Forest Minister fails to implement recommendations
---Interfor continues to chainsaw the old giants
View looking north to the still pristine headwaters of the Sims Creek. Note the many alder slide areas which are primer summer feeding areas for grizzly bears. Photo credit:
In April 2000 the B.C. Forest Service released a report by Fred Nuszdorfer entitled "Old and Large Douglas fir and Western redcedar in the Squamish Forest District, British Columbia. Canada" . The report found that almost everywhere in the Squamish Forest District the once- plentiful groves of thousand-year-old Douglas fir trees have been logged out. Even the remaining groves of oldgrowth Douglas firs that are far younger than 1,000 years old cover such small areas with logged-over lands surrounding them that they no longer function as oldgrowth habitat.
The one exception---and beacon of hope---is the Elaho Valley in the Stoltmann Wilderness. Some of the report's conclusions are:
Except for the upper Elaho area. no areas were found in the Squamish Forest District except for the occasional tree here and there to have Douglas ,firs that are over 1000 years old.
Most of the areas left with oldgrowth Douglas-fir in the Squamish Forest District have trees that are only 3 to 4 centuries old and are on drier. rocky sites. The landscape of the surrounding matrix in those areas containing old trees is generally young forest.
The concentrations of old and large Douglas-fir trees in the upper Elaho Valley referred to as the Douglas-fir loop trail is considered unique and should be managed for research and conservation.
Additional areas of old and large Douglas-fir should be sought in the Squamish Forest District and be reserved from cutting as part of biodiversity conservation.
What has B.C. Forest Minister Jim Doyle done with this timely report on our last remaining millennial trees since it was made public six months ago? Nothing. Absolutely nothing!
Since the report's publication Interfor has continued to cut down thousand-year-old Douglas- fir trees in the upper Elaho Valley. Despite loud public protest, Interfor has clearcut right up to the edge of the grove of thousand-year-old Douglas fir trees destroying about a third of the Douglas Fir Loop Trail and disrupting the integrity of this interior oldgrowth forest. For a copy of the full report go to the Wilderness Committee's website and click on Elaho Douglas Firs (MOF) April 2000.
