Participants of the 2020 Forest March organized by PWPA

Image Credit: Peachland Watershed Protection Alliance

The Peachland Watershed Protection Alliance is organizing a demonstration to stand up for the protection of old growth forests in the Okanagan which has long been promised by the provincial government.

The B.C. government published its “Old Growth Report” three years ago putting in place strategies to protect old growth throughout the province and doing so through collaborating with Indigenous peoples. That said, no action has been taken thus far, the alliance says.

“They have put in place a strategy to protect old growth, but it has been three years since they came up with the report, and in the meantime, old growth trees are still being logged,” Alex Morrison, from the association, says. “We call it talk and log: While they are discussing what they are going to do, people are still chopping down old growth trees.”

Old growth forests, also known as virgin forests, are the oldest forests in the world containing plant species that have been untouched by humans as well as natural disasters.

In B.C. the more well-known old growth is on Vancouver Island, but the Okanagan actually holds old growth as well which might be even more important.

“The ecological impacts (of logging) are pretty much equal, maybe even more intense in the Okanagan where we are a dry climate and those trees do so much good in mitigating droughts,” Morrison says.

In the Okanagan, forests with trees 140 years old and older are considered old growth which represents 23% of Okanagan forests, according to the BC Government. They are important to the ecosystem because they protect the wildlife and the most endangered species of the Okanagan ecosystem. More importantly, old growth forests often increase the humidity of a region and protect it from intense wildfires.

“We’re seeing in real life, in real time, the impact of how all these fires in the Okanagan have been so much more intense, so much bigger, longer and more unpredictable than they have been before, and that is attributable to climate change, but also because our forests are in such poor state,” Morrison says. “It’s all about having an intact forest because all these other things like the shrubs, the lichen, the berries, all those things don’t burn as readily as the conifers do. So, the intact forest was a response from nature to dealing with natural levels of drought and wildfires. As the trees are cut down though, and as drought levels and wildfire intensify, the forest has not evolved to deal with that.”

Protestors from the 2020 Forest March organized by PWPA

Image Credit: Peachland Watershed Protection Alliance

In response to the increasingly dry climate, intense wildfires, and augmented logging of Old Growth forests, the association has decided to demonstrate in Peachland today from 3 to 5 p.m., in front of the Peachland Mall IGA, the corner of Clements & Hwy 97, on the unceded territory of the Syilx First Nation.

When asked about forest protections, K'ninm'tm' ta? n'q'w'ic'tn's Wilfred “Grouse” Barnes, a Syilx Elder and knowledge keeper from Westbank First Nation, claims, “action is better than words, to take action, to really just get out on the land, get your hands dirty picking up stuff — walk and talk.” 

The association is joining more than 15 communities across the province that are mobilizing to send a message to the B.C. government.

“With these demonstration events happening all over BC less than a week before the B.C. Legislature returns to session, demonstrators hope to send MLAs back to Victoria with a strong mandate to do more for Old Growth forests,’’ Taryn Skalbania, director of outreach and organizer with the association, says. 

The association encourages all to join whether it’s to hold a sign, chant, or just be there for 10 minutes; all are welcome.

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