.C. government, was written by foresters Garry Merkel and Al Gorley.

The 216-page report calls for a paradigm shift in the way B.C. manages old-growth forests. It lays out a blueprint for change with 14 recommendations.

The report says old forests have intrinsic value for all living things and should be managed for ecosystem health, not for timber. It also says many old forests are not renewable, which counters the prevailing notion that trees, no matter how old, will grow back. 

The report was widely praised by conservation groups, which welcomed the temporary development deferrals and called on the B.C. government to commit to implementing Merkel and Gorley’s recommendations. 

“The report itself is fantastic,” Wu said. “It covers most of what we’ve actually been calling for for decades. What’s needed is to commit to those recommendations.” 

Ancient Forest Alliance campaigner and photographer TJ Watt surveys recent old-growth clearcutting by Teal-Jones in the Caycuse watershed in Ditidaht Territory on southern Vancouver Island. Areas of highly productive, endangered ancient forest like this still remain at risk in many regions. Photo: TJ Watt / Ancient Forest Alliance

What did the report recommend?

Top of the list is to engage “the full involvement” of Indigenous leaders and organizations in an old-growth strategy.   

Immediately deferring development in old forests “where ecosystems are at very high and near-term risk of irreversible biodiversity loss” and “prioritizing ecosystem health and resilience” are among the other recommendations.

In an interview with The Narwhal, Merkel said people from all sectors, including forestry, recognize “that the path we’re going down needs to change” and that B.C. forest-dependent communities — which have suffered from recent mill closures and job losses — need sustainable economies.

As such, the report recommends the government support forest sector workers and communities as they adapt to changes resulting from a new forest management system. 

“If the government does that, we can minimize the pain through this transition,” said Merkel, the former chair of the Tahltan Nation Development Corporation and the Columbia Basin Trust.

“But there is a transition coming in many areas … There are many, many areas that are going to have to do this regardless whether they implement our ideas or not. This is not a surprise.”

Did the government take immediate steps to prevent irreversible biodiversity loss?

No. The government has not followed the panel’s recommendation to immediately defer all logging in old-growth forests that are home to ecosystems at risk of irreversible biodiversity loss. 

Under Section 13 of B.C.’s Forests Act, Donaldson can defer harvesting activities for up to four years without compensating tenure holders. 

Conservation North director Michelle Connolly said areas at risk of ecological collapse include the Anzac River Valley north of Prince George, which provides critical habitat for endangered southern mountain caribou and a myriad other species, including at-risk migratory songbirds.

“The Anzac is an area of great ecological risk up here and it’s really odd that no protections have been announced for it,” Connolly said in an interview. 

Cutting permits have been issued all the way up the Anzac Valley “and they’re going after the highest productivity old-growth spruce, the areas with the biggest trees,” she said. 

Forestry giant Canfor and Coastal Gaslink, which is constructing a pipeline for the LNG Canada export project, recently teamed up to build a new road into the Anzac Valley wilderness, Connolly noted.

“The Hart [Ranges] caribou use that whole area. The road, the cut blocks, are in their core habitat.” 

Scientist Michelle Connolly said the Anzac River Valley north of Prince George is at risk of ecological collapse and has not received any protection under the NDP government’s recent announcement. Photo: Taylor Roades / The Narwhal

Petryshen said development deferrals omit “an incredible” drainage in the North Columbia mountains that BC Timber Sales plans to road and log. 

The Argonaut Creek drainage provides critical habitat for the endangered Columbia North caribou herd, which, at 150 animals, is the largest remaining caribou herd in the area. 

“It’s spectacular old-growth at lower elevations and then Engelmann spruce and subalpine fir and spectacular summer and winter caribou habitat, and it’s federal critical caribou habitat.” 

He said it is hypocritical to move forward with piecemeal deferrals while, on the other hand, “we’re seeing that critical caribou habitat move down the road on logging trucks on Highway 23.”

Coste said the B.C. government is limiting its future ability to ensure the survival of ecosystems by failing to follow the panel’s recommendation.

“There are hundreds of hectares of old-growth being cut down today and removed from the pool of old-growth that we could potentially protect six months, a year, two years, three years from now.” 

What does the B.C. First Nations Forestry Council say?

B.C. First Nations Forestry Council CEO Charlene Higgins said the council is disappointed the government has chosen to engage with First Nations “after the fact” and not as partners in the process, especially given the cultural significance of many old-growth areas.

“Public consultation and engagement stakeholder processes, and asking for submissions, really doesn’t recognize First Nations as governments and as rights holders,” Higgins told The Narwhal. 

“There’s been no meaningful input and engagement with First Nations.” 

Higgins said the process doesn’t reflect commitments made in B.C.’s Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act and the government’s commitment to work in cooperation and collaboration with Indigenous peoples on forest policy changes, legislation and practices. 

She said the council supports the nine development deferrals provided they were decided in full consultation with First Nations in whose territories the deferrals lie. (Donaldson underscored that the deferrals all have the support of local First Nations.)

“Many First Nations have their own policies around old growth and they have their own old growth areas that they recognize, and the province needs to ensure that these areas line up,” Higgins said. 

An aerial view highlighting extensive clearcut logging of productive old-growth forests in the Klanawa Valley on southern Vancouver Island, B.C. Photo: TJ Watt / Ancient Forest Alliance

What about protections for big trees?

Donaldson’s ministry also announced that work is underway to protect up to 1,500 “exceptionally large, individual trees” under the special tree protection regulation, introduced last year by the government to protect monumental trees.

Coste called the big tree protections a “drop in the bucket.” They represent, at most, the preservation of 1,500 hectares of old-growth across the province — an area smaller than four Stanley Parks — because each monumental tree gets a one-hectare buffer zone around it, he pointed out. 

“Big trees are important but there’s so much more to old-growth forests than just those big trees.” 

Connolly, from Conservation North, called the protection of individual trees “a joke,” saying her science-based group sees more than 1,500 trees from the interior wet belt going down Highway 97 in a single day. 

“They don’t understand what is a minimum expectation for conservation,” she said. 

Higgins, from the B.C. First Nations Forestry Council, said there has been no First Nations input into the protection of individual trees. 

“Without nations having any input into what is considered a large tree species, there’s a potential for a disconnect.” 

“Many First Nations have developed their own strategy for what they deem as culturally significant areas,” she said. “It’s been a really flawed process that really doesn’t reflect First Nations input.

But Wu said big tree protections are an important part of protecting what little remains of B.C.’s high productivity old growth. 

“The goal is, and has always been, protection of old growth ecosystems. That’s got to happen on the trees and groves level, and on the level of watersheds, landscapes and ecosystems.” 

Tahsis Mayor Martin Davis stands beside a giant old-growth Douglas-fir tree in the McKelvie Valley, part of a temporary deferral that will prohibit logging in this area for two years. Photo: TJ Watt / Ancient Forest Alliance

Is this really a new approach to managing old-growth?

No — at least not yet. 

Merkel said the panel is recommending deep structural changes that go far further than saving a few key areas, although he said that is also important.

“If that’s all we do, we won’t change the way we’re doing things.” 

“We’re talking about changing a system that started almost a century ago. We’re fundamentally turning a corner here in how that whole thing works. That’s going to take a little bit of time.” 

For example, it will take several years to figure out the pieces that need to change to align with the panel’s recommendation to make ecosystem health a priority as an overarching directive for managing old-growth, he said.  

If the government acts on the panel’s recommendations immediately, Merkel said there will be substantial changes in the short-term “and we will get incrementally better over time.” 

What happens next? 

Conservation groups want the government to implement the report’s 14 recommendations within the timeline laid out in the report, with immediate, mid-term and long-term actions taken over the next three years.

So far, the government hasn’t committed to any of the recommendations, or to the timeline.

Donaldson told reporters that managing old-growth forests while supporting workers and communities “has been a challenge in the making for more than 30 years and it won’t be solved immediately.”

“But we know that the status quo is not sustainable,” the minister said. “Obviously, it’s not good for the industry to cut it all down, there’s no plan for transition. And we know that unchecked logging in old-growth threatens crucial biodiversity values. But at the same time, putting an abrupt halt to old-growth logging would have devastating impacts on communities and workers across B.C., especially on the coast.”

As rumours swirl of a snap provincial election this fall, Donaldson said the government will provide a progress report on a “renewed old-growth strategy” in the spring of 2021. (Shortly after announcing the deferral areas, Donaldson announced he will not be seeking re-election.)

Merkel said he and Gorley have agreed not to judge the government at this point. “They haven’t outright said they aren’t going to do it,” he said regarding the recommendations. 

“Our job was to think about what needed to happen,” he said. “We needed to put it out there. Now, the world has to think: ‘Are we ready, and can we do it?’ ”

Updated Sept 17, 2020, at 12:28 a.m. PST: A previous version of this story said Sunshine Coast residents have stapled felt hearts to old-growth trees as part of an effort to protect the Clack Creek forest from clear-cutting. The story has been updated to reflect the fact that the Clack Creek forest has since been logged. Additionally, the previous version of this story said each monumental tree gets a one-kilometre buffer zone around it. The story has been updated to say each monumental tree gets a one-hectare buffer around it.

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.

British Columbians have a complicated relationship with forests. Growing up, my favourite stand of old-growth trees was only accessible by a logging road. At the time, that barely seemed noteworthy: I knew forests held ecological value, and were also valued by local mills. But when the logging road became active again, and I started following empty trucks up and full trucks down, I began wondering whether those values were well balanced.

That tension still runs close to the heart of British Columbians. We promote our provincial identity as nature-lovers through old-growth forests on tourism ads. But in many ways, we never left the gold rush era of destructive, unsustainable industries that wreak havoc on the land. Meanwhile, the forest-based communities we cherish are increasingly at risk.

Forestry practices in B.C. have been criticized for a long time. Mill closures, forest fires and species extinction are all symptoms of disastrous forest policies and provincial government mismanagement. In today’s era of climate change, which is already having a measurable impact on forests, every bad policy is made worse.

Canada is warming twice as fast as the rest of the world, putting us on the frontlines of global climate change. But the time to “stop” climate change has passed. Now, we’re left bracing for the worst impacts of the climate emergency by adopting strategies to make our communities more resilient to increasing wildfires and devastating floods.

One of the most obvious strategies? Protecting the old-growth forests and intact forests — meaning landscapes not fragmented and degraded by industrial activity — still standing in BC.

Older, intact forests hold tremendous value to nearby communities by offering protection from the worst impacts of climate change. But not if we continue to clearcut one of our best defences. B.C.’s outdated forestry policies have undermined these values by prioritizing timber harvest over all else. It’s time to change that.

Old-growth forestry in the Nahmint Valley. Photo: TJ Watt / Ancient Forest Alliance

Resilient forests, resilient communities

Poor logging practices and industrial infrastructure threaten rural and urban communities alike. With provincial forest policy amendments underway, now is the time to make sure our communities get the conversation — and results — we need.

Until July 15, B.C. is seeking public input on key legislation, the Forest and Range Practices Act. A joint submission by 28 organizations puts climate change and landscape resiliency front and centre, defining resiliency as the “ability of an ecosystem to cope with disturbance or stress and rebuild itself without losing its defining characteristics.”

Recent years of unprecedented megafires and evacuations, catastrophic floods and landslides, and the march toward extinction of many woodland species make our situation very clear: we have work to do to rebuild resilient forests.

The act has governed forest operations on public land in B.C. for almost two decades — more than enough time to assess its flaws. This is a critical opportunity to tell decision-makers how B.C.’s forestry policies should change to help make our communities more resilient. If the provincial government is serious about tackling climate change, it must adopt policies that recognize the integral role forests play in that fight.

This means being explicit about what is logged and what is left standing. Clearcutting old-growth forests, which are globally significant for their ability to absorb carbon and are also home to countless species, cannot be a policy for a climate-safe future.

Unfortunately, B.C.’s current laws allow old-growth forests to be clearcut at an alarming rate. A recent analysis showed about 10,000 hectares of old-growth forest was logged in just one year on Vancouver Island. B.C. Timber Sales, a publicly funded agency, is poised to log thousands more hectares of old-growth on the island in the coming years.

In much of B.C., oversight and monitoring is so abysmal that understanding the scope of the problem presents its own challenge. But forest-dependent species like mountain caribou give us insight into the state of forest health. Right now, those herds face extinction: their disappearance from B.C. mountain ranges is linked with unsustainable forestry practices, and their continued decline marks the collapse in the integrity of forest ecosystems. But the provincial government is still delaying Indigenous-led efforts to recover herds and protect their habitat.

When B.C. forest policy reflects the need for healthy forests, our communities will be more resilient as well.

B.C. government delays endangered caribou plan as herds dwindle

Climate change makes bad forest policy worse, and vice versa

Old-growth and intact forests help buffer communities against threats made worse by climate change. Hotter, drier conditions in forests increase the risk of massive fires to rural and urban communities. As we enter fire season, that immediate threat is top of mind for British Columbians. We have to be proactive and build long-term solutions.

In parts of the interior — where natural fires historically helped maintain healthy forests — prioritizing timber harvest over all else motivated the 20th century fire-suppression practices that helped create diseased and dry tinderboxes. The widespread combination of clearcut logging, inadequate restoration of cutblocks and irresponsible forest policies led to the unnatural and unhealthy forest conditions that contribute to severe wildfires today.

That perfect storm of harmful forestry practices and climate-fuelled disasters has also hit communities another way — flooding. After being hit by a devastating flood, residents in Grand Forks pointed to overharvesting in the watershed as a contributing factor. As climate uncertainty increases in the years ahead, improved forest policies have to make up the gap.

While these practices might be the most efficient way to produce vast amounts of timber, they exacerbate the impacts of climate change, degrade forest ecosystems and decrease the amount of carbon stored in our forests. And in the end, these policies have damaged long-term economic prospects for communities, with the megafires of the past few years cited as a primary reason behind rampant mill closures. What many are now saying was a foreseeable outcome for those operations has left communities to cope with sudden upheaval — all in the absence of sound policy to ensure a hopeful future.

Grand Forks residents prep for winter in sheds, RVs after catastrophic flooding

B.C. needs your input

With less than one week left to submit comments on the Forest and Range Practices Act, now is the time to take action during this critical opportunity to shape B.C.’s new forest policy. It is vital for B.C. policymakers to hear from the people impacted by climate change — people who understand why protecting old-growth and intact forests will also protect communities from devastating wildfires and floods.

Landmark agreements aimed to protect old-growth forests in the Great Bear Rainforest and on Haida Gwaii have made the world see B.C. as a leader in sustainable forest policies. While that is not yet true, we can make it a reality.

We know the integral role forests play in the fight against climate catastrophe. It’s time for decision-makers to abandon harmful forestry policies and prioritize the resilience for forests and communities alike.

Learn more about what conservation groups are recommending for the Forest and Range Practices Act changes here, and fill out the B.C. government survey here.

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.

In the Schmidt Creek watershed on northeastern Vancouver Island, just a few kilometres from globally renowned orca rubbing beaches, huge swathes of old-growth rainforest are slated for imminent clear-cutting.

Further south, in the Nahmint Valley near Port Alberni, the ninth-largest Douglas-fir tree in the country has just been cut down. And a few hundred kilometres to the east, a forest virtually surrounded by Manning and Skagit provincial parks is being clear-cut despite being within B.C.’s highest priority grizzly bear recovery zone.

Which profit-driven logging corporation is behind all of this?

None of them. This is the work of the government of British Columbia.

Slash piled at a clearcut in Manning Park, B.C. 2004. Photo: Wilderness Committee

More specifically, it’s the work of BC Timber Sales, a government agency within the Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development. BC Timber Sales controls around 20 per cent of the cut on crown lands, planning cut blocks and then auctioning them off to logging contractors.

In theory, public control over a sector as important as forestry is a great thing. It means public priorities, like the protection of rare old-growth forests, can be prioritized because these areas are being managed by elected officials representing the public instead of by corporations representing their shareholders.

Unfortunately, this isn’t playing out on the ground, and the minister in charge of forests, Doug Donaldson, is plundering important forests with as much disregard as any corporate CEO.  

Earlier this summer, we visited Schmidt Creek, a watershed in Kwakwaka’wakw territories on northeastern Vancouver Island. The valley drains into Johnstone Strait, near the unique orca rubbing beaches in the Robson Bight Ecological Reserve. Whale experts are worried about the impacts of clear-cutting the steep, erosion-prone slopes in this sensitive ecosystem. Minister Donaldson has stated publicly that the benefits of this planned logging balance out the risks.

BC Timber Sales’ operations are further along in the Nahmint Valley in Hupačasath territory near Port Alberni, where clear-cutting of old-growth rainforests, including record-sized trees, began in May.

In the Cascade Mountains in Stó:lō and Nlaka’pamux territories, BC Timber Sales is also quickly destroying forests surrounded by Manning and Skagit provincial parks, in an area known as the “Donut Hole.” Long coveted as a potential addition to B.C.’s protected area system, this precious wildland is being picked apart with clear-cuts within slow-growing high elevation forests where logging scars will persist for centuries. This is being done despite its importance for key species that depend on it for habitat and migration.

Wilderness Committee campaigner Torrance Coste amid logging activity in Schmidt Creek. Photo: Wilderness Committee

To add insult to injury, the Caycuse Flats bridge in Manning Park has recently been rebuilt to help get logs out of the Donut Hole. Elsewhere in Manning Park and in other parks across B.C., infrastructure and facilities are in desperate need of maintenance because the government doesn’t “have the funds” for repairs and upgrades. That money can immediately be found to fix a bridge in a park to help log forest just outside of it speaks volumes about this government’s priorities.

In the past year, the Wilderness Committee, along with our allies at the Ancient Forest Alliance and Sierra Club BC, have met twice with Minister Donaldson. We’ve advocated for the protection of old-growth rainforests and a just transition to sustainable second-growth forestry that prioritizes Indigenous rights and local jobs.

Our organizations have given the minister and his staff recommendations to accomplish this in an organized, science-based way. The simplest of these is to direct BC Timber Sales to cease issuing cut blocks in old-growth forests.

No one is saying the rapid shift to second-growth logging across the province is going to be easy or without complications. But BC Timber Sales is part of Donaldson’s ministry: this is the logical place for him to start.

In its election platform, the NDP promised an “evidence-based scientific approach” to old-growth management, with the ecosystem-based management of the Great Bear Rainforest used as a model. Now that they’re in power, Premier John Horgan and Minister Donaldson are not only allowing corporations to continue liquidating rare and important forests — they’re one of the worst offenders. Their agency is leading the way to the bottom of the barrel, logging endangered species habitat, old-growth and some of our province’s top protected area candidates — all on the public’s dime.

After decades of the B.C. government ignoring the crisis in these forests, the public is eager for leaders who will show courage and tackle this problem.

It’s time for Minister Donaldson and Horgan to decide if they want to be remembered as those courageous leaders or as status-quo politicians who signed-off on the liquidation of these precious ecosystems.

Torrance Coste is Vancouver Island Campaigner for the Wilderness Committee. Follow him on Twitter @torrancecoste.

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.