Logging in British Columbia, Canada

Logging in BC

It is well known that logging and the timber industry is one of BC's main industries. This makes sense as there are a lot of trees and areas where people don't really know about which makes logging that much easier.

There are many problems with the situation in British Columbia, and none of them are simply because of "logging". The Main problems are where they log, how much they log from an area, secondary damage caused from logging (erosion, watershed damage etc.), exporting raw products cheap (meaning taking more from the forest and benefiting the people less)....to name a few.

Clear Cutting

Clear cuts are areas that are completely logged, "cleared". Often times companoies will leave a few "seed trees" and pretend its selective logging. The problem with clear cuts are they allow erosion to happen, especially on mointain sides, and they also open up the area to exotic and invasive plants (such as blackberry and Scotch Broom). Overallregrowth is slowed quite a bit, and things tend to become dry, which slows regrowth even more.

Thankfully there *seems* to be less true clear cutting now, and more strip logging and smaller section clearcuts. Better does not mean good, however.

Raw Log Exports

In true Canadian fashion, the easiest way is chosenover the best way. This is really a shame, and probably one of the fewtopics environmentalists and loggers would agree on: "Eporting logs = Exporting Jobs". BC sells logs cheap to the USA. Why is this such a mnoronic idea? THere are very few jobs created from simply cutting and trucking trees, more jobs are created in milling and prodution, as well as FAR more money earned. These simple facts are all reasons to not do this so much: Few jobs are created at the source. Little money is earned from selling bulk raw material. To make up for the little money earned, the company takes more, which is destroying the forests and lives of many species.

So why rely so heavily on raw log export? No one really knows cause its pretty damn bad business. Less $, Less forest. And an eventual close to a rich natural resource. Unfoprtunately, current government control is more aimed at quick dollars than ,meaningful adn well thought out strategies thta have already been proposedby many people (free of charge). Another good option is steer away from the USA market. The current government is rather spineless, so this will likely not happen much. But other markets such as Asia would bring a bigger buck and is likely far more willig to pay for processed products (such as lumber).

Hopefully someday there will be some forward thinking policies put iun place for British Columbia's forests. Right now the only thing seeming to help save teh forests is the recession (2009) which has slowed logging right down.

Where they are cutting

With logs, species, form (straight and branchless preferred), and especially size are important factors for cutting. Usually the warped, hollow, bent ones are left for seed trees, makes sense. This however attracts logging companies to areas with large standss of premium trees. Often times these are pristine forests of old growth trees. A good example is when they wanted to log Caarmanah walbran area (and Nitinat Lake). This is/was an amaziingly rich old growth forest, with some of Canadas biggest trees, some said to be over 2000 years old! Environmentalists (treehuggers and hippies to those who care little about this stuff) from around the world came in to protest, and after all was said and done a part of teh area was set aside as a park. Unfortunately the logging companies still were allowed to take down many kilometers around the area. But wwe should take what we can get in a ccapitalist world.

Along streams/rivers is also a bad placeto log, although now theey are suppose to leave a buffer zone. When debris falls into the water it can cause a lot of damage to the local inhabitants. Also with soil erosiion, th mud/silt tends to end up in streams, turning crystaal clear glacier water into chocolate milk.