This page contains annotated news stories and press releases with commentary about land reform and the democratic process in British Columbia. Our comments are shown in red.
The same article was also published in the Times Colonist with slightly different title. Another article was in the Alberni times.
I also wanted to highlight a letter to the editor that I sent after this article was published.
A clarification of Dogwood Initiatives perspectives from Thursday’s article, ‘Group seeks Forest Minister’s Resignation’. I was quoted as stating that Dogwood would ‘have no objections to portions of the lands being logged, as those portions would grow back as forests’ What was not made clear was that Dogwood Initiative does not support status quo logging especially on private lands taken out of TFL’s. When private lands are held within a Tree Farm Licence they are subject to government rules and regulations, when taken out of a Tree Farm Licence, those rules no longer apply. Dogwood would like to see big changes to current logging practices and we continue to work towards sustainable solutions in forestry as part of the Forest Solutions Coalition.
Maurita
Petition calls for forest minister to resign
Allowing forest lands to be sold for development angers Vancouver Island group
May 29, 2008An environmental group has called for Forests Minister Rich Coleman to resign for permitting Western Forest Products to remove its private forest lands from a government-regulated tree farm licence.
The Victoria-based Dogwood Initiative claims Coleman's decision was a betrayal of public trust as it overrode community desires that the area remains as forestland. Western Forest Products is in the process of selling the land to a developer.
NDP forests critic Bob Simpson filed a 2,200-name petition in the legislature Tuesday on behalf of the group seeking the minister's resignation.
Simpson said the WFP decision came after a similar one in 2004 allowing Weyerhaeuser Co. to remove its private lands from a tree farm licence in the Port Alberni region. That move, he said, left the resource town surrounded by private lands, throwing its timber-based economy into disarray.
"That should have been a lesson learned," Simpson said.
A Vancouver Island first nation took the province to court over Port Alberni issue, claiming the government had not lived up to its obligation to consult with them, and won.
The court ruled that the forest minister could have prevented the land from being taken out of the tree farm licence and failed in his duty to consult. However, since the lands had already been sold to a new owner, the decision was not reversed.
Private forest lands were originally placed into tree farm licences in exchange for access to timber on Crown land. The entire licence -- both private and public lands -- was then subject to provincial logging and sustainability regulations.
But over the last decade, forest companies have sought to have those lands removed, providing them with more flexibility in managing them. Besides real estate sales, one of the main consequences has been an increase in log exports.
Coleman approved the deletion of about 28,000 hectares of private lands from Western's tree farm licences in 2007.
WFP provisionally sold 2,500 hectares of those lands on southwestern Vancouver Island to developer Ender Ilkay. The Capital Regional District responded by passing bylaws to restrict the lot size of the most forest and resource land to no smaller than 120 hectares, but WFP countered by successfully applying to have its lands administered under old zoning laws that permit smaller lots.
The application now is before the provincial highways ministry for final approval.
Maurita Prato, forest campaigner for the Dogwood Initiative, said the group is seeking Coleman's resignation because his decision benefited the forest company over the clearly stated public interest that the lands remain in forestry use.
When asked if that meant logging, she hesitated, saying the group would have no objection to portions of the lands being logged, as those portions would then grow back as forests. The minister's decision means they can now be paved, she said.
"We are calling on Coleman to resign not only on the TFL deletion that he made but because this is very symbolic of what is happened in the forest industry. The continued privatization and trade liberalization schemes are hurting not just recreationalists but the entire forest industry," she said.
"He is continually stating that there is nothing he can do about the forestry crisis and we disagree."
At the same time the Vancouver Island group is calling for the minister's resignation, a second application to remove private lands from a tree farm licence in the Kootenays goes to public meetings this weeks at Nakusp and Castlegar. Insolvent forest company Pope & Talbot applied to have 4,500 hectares of lands removed from its tree farm licence after telling its creditors it had sold them.
That application could prove as thorny an issue for the government because Pope & Talbot is in receivership and has already transferred the tree farm licence in another bankruptcy sale to Interfor, effectively alienating the lands from provincial regulation despite the requirement for Coleman's approval.
ghamilton@png.canwest.com
