The government-appointed Old Growth Strategic Review Panel is taking public feedback on what should happen to our endangered old growth forests. They have an online questionnaire for you to complete, so we’ve prepared a easy guide to help you fill it in. Please do this especially if you live in the Interior – they need to hear from us! Do it TODAY . You only have until Friday, January 31st.
Follow these three easy steps to submit your feedback in less than ten minutes:
1. Click here for the online questionnaire.
2. Click here for our suggestions on how to complete it.
3. Fill out the online questionnaire!
These are our thoughts
Old growth forests are managed abysmally. The provincial focus of considering forests as simply a source of timber has been highly detrimental, and has reduced the area of old growth forests in BC to levels that pose high risk to biodiversity, forest resilience, and ecological integrity.
The protection of old growth forest in BC requires:
- Legislated protection of our remaining old growth.
This should start with an immediate moratorium on harvesting in the most endangered forests, which include the remaining productive, accessible stands of the inland temperate and spruce-fir rainforests. A science-based plan for the protection of all remaining primary forests in the interior should follow this moratorium.
- A just transition away from the industrial harvest of our remaining old growth forest and towards community-based forestry focused exclusively on second-growth.
A planned but rapid transition to a sustainable economy that focuses harvesting on areas previously logged must occur. Returning public forests back to communities would enable this transition and would serve human and natural communities better than the existing tenure system.