Connecting past and present
July 19, 2022 By: Sarah Greene
“Log supply in BC forests slowly dwindling, think tank warns”
This article discusses a calculation made by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives that indicates that the amount of harvested wood expected over the coming years will be about half the amount that was logged 15 years ago. Due to government policies that allowed large amounts of forests to be harvested, in large part due to the pine beetle disaster, the amount of trees available has severely declined. Unit 3 Topic 1 identifies the early lumber industry during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries which depleted the forests at an alarming rate. The conservation movement discussed in this Unit’s readings identifies the need for a shift in perspective so that resources are managed more appropriately. The CBC article similarly discusses how other tree species are being logged at a faster rate to compensate for the suffering pine trees, and how the wood pellet manufacturing industry needs to reconsider the use of high-quality logs in order to mitigate the forests’ damage.
“Poorly maintained provincial park in B.C.’s Interior prompts frustration”
https://globalnews.ca/news/8993703/poorly-maintained-park-in-shuswap-b-c-prompts-frustration/
As Topic 2 in Unit 3 discusses, the original intention of establishing parks and reserves was to support the conservation movement. As time went on, the tourism industry evolved and roads and commercial developments were constructed in these areas. The Global News article discusses a poorly management and maintained provincial park in BC’s interior, which suffers from deteriorating access roads and unkept facilities. An area that was originally intended to be a wilderness experience, protected and managed by the BC Ministry of Environment, is ironically now visited by greenhouse gas-emitting RVs and covered in garbage.
I found your first paragraph interesting because I had not heard that the logging planned will be half of what was being logged 15 years ago. It is a shame that it took us 15 years to realize that the rate we were cutting trees, excluding cuts due to pine beetle and other diseases, was exhausting our forest supplies.
Hi Sarah, I found your posting regarding the conservation movement is very interesting. The idea of realizing that our natural resources could be exhausted is the key drive that human realize we should harvest our natural resources more sustainably. Especially forestry is one of the core business in Canada, sustainable harvesting the forest could benefit Canada’s economic in a long run.