Clearcut forecast: "Everywhere"

Logging companies are clearcutting Vancouver Island's forests faster than ever, and more remote areas are being targeted, reports Ken Wu of Ancient Forest Alliance.

Logging is on hold on Cortes Island for now, but Vancouver Island's largest landowner, Western Forest Products, is targeting old-growth across the island, Wu says.

A few of the target areas are highlighted below. Left to right: Nitinat Lake, Upper Walbran Valley, Gordon River, and the ridge above China Beach, which is being logged by a partnership with the Pacheedaht First Nation.

 
















The Kyuoquot Valley is also being logged, Wu notes. The Friends of Clayoquot Sound have issued an alert for logging on Flores Island, in the heart of Clayoquot.

Update: Cortes Island logging on hold until fall

Update: Cortes activists Tzeporah Berman and Carrie Saxifrage report that plans to clearcut parts of Cortes Island are postponed until September 2012. Representatives from Island Timberlands assured them at a meeting this week that "the earliest they would begin logging is in September."

This community of a thousand people near Campbell River is known to many as a "birthplace of the green movement" in BC. The impending battle between the islanders and the logging company, owned by Wall Street conglomerate Brookfield Asset Management, sparked protests in Nanaimo, Victoria, and Vancouver this week. In January, a petition with over 6,000 signatures was delivered to half a dozen Brookfield offices worldwide.

Log export forecast

Three export ships are loading raw logs from Vancouver Island ports this week.

The Cape Moreton (Hong Kong) finishes loading and departs from Kultas Cove on Monday.

The Black Forest (Hong Kong) is loading logs in Port Alberni Monday through Friday.

The STX Harmony (Panama) is loading logs in Port Alberni on Sunday.

Log export forecast

Five international cargo ships are loading raw logs in Vancouver Island ports this week.

The Cape Moreton (Hong Kong) is loading in Kultas Cove all week. 

Two sister ships from Panama, the Global Explorer and the Global Arrow, are loading logs in Nanaimo from Monday through Friday.

The Global Explorer, photographed in Nanaimo in June 2011.

The Global Arrow, photographed off California in February 2011.

The Panama-flagged Oriente Crest (photographed off Victoria in July 2011) is loading logs in Port Alberni Monday through Thursday..

No records are available for the fifth ship, the Nicoline Bulker (United Kingdom), loading logs at Crofton Monday through Wednesday.

Log export forecast

There are five foreign-owned cargo ships loading raw logs from Vancouver Island ports this week.

The Oriente Crest (Panama) is loading logs Tuesday through Saturday at Kultas Cove, and on Sunday in Port Alberni.(Photographed in Astoria, Oregon.)

The IVS Kawana (Singapore) began loading logs in Crofton last week, and it finishes there on Tuesday. (Photographed in Bay of Bengal, 2010.)

The Ocean Harmony (Singapore) is loading logs at Harmac on Monday and Tuesday.  (Photographed in New Westminster, BC.)

The Ocean Hope (Vanuatu) is loading logs at Harmac Wednesday and Thursday. (Photographed in New Westminster, BC.)

 















The Cape Moreton (Hong Kong) arrives on Sunday at Kultas Cove. (Photographed in South Adelaide, Australia.)

Log export forecast

Two Singapore-registered cargo ships are loading raw logs for export from Vancouver Island ports this week.

The IVS Kawana (Singapore) is loading logs all week at Crofton.















The Ocean Harmony (Singapore) is loading logs in Port Alberni on Wednesday and Thursday, and at Harmac on Saturday and Sunday.

Log export forecast

Three cargo ships are loading raw logs for export from Vancouver Island ports this week.

The Santa Francisca (Panama) is loading raw logs in Port Alberni.

A sister ship, the Santa Serena (Panama) finishes loading its cargo in Port Alberni on Wednesday.

After two weeks in port, the Tasman Sea (Hong Kong) finishes loading raw logs in Kultas Cove.

Clearcut forecast: Cortes Island

Photo: Island Light

Long considered "socially inoperable" due to local opposition, now the mixed-age forests of Cortes Island may be on the block. A visit from Island Timberlands' operations manager is described in vivid detail here. (The manager seems to be suffering from a deficit of social operability himself.)

Cortes Island is known as a cradle of the early Greenpeace movement and home to Hollyhock, the influential eco-wellness institute.

Island Timberlands has offices in Nanaimo and Vancouver, but the company is now owned by Wall Street conglomerate Brookfield Asset Management. 

On January 12, local activists Tzeporah Berman and Carrie Saxifrage delivered 6200 petition signatures to Brookfield corporate offices in London, New York, Hong Kong, Sydney and Toronto, the Vancouver Observer reports.

Islanders were notified last year that logging would begin in mid-January. Saxifrage says she is "cautiously optimistic" the efforts of residents and supporters will thwart that plan. Two groups, WildStands and Island Stance, are promising spirited protests if the logging goes ahead.

On January 14, Ken Wu of Ancient Forest Alliance released a report on groves of rare old-growth trees on Cortes Island.

Log export forecast

Five foreign ships are loading raw logs from Vancouver Island ports this week. One is a new arrival, three are held over from last week, and the last is unknown.

The Atlantic Burnet (Hong Kong) is in Nanaimo. The Tasman Sea (Hong Kong) is in Port Alberni, and the Eastern Asia (Panama) is at Harmac.

The Santa Serena (Panama) is the new arrival, loading raw logs at Harmac. (No photos are available at this time.) From Thursday through Monday, an unnamed ship is loading raw logs from Kultas Cove.

Log export forecast

Three log export ships are loading raw logs from Vancouver Island ports this week.

The Tasman Sea, registered in Hong Kong, is loading in Port Alberni.

The Atlantic Burnet, also Hong Kong-registered, is loading logs in Nanaimo.

The Panama-registered ship Eastern Asia is loading logs in Port Alberni and Harmac.

Log export forecast

This week on Vancouver Island, four ships are loading raw logs bound for overseas export. Three of the four were spotted in Vancouver Island ports just over two months ago, and now they have returned.

The Black Forest (registered in Hong Kong) is loading logs in Crofton. It was first reported in October.















The Global Garland from Panama is loading logs from Port Alberni. It was also first reported in October.

The White Coral (Panama) has also returned to Port Alberni after a two month absence.

The only newcomer this week is the Ace Century (Vanuatu) which is loading raw logs from Harmac.

Log export forecast

Two multinational log export ships are loading raw logs from Vancouver Island ports this week.

The Global Explorer (Panama) is loading raw logs from Nanaimo port on Thursday and Friday.

The Global Explorer, pictured in Sacramento, California.

The Maritime Sirinant (Panama) is loading raw logs from Port Alberni all week. Below, the Maritime Sirinant in Portland, Oregon.

Log export forecast

No log export ships are loading logs in Vancouver Island ports this week. 

Log export forecast

Five vessels are loading raw logs from Vancouver Island ports this week. The Ken Rei (registered in Vanuatu) is at Harmac, and the Ocean Hope (also flying the Vanuatu flag) is loading in Nanaimo. Vanuatu is a tiny island nation used as a flag of convenience by international resource corporations.

The Green Island (registered in Panama) is loading logs in Port Alberni.

The Sun Ruby (Hong Kong) is loading logs in Crofton.

The Bering Id (Hong Kong) is loading logs in Kultas Cove.

Log export forecast

Two ships are loading raw logs from Vancouver Island this week. The Ocean Harmony (Hong Kong) is loading logs at Harmac on Monday and Tuesday, and the Ken Rei (Vanuatu by way of Shanghai) is loading at Harmac on Saturday.

The Ken Rei, loading logs in Port Alberni earlier this year.

Log export forecast

One ship is loading raw logs from Vancouver Island this week. The Ocean Harmony (Hong Kong) is loading logs in Port Alberni through Thursday, and in Nanaimo on Friday.

The Ocean Harmony, photographed in Vancouver

Log export forecast

One ship is loading raw logs from Vancouver Island this week.

The Cook Strait (Hong Kong) is loading in Port Alberni Monday through Thursday, and in Crofton on Friday.

The Cook Strait, shown here in Seattle.

Updated: Coastal Douglas Fir near Nanoose Bay

Logging of old-growth Douglas fir trees began today above the west end of Nanoose Bay. The Crown land known as DL 33 has been the site of a struggle between local environmentalists and the Snaw-naw-as (Nanoose) First Nation, which holds a permit to log the grove.

Update: "People in the woods" halted logging on November 9 and 10, according to eyewitnesses.

Below, loggers on the walking trail into DL 33.

The woodlot is one of the last stands of old-growth coastal Douglas fir on the east island.

Commercial logging has stripped Vancouver Island of most of its original Douglas fir forests. Some of these trees are estimated to be 300 years old.

Info: Nanoose Bay Forest. Photos: James Coccola.

Log export forecast

One ship is loading raw logs from Vancouver Island this week. The English Bay (Hong Kong) is loading logs at Harmac until Friday.

The English Bay, shown here in Seattle.

Update: Clearcut logging near China Beach

Clearcut logging across the highway from the entrance to China Beach campground, behind a "beauty strip" of unlogged forest.

Tansky Main, opposite China Beach Campground on Highway 14.

The company doing the logging is Queesto, a partnership between the Pacheedaht First Nation and Canadian Overseas Group. The land was once part of Tree Farm License 25, but is now part of the new Tree Farm License 61 (PDF map) which is owned by the partnership.

No men with chainsaws here. The logging is done with feller-bunchers. These machines (shown above) cut and drop a tree in a few seconds. Five machines were operating in the cutblock, which after just a couple weeks is the size of ten football fields. A forester said the whole hillside (about 100 football fields) will be stripped by Christmas.

The loggers are contractors. There were no Pacheedaht First Nation members working  in the cutblock. The logs are not supplying the mini-sawmill on the Pacheedaht reserve - they are trucked to the Jordan River log sort, then to a mill on the Fraser River. The milled lumber is sent to China and elsewhere.

According to news reports, the Pacheedaht First Nation paid at least $300,000 for the right to harvest timber on their traditional territory. It will take years to pay off the debt.

Photos by James Coccola.