Old Growth and Resilience

Use the links below to access maps and research relevant to the paradigm shift for old growth management underway in British Columbia.

Published Papers

Estimating the amount of BC’s Big Treed old growth: Navigating Messy Indicators: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/ffgc.2022.958719/full

Conflicting portrays of remaining old growth: the British Columbia base: https://cdnsciencepub.com/doi/full/10.1139/cjfr-2020-0453

In Response to Denial: Over the last few years, various articles have been published that deny there is any problem in the forest, or with the current forest management approach. We have written various responses to these articles, but organizations such as TLA have failed to publish them. After a year of reminders, one journal did publish our response to a particular article: see https://pubs.cif-ifc.org/doi/10.5558/tfc2023-008

Old Growth Technical Advisory Panel:

The Old Growth Technical Advisory Panel (TAP): Karen Price, Dave Daust, Rachel Holt, Lisa Matthaus and Garry Merkel) were directed by the Minister to provide recommendations of how to map the OGSR criteria for old growth relating to irreversible biodiversity loss.

Two reports and links maps (PDF and shapefiles) are available at the Provinces website: https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/industry/forestry/managing-our-forest-resources/old-growth-forests/deferral-areas

The Old Growth TAP reports are also available here:

Old Growth Technical Advisory Panel: Summary of approach and recommendations:

OG TAP: Background FAQ on old growth and technical appendices to support the work: FAQ on old growth and Technical Appendices

How much big old forest remains today?

30 versus 3% remaining old: a technical backgrounder on why the real answer is much closer to 3 than 30. Backgrounder on site index and how much old forest remains in BC

Looking for Common Ground

Rachel Holt (Veridian Ecological Consulting) and Cam Brown (Forsite consulting) put their heads together and summarise what they do agree on with respect to big trees in BC.

Presentations

See SAFT website for various explanatory videos on forest related issues: https://www.saftforestry.com/

Presentation to UBCIC – May 14, 2021