B.C. old-growth: Province proposes 2.6M hectare logging deferral

The B.C. government says logging deferrals could be coming to up to 2.6 million hectares of old-growth forest, pending discussions with affected First Nations.

The deferrals are based on recommendations from the Old Growth Strategic Review, which was presented in 2020 – and recent work completed by the independent Technical Advisory Panel (TAP).

Currently, the province has an estimated 11.1 million hectares of old-growth forest, of which 3.5 million is protected. The remaining 7.6 million is considered "unprotected," where logging is largely permitted.

TAP recommended deferring logging in old-growth areas that were considered particularly rare, such as "big tree old-growth," "ancient old-growth" and "rare old-growth."

These three types of old-growth forests account for 7.6 million hectares of the total 11.1 million hectares of old-growth in B.C.

While 3.5 million hectares of old-growth forest are already protected, the province says up to 2.6 million more could soon be deferred from logging for the next two years.

The B.C. government says the deferrals will be implemented if affected First Nations agree with the proposed harvesting restrictions. The province hopes to receive responses from impacted First Nations within the next 30 days.

"Deferral is not equivalent to protection; deferral maintains at-risk old forests in the short-term," reads a report from the Technical Advisory Panel.