Old-growth forest logging at Cottonwood Lake near Nelson, photographed January 2, 2024. This archival photograph does not depict Foster Creek or the logging reported there.
Photo credit: Treefender K
VALEMOUNT — Conservation group Wildsight says logging is underway in old-growth forest near Foster Creek on Kinbasket Lake, in areas it says were recommended for temporary deferral by B.C.'s Old Growth Technical Advisory Panel in 2021.
In a statement dated October 28 and published November 2, Wildsight said satellite imagery provided to its conservation specialist Eddie Petryshen showed harvesting in three cutblocks. The group's interpretation of those images has not been independently verified.
Wildsight says BC Timber Sales, the provincial agency responsible for marketing Crown timber, told the organization earlier this year that the cutblocks met old-growth deferral criteria. The group alleges the mapped deferral areas were later removed from provincial records before a July timber sale and the issuance of cutting permits. Those site-specific actions have not been independently confirmed.
Provincial guidance distinguishes the advisory panel's recommendations from deferrals implemented through voluntary agreements, directions to BC Timber Sales or ministerial orders under Part 13 of the Forest Act. An August 2024 BC Timber Sales advisory says existing deferrals should be maintained pending further planning or new direction and outlines procedures involving First Nations. The arrangements that applied to Foster Creek have not been independently established.
Wildsight places the cutblocks beside Foster Arm Protected Area. BC Parks says the protected area conserves caribou habitat and a rare interior cedar-hemlock forest ecosystem. Wildsight says forestry roads and further habitat disturbance could affect the Columbia North caribou herd.
Wildsight is calling on the province to halt harvesting linked to timber sale TA2933 and establish a legally enforceable deferral. The reasons for the reported changes to the deferral mapping have not been established through the public records reviewed for this story.
A new program run by the Castlegar Chamber of Commerce is pairing new residents with local volunteers and will hold two introductory events Saturday, Nov. 7.