In 1997 people were finally working together to design and implement a solution to the long standing land use conflict in Clayoquot Sound. Read this paper to see how Clayoquot Sound was transforming from frontline in the tree wars to a new form of cooperative management.

Protect Clayoquot Sound

Wilderness Committee Educational Report Vol.16-No.05 - Summer 1997

Rolling Stone Creek, cutblock "R40", Photo taken October 14, 1996. Although these blocks, done to Scientific Panel standards, are along a non-fishbearing tributary, they ultimately do affect the lower reaches of Rolling Stone Creek which is salmon bearing, bringing in more silts as the gullies erode. Leaving buffers along all streams would rule out logging because these small streams occur on average every 40 metres in this wet and steep-sloped watershed. Photo credit: Adrian Dorst.

Rolling Stone Creek, cutblock "R50", Photo taken January 24, 1997. Only six months after this thin 10 metre wide retention strip-an attempt to do Scientific Panel forestry-was left along this small tributary of the Rolling Stone Creek more than 25 trees had blew down in winter storms. Photo credit: Friends of Clayoquot Sound.

Older cutblocks in Hesquiat Territory. Photo taken in the summer of 1996 on a Lighthawk sponsored flight over the Sound. Lighthawk is a U.S. based non-profit organization that provides flying services for environmental groups to enable them to have a "hawkeye's view" of industrial activities affecting their region. It takes 7 to 20 years for the big steep-slope-stabilizing tree roots to rot out after logging and massive landslides to begin to occur. Some of the worst logging is found in the northern reaches of Clayoquot Sound. Photo credit: Adriane Carr.

Implementation of Scientific Panel recommendations slow and erratic

In order to make more acceptable to the public the disastrous April 1993 decision allowing logging in two-thirds of Clayoquot Sound. the B.C. government convened a panel of scientific experts in fields such as ecology, hydrology and new forestry to come up with "world class" rules for logging. The panel also included Nuu-chah-nulth First Nations' experts in traditional ecological knowledge.

The Clayoquot Scientific Panel concluded almost two years of work with a set of recommendations that, as Panel co-chair Dr. Fred Bunnell stated at their press conference in July of 1995 "would end conventional clearcut logging and turn forestry on its head", The B.C.Government adopted all 127 recommendations of the Panel.

Implementation of the Scientific Panel recommendations has been slow and erratic. The challenges to achieving the new ecosystem-based forest management are many.

Local development of a plan to nominate Clayoquot Sound as a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve may provide an opportunity to seek the support and framework necessary to ensure the implementation of the Clayoquot Scientific Panel in the full breadth of its vision.

  • To date, insufficient resources, time and training have been allocated to conduct the comprehensive inventories upon which Scientific Panel forest management is based.
  • The degree of local control over inventories is still in question.
  • Guidelines requiring full involvement of First Nations and research methodologies in line with the holistic vision of the Panel are still not in place.
  • Cut block design is still experimental. A Friends of Clayoquot Sound inventory of blowdown caused by wind storm events during the winter of 1996-1997 revealed that many Scientific Ranel-designed cutblock suffered significant blowdown. A "leavestrip" in Rolling Stone Creek was completely blown down.

    • Clayoquot Forestry Factoids

    Primarily due to Scientific Panel logging restrictions, the cut in Clayoquot declined from almost 600,000 cubic metres of wood (about 20,000 logging truck loads) in 1992 to under 90,000 cubic metres (3,000 logging truck loads) in 1996.

    Based on the records showing an unsustainable rate of cut, in December of 1996 B.C.'s Chief Forester reduced the allowable annual cut in InterFor's TFL #54 (which includes the northern parts of Clayoquot sound) by 45 percent.

    Macmillan Bloedel Ltd. lost $7 million on its logging operations in Clayoquot Sound in 1996.

    In January of 1997 MB laid off its 77 Kennedy Lake Camp employees for at least 18 months, stating the need to restructure its operation before re-starting loggingA poll conducted in February of 1997 for Greenpeace revealed that 77 percent of B. C. residents believe that logging of B. C. 's oldgrowth forests should be stopped immediately or phased out.

    Nuu-chah-nulth and MB Team Up in Joint Venture Company

    In April of 1997, MB and the Nuu-chah-nulth Central Region First Nations announced their formation of a joint venture forestry company(JVC) to take over logging in the former Estevan Division of MB's TFL 44. The area covered by the JVC includes most of Flores Island, the Ursus River, Cypre River and Herbert Inlet.

    WCWC, which does not oppose careful logging under Scientific Panel rules in the already fragmented watersheds(about one-third) of Clayoquot Sound, reacted positively to the JVC because it provides tangible tenure reform. Fifty-one percent of the new JVC, which will takeover a portion of MB's cutting rights, is owned by First Nations. The JVC will delay harvesting for at least a year. It also commits to investigating opportunities for value-added timber processing and the establishing of a local log market to supply local value-added manufacturers.

    But WCWC joins the Friends of Clayoquot Sound in expressing concern over the intention of the JVC to harvest up to 40,000 m3 a year when Scientific Panel rules state that all forest planning should be ecosystem-based not volume driven. WCWC is also concerned about where and when the JVC will start logging. The commitment of the JVC to Scientific Panel rules means that all pristine watersheds over 200 hectares within its land must be fully inventoried and cultural, scenic, recreational, fisheries and tourism values protected before logging can be considered.