The Fairy Creek Blockade

​ The Fairy Creek blockade began in August of 2020. When a young Joshua Wright noted road building into the headwaters of the last intact watershed, outside of a park, on southern Vancouver Island. Within two weeks, grassroots activists from across the island met at Lizard Lake and came to the conclusion that an emergency blockade must be erected to put a halt to industry activities. By the beginning of September, Pacheedaht elder uncle Bill Jones released an official letter inviting Indigenous and non-Indigineous forest defenders to unite on the territory to defend the remaining old growth rainforests within Fairy Creek. ​ Little did the small group of grassroots activists know that this blockade would turn into a massive movement. It has become the largest act of civil disobedience since the blockades in Clayoquot Sound in 1993, where a similar situation occurred. A New Democratic Party (NDP) government was promising action to protect old growth forests in the area and grassroots activists rallied and put an end to the logging of Meares Island (Wah’nah’juss Hilth’hooiss) - which, on Earth Day in 1984, became Meares Island Tribal Park. “We have drums, they have guns.” -Chant land defenders on the front lines of the Fairy Creek blockades The circumstances are eerily similar in fact, premiere John Horgan and the British Columbia (B.C.) NDP promised in their election campaign to protect old growth forests and instate an endangered species at risk act within B.C. - which as of the time of this article, neither have been addressed, three years after the government had been elected. In 2019, the NDP commissioned Al Gorley and Gary Merkel, two Registered Professional Foresters, to create a report detailing the results of forest management in B.C and what should be done moving forward. The results came back as many suspected, with an urgent message that a major paradigm shift in forestry management was necessary to protect biodiversity and our remaining old growth. 14 recommendations were made, with a strong message that they be enacted as a whole, not individually. Merkel and Gorley go on to state “had previous old forest strategies and recommendations been fully implemented, we would likely not be facing the challenges around old growth to the extent we are today, i.e., high risk to loss of biodiversity in many ecosystems, risk to potential economic benefits due to uncertainty and conflict, and widespread lack of confidence in the system of managing forests.” (3) In reference to recent lackluster, temporary deferrals that are to be initiated by the B.C. NDP at the request of the Pacheedaht, Ditidaht and Huu-ay-aht First Nations; “The heart of Walbran and Fairy Creek are deferred (for a couple years). That’s so exciting! But can you protect a beating heart and cut away the rest of the body?” -Tzeporah Berman of Stand Earth “Based on the government's working definition, old growth forests comprise about 23% of forested areas, or about 13.2 million hectares”. (1) The B.C. government is currently operating on the above statement and classification of old growth written in the 1995 Biodiversity Guidebook. The problem here is, old growth encompasses a vast and diverse amount of different ecosystems and productivity classes. The distinctions between which are highly important. While all forms of old growth have inherent value, B.C’s globally rare high productivity forests have particular value for their high biomass, structural complexity and stable carbon storage. (2) These rare, high productivity forests are lumped in with forests such as the high elevation Engelmann Spruce - Subalpine Fir forests. A forest type which grows slowly and does not reach the grand stature, or support the same biodiversity, as its lower elevation neighbours. Within these 13.2 million hectares, the vast majority (~80%) actually consists of small trees. In contrast, only a tiny percentage of B.C’s remaining old forests supports large trees (~3%). Roughly 380,000 hectares have a site index of 20 - 25m, and only about 35,000 hectares of old growth have site index greater than 25m. (2) These productive old forests are naturally rare in B.C. and increasingly rare worldwide. Sites with the potential to grow very large trees are dwindling due to intense harvest, so that only 2.7% of the 3% is currently old in B.C. These ecosystems are globally scarce, are almost extinguished and will not recover from logging. Combining these different forests into a single metric is very misleading. The way in which the provincial government lumps all productivity types together in their descriptions and management efforts of these forests is very unfortunate. “Everyone’s divided. I’m divided myself. I understand that this whole province was built on the back of forestry, and we wouldn’t even be able to go to these places if there weren’t resource roads to take us. Forestry is always going to have an important part in our economy … things need to change. There needs to be this paradigm shift while it’s still within our control. People need to understand that this shift is inevitable, and it will either be because we woke up and we defended the last 2.7%, or because we logged it into oblivion, and we were forced to go to second growth anyway.” -Duncan Morrison, Land defender The forest industry workers have been hit hard with the combination of COVID-19 and the blockades. Pro-industry rallies have been occurring in the Lake Cowichan area and in many industry based towns across the island. The workers are frustrated and understandably so. They have been without work or their regular pay for many months, causing major financial problems. Many of the small towns on Vancouver Island were created due to industry and many of the residents of these towns are industry workers. After COVID-19 delayed work for many months and the workers were eager to get back to work, the blockades were established and these hopes were destroyed. There are of course extremists on both sides of this story. During my time speaking with protestors, I heard reports of tires being slashed and vehicles being damaged or illegally towed from main roads, I also heard reports of industry equipment being damaged. While I was attending the intake tent at the blockade, a white truck rumbled past while an individual screamed “FUCK YOU” towards the protestors. Feelings are hurt and people are frustrated on both sides of this campaign, but the facts remain the same. Without a major shift in the industry, high productivity old growth forests will be logged dry and the industry will have to shift to second and third growth logging without an established plan. Concerned citizens across the country have been protesting, as the Canadian government is at a crossroads; it could either continue with the slow implementation of an inadequate climate plan, or adopt a recovery package that accelerates the transition to a zero emissions future. (4) Citizens of B.C. are particularly frustrated with their elected politicians. A recent poll released by Sierra Club B.C. announces that 85% of British Columbians want action for old growth forests, while 15% think the B.C. NDP has done a good job protecting them. (5)These numbers appear to repeat themselves across the board with the NDP’s environmental policies, with many abysmal reports, dwindling wildlife, a void where a species at risk act is required and upset residents across the province. One major concern that remains unaddressed, is confirmed sightings of the endangered Western Screech Owl and Northern Goshawk within the Fairy Creek watershed. These birds are listed as endangered under the federal Species at Risk Act, and would likely have more protection if the NDP were to create a provincial Species at Risk Act, another topic which the NDP promised in their recent election campaign. The provincial government has sent in professionals and if they are able to locate nesting sites within the Fairy Creek, Caycuse or Walbran areas - this will set logging back until after their respective nesting periods. Unfortunately this task is quite tricky, as simply locating their nests can be a challenge of its own, the undertaking is complicated by industry actively logging the area and protestors blocking access points to the watershed. Throughout this matter, it becomes obvious the mistreatment and abhorrent manner in which Canada has acted towards its Indigenous population. Members of the local bands rally behind uncle Bill Jones, an elder in the Pacheedaht Nation, and Victor Peter, the rightful hereditary chief of the Pacheedaht Nation. In terms of the governance system, the hereditary chiefs hold the final decision making power concerning the land and peoples and it has been this way for generations - prior to European contact. Many Indigineous people feel this is the way it should still be: they should not be overruled by the elected chiefs. This dialogue is one that repeats itself across Canada, from the Fairy Creek blockades preventing old growth logging, to the Wet'suwet'en Checkpoint opposing Coastal Gas Link’s proposed pipelines across their land, to the Mi’kmaq defending their treaty right to fish on the East Coast. Although Canada has repeatedly promised reconciliation, many Indigenous communities have yet to see these promises. Instead, communities are facing more mistreatment, false promises and are falling subject to racial targeting and violence. In a press conference on June 1st, premiere John Horgan and Minister of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource and Rural Development Katrine Conroy reinforced empty environmental promises stating ”We’re committed to the 14 recommendations brought forward by the Old Growth Strategic Review Panel and the intentions paper” and “the intentions paper will allow everybody to win.” Although the NDP have repeatedly stated that these recommendations will be addressed, only one has been acted upon since it’s release in April of 2020. Despite Merkel and Gorley expressing the necessity that the recommendations be brought to light as a whole. During the question period reporters questioned the police enforcement action at the Fairy Creek blockade, and the premiere stated that “Government doesn’t guide police action and has no direct role in police matters” and that “we don’t want to be deploying police to protestors instead of deploying them to gang violence” a concern which has seen a massive surge within the province in the past year. ​ On June 7th an announcement was made by the Pacheedaht, Ditidaht and Huu-ay-aht First Nations calling for logging deferrals in Fairy Creek and the Central Walbran. While this announcement is a promising one for old growth, a statement released by the Rainforest Flying Squad quotes elder uncle Bill Jones “No, we must not stand down, as all First Nations are locked into unfair contracts that tie their hands.” As long as a threat remains to the intact watershed, so will the Rainforest Flying Squad and the land defenders standing behind them. “They are guides, teachers, spiritual beings.” Uncle Bill Jones refers to the ancient trees. June 9th, 2021 Excerpts from premiere John Horgan's speech today: "Today cabinet has approved a request by the Pacheedaht to defer old growth forestry in Fairy Creek as well as the Central Walbran, this is critically important because we have allowed the title holders to make their own decisions on their own land. If you remember back in September, the province deferred logging of 200,000 hectares of old growth right across the province. And at that time the Central Walbran was going to be a part of that deferral process. But at the time the Pacheedaht stated they were not ready to defer that forest, so we put that aside and allowed the Pacheedaht to make this decision. I listened to members of the legislature saying this is the last stand and that there are no other areas more important than this. I disagree with that, there are other majestic forests across BC. they are not all massively large old cedar trees; there are unique forests in the interior that need protection as well. They may not be as gigantic as the giants we see here on the island, but the forests in B.C. are diverse, the forests in BC.. keep the biodiversity where it needs to be, we need to focus on that. There will be people who say this is not good enough. The changes we are making will not occur overnight. These discussions have been happening since the 1970’s. We’re delivering that change but we cannot do this overnight. I’ll remind people to read the Gorley - Merkel report. The primary recommendation is to work with title holders as we have with the Pacheedaht, the Ditidaht and Huu-ay-aht." The second paragraph is the most concerning to me, where the premiere indicates high alpine Emgelmann - Spruce Subalpine-Fir forests are of equal importance as the globally rare, high productivity, giant old growth valley dwellers we have in dwindling numbers here in B.C. The premiere indicated 2,000 hectares of deferrals, while land defenders at the Fairy Creek Blockades & the Rainforest Flying Squad are demanding the entire 5,040 hectares of intact watershed be protected. It appears this is yet another instance of talk and log brought forward by the premiere. Below are maps provided by the B.C. Government of the deferral area versus the area being requested for protection by land defenders. Sources: 1.) Forests Practices Code of British Columbia Act. Strategic Planning Regulations. Operational Planning Regulation. Forest Practices Code of British Columbia. Biodiversity Guidebook. 2.) Karen Price, Ph.D, Rachel F. Holt, Ph.D, R.P. Bio and Dave Daust R.P.F, M.Sc. B.C’s Old Growth Forest: A Last Stand for Biodiversity. 3.) Al Gorley, R.P.F. & Garry Merkel, R.P.F. A New Future for Old Forests. A Strategic Review of How British Columbia Manages for Old Forests Within its Ancient Ecosystems 4.) Climate Action Tracker - PARIS Climate Agreement https://climateactiontracker.org/countries/canada/ 5.) Sierra Club B.C. Old Growth forest poll https://sierraclub.bc.ca/forestpoll/