B.C. must stop logging spotted owl critical habitat!

After almost two decades' delay, the federal government has finally published the long-awaited Spotted Owl Recovery Strategy. In June 2025, the feds issued detailed maps identifying 4,000 square kilometres of forests in the Lower Mainland of B.C. — critical habitat needed for the spotted owl's recovery — that must be protected.

Why this matters

The problem is B.C. continues to allow logging within the federally-mapped critical habitat. Some of these forests, like the big old trees we recently visited at Fire Lake, are some of the most beautiful remaining. Fire Lake is located near the north end of Harrison Lake and is within Xa'xtsa Nation territory.

Your letters have impact!

As a result of our on-the-ground reporting and evidence collection in Fire Lake, more than 500 people just like you — who care passionately about wild nature — have written in to elected representatives, demanding that logging in this spotted owl critical habitat be banned. As a result, we are building a political force for nature that will result in more protected habitat for the spotted owl and other forest dependant species.

What you can do

Please write your letter today demanding a permanent end to logging in federally-mapped critical habitat for the spotted owl and all other endangered species.

Points to consider in your letter:
  • There is a logging emergency at Fire Lake, located just north of Harrison Lake in the Lower Mainland of B.C., that needs to be dealt with right away.
  • Some of this is federally mapped spotted owl habitat was destroyed by a BC Timber Sales logging operation. A Wilderness Committee fact-finding team found trees hundreds of years old recently cut down in the habitat area. B.C. and Canada must act now to halt the logging at Fire Lake and in all federally mapped spotted owl critical habitat now.
  • B.C. must take immediate action to halt all logging within the federally-mapped spotted owl critical habitat and to stop issuing new logging permits here.
  • As of May 2025, 2,352 hectares overlapping critical habitat was approved for logging by the B.C. government, another 511 hectares overlapping critical habitat was pending logging approval and a further 674 hectares overlapping critical habitat had been proposed by various logging operations.
  • At last count, there was just one remaining wild-born spotted left in Canada, in the Fraser Canyon area — which has been missing several years and is now considered dead. There are likely no longer any spotted owls remaining in the wild in Canada.
  • There are about 40  spotted owls in a provincial captive rearing facility in the Fraser Valley and over the past three years several have been released into the forests — but none have survived in the wild over the winter. They have either been removed back to a cage to recuperate or they have died from predators or starvation. The future survival of this species in Canada remains uncertain.
  • There is some hope that spotted owls could move up from the U.S. to repopulate habitat in B.C.
  • In 2023, the then federal Minister of Environment and Climate Change, Steven Guilbeault, found the spotted owl’s recovery faced imminent threats due to ongoing logging of critical habitat. The situation has only worsened since. The governments of B.C. and Canada must act now to stop logging federally-mapped spotted owl critical habitat.
Points to consider in your letter:
  • There is a logging emergency at Fire Lake, located just north of Harrison Lake in the Lower Mainland of B.C., that needs to be dealt with right away.
  • Some of this is federally mapped spotted owl habitat was destroyed by a BC Timber Sales logging operation. A Wilderness Committee fact-finding team found trees hundreds of years old recently cut down in the habitat area. B.C. and Canada must act now to halt the logging at Fire Lake and in all federally mapped spotted owl critical habitat now.
  • B.C. must take immediate action to halt all logging within the federally-mapped spotted owl critical habitat and to stop issuing new logging permits here.
  • As of May 2025, 2,352 hectares overlapping critical habitat was approved for logging by the B.C. government, another 511 hectares overlapping critical habitat was pending logging approval and a further 674 hectares overlapping critical habitat had been proposed by various logging operations.
  • At last count, there was just one remaining wild-born spotted left in Canada, in the Fraser Canyon area — which has been missing several years and is now considered dead. There are likely no longer any spotted owls remaining in the wild in Canada.
  • There are about 40  spotted owls in a provincial captive rearing facility in the Fraser Valley and over the past three years several have been released into the forests — but none have survived in the wild over the winter. They have either been removed back to a cage to recuperate or they have died from predators or starvation. The future survival of this species in Canada remains uncertain.
  • There is some hope that spotted owls could move up from the U.S. to repopulate habitat in B.C.
  • In 2023, the then federal Minister of Environment and Climate Change, Steven Guilbeault, found the spotted owl’s recovery faced imminent threats due to ongoing logging of critical habitat. The situation has only worsened since. The governments of B.C. and Canada must act now to stop logging federally-mapped spotted owl critical habitat.