British Columbia Forests Minister Ravi Parmar will seek an extension to old-growth logging deferrals at Fairy Creek if a long-term agreement with the Pacheedaht First Nation is not reached before existing protections expire in September, even as Premier David Eby\u2019s administration pledges to increase timber harvests across the province.<\/p>\n
The impending deadline reopens a central policy friction for Canada’s westernmost province: balancing an industrial forestry sector supporting roughly 100,000 direct and indirect jobs\u2014now facing U.S. softwood lumber tariffs exceeding 45%\u2014against mounting pressure from environmental groups and First Nations elders to preserve Vancouver Island\u2019s remaining ancient temperate rainforests.<\/p>\n
BC officials argue that an immediate halt to old-growth logging would destabilize the regional economy. Although the province has deferred or protected 2.4 million hectares of old growth since 2021, government plans call for higher timber harvests to revitalize forest companies struggling with market headwinds.<\/p>\n
\u201cForestry is the foundation of our economy. It provides good paying, family supporting jobs \u2014 about 100,000 direct and indirect,\u201d said Parmar, who emphasized that investments are being made in second-growth hemlock milling to ease reliance on ancient timber. \u201cIf we were to shut down harvesting of all old forests here in British Columbia, it would shut down our sector completely on day one.\u201d<\/p>\n
While the provincial government reports that more than 11 million hectares of old growth remain across British Columbia, independent forest ecologists and conservation groups estimate that only about 415,000 hectares of high-productivity old growth\u2014stands capable of growing the largest, thousand-year-old trees\u2014are intact. On Vancouver Island, where temperate rainforests store more carbon per hectare than almost any ecosystem on Earth, roughly 20% of productive old growth remains, much of it still open to logging.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce an old-growth forest is logged, it will require millennia before it has the structure, composition and function of the forest that was logged \u2014 if in fact it can ever recover in times of changing climate,\u201d said Andy MacKinnon, a forest ecologist in British Columbia.<\/p>\n
Commercial activities in high-value stands of old-growth western red cedar\u2014a highly durable species fetching premium prices in construction and export markets\u2014continue to draw opposition. In the Walbran Valley on Pacheedaht territory, logging operated by Tsawak-qin Forestry, a joint venture co-owned by the Huu-ay-aht First Nation and Western Forest Products, has highlighted division over whether traditional lands should be prioritized for revenue generation or ecosystem preservation.<\/p>\n
The policy uncertainty has brought land defenders and activists back to logging roads on southwest Vancouver Island, mirroring the 1993 Clayoquot Sound protests that led to over 850 arrests and the 2021 Fairy Creek blockades where more than 1,100 people were detained.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is no dispute about what happened to our land,\u201d said Bill Jones, an 86-year-old Pacheedaht First Nation elder who began logging at age 18 before advocating for conservation. Sitting on a logging road during a blockade that turned back a timber truck, Jones pointed to decades of clear-cutting across traditional territory.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s nothing left \u2014 it\u2019s practically naked, bare,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s few remnants here and there, and so we have to save what we can.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jones added that the conflict reflects a broader breakdown in how communities relate to natural landscapes. \u201cWe\u2019re just fighting over the leftovers.\u201d<\/p>\n
Blockaders have recently tracked expanding timber operations toward Ditidaht First Nation territory and north into the Prince of Wales range.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is our ivory trade,\u201d said Steven \u201cShambu\u201d Daniluk, a blockader who spent nearly two years on the front lines at Fairy Creek, drawing a parallel to global wildlife protection efforts. \u201cPeople feel unheard,\u201d he said. \u201cBeing engaged in this way, risking that arrest, is the only way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Outdoor enthusiast Veronika Sitar, who surveys ancient trees in northern Vancouver Island, recently identified surveyor flagging tape near General Buxton, one of British Columbia’s largest yellow cedars, marking the path of a proposed logging road.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t want to get too attached knowing what will be logged,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n