Conservationists rap B.C. for ‘significant loophole’ in old-growth protection

"The misclassification of some forests as being younger than they are (is) causing them to fall through the cracks," says TJ Watt, a campaigner with the Ancient Forest Alliance.

Conservationists and the B.C. government are at odds over the strength of provincial old-growth protection measures, with the Ancient Forest Alliance pointing out what it calls a “significant conservation loophole” this month.

The group claims thousands of hectares of at-risk, old-growth forest were likely missed during B.C.’s 2021 logging deferral process, which allows incorrectly identified forest to be substracted from established deferral areas, but not added to them.

“The misclassification of some forests as being younger than they are (is) causing them to fall through the cracks,” said TJ Watt, a campaigner with the Ancient Forest Alliance.

“In this case, a forest on northern Vancouver Island was missed for logging deferral due to B.C. government data errors, and trees upwards of 10 feet or three metres wide are being cut down.”

In 2021, the B.C. government issued temporary logging deferrals for 2.6 million hectares of old-growth forest to prevent irreversible biodiversity loss as long-term plans were developed. The team that identified and mapped those deferral areas, the technical advisory panel (TAP), acknowledged a gap in its work, however.

A backgrounder to its main report in 2021 states, “Important old forests may be missing from the deferral maps because: they do not meet OGSR criteria for at-risk old growth, because they do not meet OG TAP’s definition of priority at-risk old growth, because there are errors or slow updates in the provincial database or because they are within wildlife tree patches.”

The panel determined 250 years old would be the threshold for old-growth forests in most circumstances.

Now, the Ancient Forest Alliance is drawing attention to Quatsino Sound on northern Vancouver Island, where it says approvals exist to cut 36.5 hectares — about 68 football fields-worth — of endangered old-growth forest on Crown land.