A B.C. government lumber agency is halting all new forestry projects in critical caribou habitat across the Revelstoke-Shuswap region.
The environmental organization, Wildsight, shared Tuesday, May 20, that BC Timber Sales (BCTS) indicated by email it will refrain from future work across tens of thousands of hectares in the region's forested areas that B.C.'s threatened southern mountain caribou call home.
In two messages last March shared with Black Press Media, a BCTS representative clarified that the agency isn't pursuing any new developments in core caribou habitat until planning for local herds is put in place and direction is provided by the B.C. government and other stakeholders.
Wildsight says this announcement is particularly a win for Revelstoke-Shuswap's Columbia North herd, which due to deforestation and human-caused climate change has dwindled over the decades to about 200 caribou.
鈥淏C Timber Sales controls important caribou habitat within their tenures in the Revelstoke-Shuswap,鈥� Wildsight conservation specialist Eddie Petryshen said in the organization's release. 鈥淭his is a significant move and it sets a precedent for other licensees to stop logging core habitat in the Revelstoke-Shuswap."
Petryshen shared the rough sizes of BCTS's 13 tenure areas in the region, which have as much as 100 per cent overlap with caribou habitat. He told Black Press Media that, with the combined total tenure land estimated at around 112,000 hectares, it's "extremely safe to say" that the BCTS's halt on new projects in the core caribou ecosystem "applies to tens of thousands of hectares."
The change in BCTS's plans comes after Wildsight raised concerns with the agency's regional office in February about the over-disturbance of the Columbia North herd's habitat. Wildsight stressed that a replacement of local old-growth stands with younger forests could attract more moose, and subsequently more caribou-hunting wolves.
B.C.'s Ministry of Forests, in an email to Black Press Media, said this "pause in BCTS developments" comes as the provincial government collaborates with First Nations, lumber licensees and local and federal government to "refine our knowledge" and align priorities to support caribou and mitigate wildfire risk while still being able to "reponsibly" extract timber for the economy.
"Conserving nature and supporting good, sustainable jobs are two of the most important things we can do to secure a stronger future for everyone in British Columbia," the ministry said.
Still, BCTS will continue to work in Revelstoke-Shuswap areas where projects are well underway and nearing completion. Wildsight cautions, for example, that this means a 40-hectare timber sale overlapping with core caribou habitat in Nagle Creek, 5.5 kilometres north of Mica Creek as the crow flies, "is still on the table."
鈥淚f that block is clearcut, it will further fragment connectivity in the Columbia North herd鈥檚 low-elevation habitat,鈥� Petryshen said.
According to Wildsight, public pressure in 2020 drove BCTS to defer cutting 300 hectares east of Highway 23 near Argonaut Creek. Two years later, further advocacy drove BCTS to step back from clearcutting 266 hectares in the upper Seymour River Valley, which lies 100 kilometres north of Salmon Arm and boasts nearly 600 hectares of core caribou habitat and inland temperate rainforest.
鈥淲e鈥檙e grateful that BCTS is beginning to listen to the concerns of Indigenous Nations and the public,鈥� Petryshen added.
Wildsight has yet to see whether other licensees such as Louisiana-Pacific, Interfor, Gilbert Smith Forest Products, Stella-Jones, Revelstoke Community Forest Corporation and Revelstoke's own Downie Timber will follow suit to halt future forest extraction in the Columbia North herd's precious range.
