The Land Needs Time to Heal

Reimagining forestry in British Columbia

Pockmarked landscape north of Prince George, BC.

During my time as a Member of the Legislative Assembly, I travelled extensively across the province. I felt a deep sadness and frustration as I watched British Columbia’s exhausted landscape from the planes window. These images stayed with me and shaped my contribution as a panelist at the Backman Dialogue event Forestry in Flux: Reimagining BC’s Forests, hosted by the UBC Forestry faculty.

The forestry sector has long been the cornerstone of the provincial economy, with the treasury over-reliant on the revenues from our forests. For decades, politicians, bureaucrats, and industry have perpetuated a myth of sustainable forestry practices in British Columbia.

A century of clearcutting has devastated ecosystems, and our provincial economy has become dependent on an unsustainable timber harvest. We have pushed our forests to the brink, now the land needs time to heal.

Five years ago, the provincial government promised a paradigm shift on the landscape by implementing all 14 of the recommendations of the old growth strategic review report A New Future for Old Forests. The recommendations call for fundamental changes: manage for biodiversity and ecosystem health and expanding the role of local communities in forest management.

West of Kelowna, BC.

Another key change is a greater role for Indigenous stewardship of our forests. Beyond mere participation in the current forestry system that contributed to the crisis in our forests, Indigenous values of interconnectedness, holism, and respect for all species are desperately needed to help shift landscape level planning from a short-term extractive approach to a regenerative longer-term view.

Changing this philosophical approach starts in the finance ministry. For too long, BC governments have heavily relied on the revenue from dead trees. Going forward we need to reset provincial revenue expectations and develop economic models rooted in healthy, living ecosystems stewarded through long-term planning.

Northeast of Princeton, BC.

Rather than chasing the ever-elusive global competitiveness that has led to the industrial scale destruction of British Columbia, in this moment of uncertainty, let’s reimagine a forestry paradigm grounded in ecological integrity and community well-being.

My hands are raised to UBC Forestry for creating space for this critical dialogue. I sincerely hope that academics, policymakers, and all British Columbians join in the critical project of reimagining forestry.