BC Forest Minister Responds to ONA First Nation Claims of Failure to Protect Old-Growth Forests and Caribou Habitat in Revelstoke Area

Last week, the ONA, which consists of seven First Nations in the Okanagan and Similkameen, rebuked the BC provincial government for failing to protect old growth forests and critical caribou habitat. In a news release, Byron Louis, Okanagan Indian Band chief, said, “The province’s failure to protect old growth forests and critical caribou habitat which has direct adverse impacts on our ability to maintain our culture and exercise our title and rights.”

The provincial government has responded saying in fact that it has deferred the logging of old-growth forests in the Revelstoke area, despite claims from the Okanagan Nation Alliance saying otherwise. The government noted that earlier this year, ONA formally opposed a set of old-growth logging deferrals in its territory over a lack of consultation, declaring the proposed maps were simply inaccurate and did not properly protect some old-growth stands while protecting other previously harvested forests.

On Friday (8-26-22), the Ministry of Forests said the ONA has since “clarified” that they support “deferring harvest of old growth forests at risk of irreversible loss within their territory.” “Following this, the province has now implemented deferrals on all priority at-risk old growth areas identified by the technical advisory panel throughout the Kootenay-Boundary, including in the Revelstoke area,” the ministry said in a statement to Castanet News.

In regard to the caribou herd, the ministry says it is committed to work alongside the Okanagan Nation Alliance to protect and recover caribou populations. “The population of the Columbia North herd has been increasing in recent years, which can be attributed to multiple recovery actions that include the management of other prey species and predators, habitat conservation, and maternal penning,” the ministry said, adding that about 60,000 hectares of caribou habitat is protected within the Revelstoke Timber Supply Area (TSA) under government order. “No cutting permits are proposed or approved in legally protected caribou habitat in the Revelstoke TSA.”