Ignoring conservationists' pleas, BC Forest Service decides to eliminate protected wildlife corridors in the Upper Walbran
TimberWest's supposedly "sensitive" logging techniques-like this cutblock "harvested" in the "Special Management Zone" in the Upper Walbran in 1999-continue to trash the ancient forest.
In Tree Farm Licenses 44 and 46, protected wildlife corridors called Forest Ecosystem Networks (FENs) were set up in 1991 by BC's Chief Forester to connect together key tracts of forest. Today, after nearly a decade of continuous logging around them, these FENs now contain some of the most magnificent ancient forests left on southern Vancouver Island, including the Upper Walbran's spectacular Castle Groves.
Recently, the Ministry of Forests rezoned the FENs to make them part of the "timber harvesting landbase," zoned for logging. The FENs cannot be logged until the year 2003, when they will legally cease to exist. It is doubtful that the new "Old Growth Management Areas" (OGMAs) to be established under the Forest Practices Code in each "landscape unit" or major watershed will protect the old FENs. Why? Because, in order to minimize the impact on timber companies, the BC government has ordered that OGMAs first be placed in areas that are outside the timber harvesting landbase-which means in areas already protected in parks or areas without loggable forests. In contrast the FENS encompass some of the finest commercial forest!
It's the old bureaucratic game to squeeze out more timber. Ignoring the pleas of conservationists, the BC government eliminated the wildlife corridors in TFL 46 and is doing the same for TFL 44.
Small parks inevitably become "Islands of Extinction"
Walbran Watershed Facts
Status: Crown land - Unceded First Nation's Land
Walbran watershed's total area 13,162 ha
Area protected in lower valley park 5,568 ha
Area of unprotected upper valley 7,594 ha
Area already logged in watershed 1,950 ha
Cutblocks proposed and approved in the Upper Walbran for the next five years: 35
Tree Farm Licenses (TFLs) in the Upper Walbran
TimberWest (TFL 46) 2,534 ha = 33.4%
Weyerhaeuser (TFL 44) 5,060 ha = 66.6%
Number of people arrested since 1991 for peaceful civil disobedient acts to save the Walbran forest: Over 60
Conservation biology studies indicate that small fragmented habitats, which most BC parks comprise, turn into "islands of extinction" as industrial development transforms the ecosystems around them and isolates them from other natural areas. The small breeding populations of animals in these fragmented habitats die off as inbreeding, disease, natural disturbances (e.g. fires, floods, droughts) and "edge effects" take their toll.
The marbled murrelet is a good example of a species requiring oldgrowth forest that is harmed by the "edge effect" in small fragments of habitats. These birds are only able to nest on the wide, mossy limbs high up in ancient trees like those in the Walbran. As clearcut patches increasingly fragment oldgrowth nesting habitat, creating "forest edges", predation on murrelet chicks and eggs by jays, crows and ravens-forest edge-associated species also increases. The survival of these murrelets is also jeopardised by direct felling of their nesting trees.
Only large, connected protected areas will sustain Vancouver Island's biodiversity over the long-term. Presently, less than 6 percent of Vancouver Island's low elevation oldgrowth forests are protected. Protection of more ancient forests, including the Upper Walbran, is essential for creating a comprehensive, linked network of protected areas based on conservation biology principles.
