Tree Weaver

Local conservation group asks province to cancel cutblocks containing ancient yellow cedars and unofficial bear sanctuary.

A new plan plotting the course of the logging industry on B.C.’s Sunshine Coast over the next five years has placed a treasured forest, home to some of Canada’s oldest trees and an unofficial bear sanctuary, on the chopping block.

The logging plan for the Elphinstone area released by BC Timber Sales in late March, include an abnormally high number of cutblocks for auction for the planning period, according to local conservation group Elphinstone Logging Focus.

“We haven’t seen this many blocks in a five-year period before,” said Ross Muirhead, a forest campaigner with Elphinstone Logging Focus, which counted an unprecedented 29 blocks slated for clearcut logging from 2020 to 2024.

Because of the area’s sensitivity, BC Timber Sales has usually limited logging to about one block a year.

Muirhead is calling on the B.C. government to cancel 63 hectares of cutblocks slated for auction on Dakota Ridge, a roadless high-altitude forest west of Port Mellon, where he believes Canada’s oldest tree may be located.

Some of the oldest trees in Canada grow in the 3,361-hectare Dakota watershed, with tree coring showing one yellow cedar is 1,036 years old, Muirhead said.

Last fall in the Dakota area, Muirhead and his colleagues measured a tree that was too big to be cored because boring instruments aren’t made long enough.

“This tree is wider than the oldest recorded tree in Canada,” Muirhead said.

That record-breaking tree was a yellow cedar that grew in the Caren Range on the Sunshine Coast. It was cut by loggers in the 1980s, and a ring count put its age at 1,835 years.

“This tree is the same elevation, same species, and it’s bigger,” Muirhead said.

Black bear dens, ancient yellow cedars at risk

Elphinstone Logging Focus unofficially named the forest on Dakota Ridge the Dakota bowl bear sanctuary after the first black bear den study on the Sunshine Coast, in 2015, found an unusually high number of dens in the area.

The ancient yellow cedars in the Dakota bear sanctuary are the best trees for bear dens as they tend to rot out at the base, providing well-hidden locations, and, as the trees grow in the snow zone, there is insulation for hibernating bears, Muirhead said.

Dakota Ridge is still intact and without formal hiking trails, Muirhead said, adding the area’s five hanging lakes offer a good freshwater supply for bears. “It’s chockablock in wild blueberries.”

“I am of the opinion that black bear den activity may be concentrated on Dakota Ridge not just due to old-growth structural availability, but due to the extensive loss of similar habitat in the surrounding region from clearcut logging,” wrote Wayne McCrory, author of the 2015 study.

A map showing the location of Dakota Ridge on the Sunshine Coast. Map: Carol Linnitt / The Narwhal

The study, which was done by McCrory Wildlife Services, concluded that logging in the approved Dakota Ridge cutblocks would destroy 12 dens in one block and 16 dens in a higher elevation block.

That research is going to be updated after Elphinstone Logging Focus received a grant in late May from West Coast Environmental Law to do further bear den surveying in an expanded area.

Ben dens are not protected in B.C., except on Haida Gwaii and in the Great Bear Rainforest. In April 2019, wildlife biologist Helen Davis asked B.C.’s Forest Practices Board, the province’s independent forestry watchdog, to launch an investigation into the protection of bear denning trees, primarily old yellow and red cedars in old-growth forests.

The board found in January that there is a “knowledge gap” on black bear populations and a population assessment could determine whether it is necessary to regulate protection of bear dens.

Black bears rely on old-growth trees as second-growth forests are cut before the trees reach the necessary size for denning, so lack of denning space could affect the population, the board report noted.

Companies given harvesting licences sometimes voluntarily protect dens and “the practice of including bear-den trees in wildlife-tree-retention areas is a best practice that should be encouraged,” the report says.

Logging of old-growth forests has underlined the loss of bear dens, and in August last year more than 20 biologists, First Nations, wildlife businesses and environmental organizations wrote to the provincial government asking for protection of dens, whether occupied or not.

Black bear dens are often used intermittently for decades.

A spokesperson with the Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development said under the Forest and Range Practices Act, black bear dens can be identified in a forest stewardship plan and protection strategies can be included in the plan.

“As well, as part of BC Timber Sales’ environmental field procedures, if a previously unidentified bear den is identified, work must stop and a plan to deal with it will be developed,” he said.

Culturally modified trees promised protection

Some Dakota Ridge blocks now marked for auction by BC Timber Sales also contain culturally modified trees — trees that have been visibly altered or modified by Indigenous peoples for cultural uses — in addition to the abundance of black bear dens.

“We have three scientific studies clearly showing that [Dakota Ridge] has very high natural and cultural values that wildly supersede any small financial gain from destroying it,” said Hans Penner, a director of Elphinstone Logging Focus.

The Dakota area is in the territory of the Skwxwu7mesh (Squamish) First Nation, which conducted a joint review of identified culturally modified trees with BC Timber Sales. Both parties agreed to exclude those trees from logging.

Elphinstone Logging Focus brought a proposal for the Dakota bowl bear sanctuary to a councillor with the Skwxwu7mesh Nation, where it remains under consideration within the rights and title department, Muirhead said. “I haven’t had a formal reply yet.”

Calls to the Skwxwu7mesh First Nation from The Narwhal were not returned by time of publication.

Culturally modified trees will be buffered with a minimum 10-metre reserve and bear dens will be protected, a spokesperson with the Ministry of Forests stated.

“Any tree that meets the definition of a legacy tree will not be harvested,” she said.

Legacy trees include those that are exceptionally large for their species or have been culturally modified.

Muirhead said the McCrory study looked at active, used and potential dens, but BC Timber Sales appears to be looking only at dens that are in use.

“We think at least one forest in the entire province should be set aside for bear den supply. So, no, I’m not confident that they will go to the extent of ensuring the den supply is protected,” he said.

Elphinstone Logging Focus members are also worried the massive trees won’t be given adequate protection.

“They could leave a few of the biggest in clearcuts with no buffer. That’s poor conservation for these ancient trees,” Muirhead said, noting there are problems with the practice of leaving legacy trees uncut within larger cutblocks.

“Right off the top, leaving single trees standing in an open clearcut is typically a recipe for their quick demise. They’re subject to more windthrow because they’re in an opening, so you get tops breaking off, branches get snapped off and then the whole trunk is more subject to wind conditions.”

He also expressed concern that BC Timber Sales will be left to make the final determinations about which trees are considered for legacy protections. “And then who is overseeing which trees are being set aside? Is it their own subjective analysis of which are the best legacy trees?”

BC Timber Sales, which was created in 2003 by the Liberal government, manages 20 per cent of the province’s annual allowable cut, making it the biggest tenure holder in B.C.

Two government investigations into BC Timber Sales’ actions in the Nahmint Valley on Vancouver Island found the government agency failed to protect legacy trees from being harvested.

High-elevation logging a watershed concern

Muirhead is also worried about the safety implications of increased logging in the region.

The lower slopes around the Dakota Creek watershed were logged in the 1950s and 1960s, and, after a series of landslides, a logging moratorium was put in place in 2000.

However, BC Timber Sales now claims the steep-walled valley is hydrologically stable, despite a series of flash floods and predictions of increasing extreme rainfall events, Muirhead said.

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Forests said BC Timber Sales will continue talking about the proposed logging plans with stakeholders, First Nations and the Sunshine Coast Regional District, which is concerned about the effect of logging on groundwater and stormwater runoff.

Provincial old-growth protections awaited

More than 140,000 hectares of old-growth forests are logged each year in B.C. An independent report released Thursday found that the majority of British Columbia’s productive old-growth forests are gone, and the majority of the old growth remaining is slated to be logged.

Although the province was slated to table amendments to the Forest and Range Practices Act this spring, the timing was set back because of the pandemic.

An independent old-growth strategic review panel submitted its report to the government at the end of April. The province has six months to release the report.

At a time when the pandemic has shocked the world into halting industrial activities, governments must remember they also have to deal with the ongoing climate crisis, said Jens Wieting, Sierra Club BC’s senior forest and climate campaigner, who believes this is the time for a complete rethink of how B.C. deals with its old-growth forests.

“We know some of these trees are older than 1,000 years. This is a legacy. There is a global responsibility to protect trees like this,” Wieting said.

Wieting is not confident new legislation will concentrate on the environment, rather than short-term forestry jobs, and wants the provincial government to stop issuing permits and auctioning logs until there has been an in-depth discussion with communities and First Nations on the future of B.C.’s forests.

“We need time,” he said. “As a society, we need to have a conversation about what kind of future we want for these last intact old-growth forests and biggest trees before it’s too late.”

Lori Pratt, chair of the Sunshine Coast Regional District, is also calling for an expanded conversation with all involved ministries, rather than only with BC Timber Sales, and a broad look at the cumulative effect of all logging in the area, including logging on private land.

Government ministries tend to operate in silos, with one ministry not knowing what another is doing in the same area, Pratt said. What is needed, she said, is a big-picture look at logging, protection of watersheds and land use plans with local First Nations.

“Whatever you are doing up on the mountain affects everything all the way down to the ocean,” she said. “We see bits and pieces of it, but, when you get some of the torrential rains we get, we need to see how this all fits together.”

Reference ~ https://thenarwhal.ca/bc-opens-sunshine-coast-forest-logging/

Many cities around the globe are struggling to reconcile ambitious environmental targets with development pressures, a study has suggested.

Scientists in Melbourne recorded a net gain in street tree cover but a net loss in parks and private land.

The Australian team says measures to protect mature trees are “critical” if the urban forest’s cover is to be enhanced in the future.

The findings appear in the Sustainable Cities and Society journal.

Globally, the role of trees in towns and cities are well recognised, such as providing shade during hot summer months, and helping to absorb noise pollution and floodwater.

The team of researchers in Australia examined the plight of trees in the city of Melbourne in the decade between 2008 and 2017.

They observed a complex pattern: “Our analyses showed a net gain in tree canopy cover in public streets and a net loss of canopy cover in public parks and private properties,” they say in their study.

Losing young ones
The team said the most frequently removed trees from public parks and streets were small ones, with trunk diameters less than 15cm.

They identified that trees near to developments were among the most at-risk trees.

Almost 2,000 street trees were removed within 10m of major development sites, equivalent to almost 20% of all street trees removed… but this only constituted only 8% of streetscape tree canopy cover losses,” they wrote.

Co-author Thami Croeser, a PhD student at the Centre for Urban Research at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia, said they were able to record the size of trees removed in Melbourne.

“We found that most of them were quite young,” he said.

“Only about one-in-20 was a mature tree thicker than 60cm [diameter].”

He told BBC News: “Overall, the tree canopy cover in the inner city stayed just ahead of losses to development.

“Our parks lost canopy, as did private properties, but canopy from street trees grew slightly on balance.”

He suggested this was a result of officials in Melbourne operating a strong tree protection policy – it can cost tens of thousands of Australian dollars to remove a large, mature tree. This seems to act as an effective disincentive.

Melbourne city officials also operate a considerable planting programme, with about 3,000 new trees being put into the ground each year.

“This offsets the losses somewhat,” observed Mr Croeser, “although replacing a 20-year-old tree with a sapling definitely is not the same, the sheer volume of planting helps.”

Melbourne is well-known as a tree city. Officials had tagged every tree in the city and gave each one an individual email address. The scheme was set up so that people could report problems or concerns. Instead, people sent affectionate notes to the gums, oaks and elms.

Siege of Sheffield
While some cities are supportive of trees, and the benefits they provide – such as mitigating the urban heat island effect, providing habitats for insects, animals and birds, and improving our sense of wellbeing – other cities have fallen foul of angry protesters and residents.

Sheffield, in the UK, is considered to be one of the nation’s greener cities. Yet the council undertook a widespread programme of street tree removals in 2017.

The strategy of the council’s “Streets Ahead” strategy – under which about 5,500 trees have been removed since 2012 and replaced with saplings – said that felling was only considered as a “last resort”.

But residents and protesters said that trees that did not need to be felled were being cut down. Tensions and tempers rose. Protests were staged. People were arrested.

The stand-off resulted in widespread media coverage. An investigation by the UK’s local government ombudsman found that Sheffield council had misled residents. The council accepted the findings and issued apologies to the residents.

Tree canopy cover in England’s towns and cities is, on average, 16%. A citizen science project, Forest Research – in partnership with Trees for Cities and Brillianto – found that the cover in 283 urban conurbations ranged from 3% to 45%.

Explaining the motivation for the UK-wide map of urban tree cover, Forest Research said: “Urban trees are being increasingly recognised for the many benefits they provide, such removing carbon dioxide and pollutants from the air, providing habitats for wildlife, and making our urban areas more attractive, enjoyable and healthy places to be.”

As the issue of climate change forms a central pillar of government policies, many cities are setting targets to boost their urban tree canopy cover.

Growing ambitions
In the last UK General election, the government – in its manifesto – pledged to plant an additional 75,000 acres of trees each year by “the next Parliament” – in other words, by 2024. In order to deliver this ambitious target, councils in urban areas would be expected to help deliver this goal.

At the World Forum on Urban Trees, held in Italy during 2018, delegates issued a call for action to highlight the benefits of trees in cities.

More than half of the world’s population now live in urban areas, and this is forecast to grow to 68% by the middle of the 21st Century.

While is it widely accepted that tree cover can improve people’s daily wellbeing, Thami Croeser said the Melbourne study highlighted a few factors for tree officers around the globe.

“Many cities measure the number of trees they plant as their main target for urban forests,” he told BBC News.

“That’s not actually the real challenge; it a matter of planting them and keeping them alive and healthy.”

He said that tree canopy targets were a good idea because they focused “on the cover that trees give us, rather than planting numbers.”

Reference https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-52231899

BREAKING: LOGGING HALTED IN 3 AREAS IN VICTORIA’S CENTRAL HIGHLANDS

On this glorious morning, three forest areas are simultaneously being protected as community groups step in to stop logging across Victoria’s Central Highlands!

Near Mt. Baw Baw, Forest Conservation Victoria have setup a tree-sit blockade, the Kinglake Friends of the Forests group have walked-in to stop logging at an area in Kinglake West, and in Warburton, the Protect Warburton Ranges group have a person locked onto a machine.

The community has had enough! We want to see an end to native forest logging immediately.

Together with a city action at Dan Andrews’ office this morning, these four protests are part of an Australia-wide campaign that is unifying behind two messages:
“Logging is criminal in a climate emergency”
“There is NO CONSENT given by First Nations people to continue decimating this country”.

Elders and Traditional Owners are speaking up against the handing over of Traditional Country, Totems, Stories and Cultural Values to logging agencies without consent.

“We as the First People belonging to this country have never given consent for the destruction and decimation of our land,” said Lidia Thorpe, Gunnai / Gunditjmara woman.

“Our Totems, Songlines and cultural identity are intrinsically linked with the bush and all living things within it,” said Lidia Thorpe.

“Governments have orchestrated and manufactured consent from corporations breaching the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous peoples, article 19, which states ‘States shall consult and cooperate in good faith with the indigenous peoples concerned through their own representative institutions in order to obtain their free, prior and informed consent before adopting and implementing legislative or administrative measures that may affect them” said Lidia Thorpe.

With many countries under lockdown to avoid the spread of the virus, many workers have suddenly found themselves out of work and with no source of income. Pakistan, in lockdown since March 23, found a way to help them while helping the environment.

Unemployed day workers were given new jobs by the government as “jungle workers,” planting billions of trees across the country to deal with the climate threats already affecting Pakistan. It’s what’s called a green stimulus, helping people while coping with the effects of climate change.

File photo by Junaid Ali, CC

“Due to coronavirus, all the cities have shut down and there is no work. Most of us daily wagers couldn’t earn a living,” Rahman, a resident of Rawalpindi district in Punjab province, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. Now, thanks to the new programme, he earns 500 rupees ($3) a day planting trees.

The government’s plan was introduced by Prime Minister Imran Khan in 2018 and will last five years, hoping to counter rising temperatures, flooding, droughts, and other extreme weather conditions – now more frequent in Pakistan because of global warming.

The Global Climate Risk Index, issued by think-tank Germanwatch, ranked Pakistan fifth on a list of countries most affected by climate heating over the last 20 years — even though it contributes only a fraction of global greenhouse gases.

As the coronavirus pandemic struck Pakistan, the tree planting campaign was initially stopped as part of social distancing orders put in place to slow the spread of the virus. A recent assessment by the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics found that, due to the lockdown, up to 19 million people could be laid off, almost 70% of them in the Punjab province

But earlier this month, the prime minister granted an exemption to allow the forestry agency to restart the programme and create more than 63,600 jobs. This means the tree initiative could provide a big help to many of those who are struggling economically. Abdul Muqeet Khan, chief conservator of forests for Rawalpindi district, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation that the planting project is in “full swing”. Much of the work is taking place on 15,000 acres (6,000 hectares) of land near the capital Islamabad, he said, as well as on other tracts of state-owned forests around the country.

This year, the programme is employing triple the number of workers it did in its first year, said Malik Amin Aslam, climate change adviser to the prime minister. Many of the new jobs are being created in rural areas, he said, with a focus on hiring women and unemployed daily workers.
According to Germanwatch, Pakistan reported more than 150 extreme weather events — from floods to heatwaves — between 1999 and 2018, with total losses of $3.8bn. Environmentalists have long pushed reforestation as a way to assess the issue, with forests helping to prevent flooding and providing cool spaces.

The tree density of Pakistan is less than neighbouring China, India, [and] Iran. Trees per square kilometer are less than India [and] China. Trees per person are also less than India, China, and Iran,” Pakistan’s Tehreek-e-Insaaf party wrote in a tweet.

Reference https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/pakistan-hires-laborers-for-planting-10-billion-tree/

The ancient art of basket weaving is believed to be one of the widest spread crafts in the history of human civilization. The process involves weaving pliable, natural materials together to create a variety of useful forms and vessels. Inspired by the craft, a British sculptor known as Anna & the Willow has put a contemporary twist on this timeless technique. She creates incredible nature-inspired sculptures made from English-grown rods of willow.

Anna first started working with willow 10 years ago when she took a weekend sculpting course. “Working with a natural material opened up a new world and I consequently went on to learn the different techniques of basketry,” she says. “I enjoy using the traditional skills of basketry and adding my own flare to the process.” The talented maker crafts a variety of willow baskets and small gifts, but her impressive sculptural work showcases the traditional technique at a whole new level. Each large, outdoor piece is first planned with hand-drawn sketches before being rendered from bespoke steel frames. Anna then wraps them with layers of interwoven willow rods, revealing their awe-inspiring forms.

One 9-foot figurative sculpture, titled The Huntress of Skipton Castle Woods, depicts a woman shooting a bow and arrow. Placed amongst a woodland environment, the remarkable piece looks as though it has grown from the forest floor and could come to life to shoot her arrow at any second. In other works, Anna has sculpted life-sized animals, including a stag and a horse, both of whom appear as though they’re surveying their landscape, frozen in time.

You can see more of Anna’s work on Instagram. And if you’re feeling inspired to create your own willow works, you can join the artist’s workshops at her studio in North Yorkshire, England.

Forest feature of the week. Micheldever Wood, Hampshire

This woodland is known for its spectacular display of bluebells in spring. We may not be able to visit and see them now, but a host of forest animals are enjoying their sweet scent! The stunning muntjac deer live among the wildflowers, and are joined by a growing butterfly population.

📸: Thomas Harris, Landscape & Architecture Photographer

This day to me, is a day of celebrating life that springs from darkness.
From the births that come from death, or from what was.
The cracking open of the hardened egg, the stepping out of the cave, the growing from all the compost of last years lessons.
It is a time to celebrate the return of plants, blossom, vibrant greens, wild weeds and birdsong.
A time to celebrate our rebirth on the land, to honour our breath and our life force.
We have two true homes; the land and our bodies. Both of which work to bring healing and wellness, love and balance, Good medicine and growth, if only we would help them more along the journey and celebrate them.
Let’s Love them, dance in them, sing in them, touch them and listen to them.
Let’s open our hearts and let ourselves be inhabited by the natural earth and our own wisdom.
Plant seeds both physically and mentally, eat the weeds, drink the flowers, hold ceremony for you, the birds and for the plants, lie on the grass and feel life inside and out.
Let’s celebrate this unfurling tender and strong life, this tenacious medicine spirit.

Post by Brigit Anna McNeill

Desiderata

GO PLACIDLY amid the noise and the haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence. As far as possible, without surrender, be on good terms with all persons.

Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even to the dull and the ignorant; they too have their story.

Avoid loud and aggressive persons; they are vexatious to the spirit. If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain or bitter, for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.

Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans. Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.

Exercise caution in your business affairs, for the world is full of trickery. But let this not blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals, and everywhere life is full of heroism.

Be yourself. Especially do not feign affection. Neither be cynical about love; for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment, it is as perennial as the grass.

Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth.

Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.

Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here.

And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should. Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be. And whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace in your soul. With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world.

Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.

By Max Ehrmann © 1927
via Mo Thomas

Image by greenpebble.co.uk