And Old Forests
July 14, 2025 By: Robert Pritchard
Conservation #2
I found it astonishing to listen to Jack Little describe the desire by “lumber lords” for conservation of forests in the 1880s in Canada and the United States. Here we sit five years after the BC government’s Strategic Review Panel on Old Growth Forests released its report A New Future for Old Forests, still waiting, watching, and wondering how and when the remaining in-tact old forests of BC will be protected from destruction. Little tells how those in the industry nearly 150 years ago saw the evidence of a non-sustainable industry then. Sure, things have changed, but old forests are still being cut down, so the more they change, the more they seem to remain the same.
References
Gorley, A., & Merkel, G. (2020). A New Future for Old Forests: A Strategic Review of How British Columbia Manages for Old Forests Within its Ancient Ecosystems. https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/farming-natural-resources-and-industry/forestry/stewardship/old-growth-forests/strategic-review-20200430.pdf.
Little, Jack. “Question 9 – Canadian Forest Conservation Movement.” November 17, 2015. Thompson Rivers University, 5:41. https://youtu.be/jFrxNEDheOY.
Hi Robert,
Thanks for your great post.
I really liked how you connected what Jack Little said to what’s happening now with B.C.’s old-growth forests. It’s kind of wild (and sad) that people in the industry knew this wasn’t sustainable over a century ago, and yet here we are, still cutting them down. It honestly feels like sometimes we like to keep repeating the same mistakes over and over.