VICTORIA, BC - The Wilderness Committee is calling for renewed protest in the woods if the BC government’s newly proposed changes to the Forest Act are pushed through the legislature in Victoria.

The Forest Act amendments – contained in Wednesday’s multi-faceted Bill 8 – would allow for the conversion of volume-based forest licences to area-based Tree Farm Licences (TFLs) at the minister’s discretion.

“It’s really quite outrageous what the BC government introduced in the legislature yesterday,” said Joe Foy, National Campaign Director with the Wilderness Committee.

“The proposed changes to the BC Forest Act would give companies exclusive logging rights within a large area of forest. If this passes, it will set off a massive privatization of the public’s forest lands as more and more forestry companies roll over their tenures into Tree Farm Licence Agreements. This is the biggest change proposed for forestry that I’ve seen in my lifetime – and it’s all bad,” said Foy.

The Wilderness Committee asserts that the creation of more TFLs would make the protection of jobs and the environment even more difficult and expensive than it is now.

Torrance Coste, the Wilderness Committee’s Vancouver Island campaigner said, “Tree Farm Licences on Vancouver Island have made it tougher to protect forests in areas that communities rely on for drinking water, recreation or tourism. And TFL owners often advocate for greater export of raw logs – which is a disaster for BC job creation.”

The Wilderness Committee says that TFLs convey many rights to logging companies that are similar to private land rights. Consequently, when public forests need to be protected to conserve endangered species or water quality, or when logging rates need to be reduced to preserve long-term jobs, TFL owners can often claim taxpayer funded compensation.

“I cannot stress how far-reaching and detrimental this proposed legislation will be,” said Foy. “It is a massive giveaway of BC’s public heritage, all done very quickly just before an election.”