B.C. extends order to stop old-growth logging in Fairy Creek watershed

The B.C. government has extended a legal order deferring the logging of old-growth forest in the Fairy Creek watershed for close to two years.

Harvesting will not be permitted until Feb. 1, 2025, in response to a request from the elected leadership of the Pacheedaht First Nation, the Ministry of Forests said in a Friday news release.

The extension applies to the same southern portion of Vancouver Island forest that was deferred in June 2021.

“The Province and First Nations will continue collaborating on long-term forest ecosystem management of the Fairy Creek watershed, including the management of old-growth forests,” the statement reads.

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Between 2020 and last year, Fairy Creek was the site of what’s considered the largest act of civil disobedience in Canadian history, with more than 1,000 protesters arrested to stop the clear-cutting of old-growth trees. The B.C.-based timber company Teal-Jones Group had proposed to cut about 0.2 square kilometres in Fairy Creek within two square kilometres of land available for harvesting on the northern ridge of the watershed, according to its website.

In April, the BC Prosecution Service withdrew charges against 11 who had been accused of breaching a court injunction during the blockades. At the time, the Crown was also expected to withdraw charges against as many as 150 people because police used a short-form script to inform people of the injunction, instead of reading it aloud entirely.

According to the ministry, the deferral protects close to 12 square kilometres of forest, all of which belongs to “the Crown” but falls on the traditional, unceded territory of the Pacheedaht First Nation. Since November 2021, it said more than 20,000 square kilometres of old-growth logging has been deferred across the province.

— with files from The Canadian Press