Local conservation groups are happy with most of the government's draft land use order to establish old growth management areas on the Coast, but they want to see more old growth saved.
The land-use plan for five landscape units in the Sunshine Coast Forest District was recently released for comment by the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations.
The plan outlines land-use objectives for protecting biological diversity of old growth forests within the Bute west, Bute east, Cortes, Brittain, and Howe landscape units on Cortes Island and on the Sunshine Coast from the Sechelt Peninsula to north of Powell River. The total area covers more than 14,200 hectares of forest.
Sunshine Coast Conservation Association (SCCA) executive director Dan Bouman said his group is happy to see that the plan protects the biodiversity of the forest and seems to be based on solid evidence.
"When you read the plans and they describe what they're trying to accomplish, it's very good. It's scientifically correct. It's well explained, well founded. So that's all good," Bouman said.
But he says the amount of old growth forest saved in the plans is still not enough.
"The bad side is the actual amount of land they're committing to protect in order to accomplish the goals of the plan is tiny. It's absurdly tiny," he said.
The level of protection ranges from about nine per cent to around 20 per cent in the plan, depending on the ecosystem type.
"You get around nine per cent of the low elevation ecosystems protected as old growth and as you go up in elevation and disturbance is more infrequent, you get higher percentages. So when you get to the highest forested ecosystems, you get around 20 per cent protected," he said.
The SCCA wants to see a minimum of 30 per cent protected in the plan.
"Science tells us that if you're going to create some protection for all the ecosystems, you're going to represent all the ecosystems, you need to have at least 30 per cent," Bouman said.
The Elphinstone Logging Focus (ELF) agrees that protecting 30 per cent of old growth is the magic formula and they plan to file that comment with the government.
Both ELF and the SCCA note that not much loggable old growth has been saved under the new land use plan, with much of the protection put on forests that don't necessarily need it.
"They put a priority on selecting lands that can't be logged. So the amount of actual new protection that you get through landscape unit planning its basically down there around three per cent," Bouman said.
ELF is also critical of the move, but notes the government is heading in the right direction.
"The amount of old-growth being added is negligible [and does not] add to the protected land base enough to warrant any great excitement. However, we do acknowledge the right course of action of protecting the rich bio-diversity that older forests provide," said Ross Muirhead of ELF.
To find out more about the land use plan or to provide comment, go to www.ilmb.gov.bc.ca/slrp/legalobjectives/advertisedLUORs.html.
