B.C.'s new funding mechanism is a big step in protecting our big trees
This article was originally published in the Vancouver Sun on November 6th, 2023
Author: Matt Brown
There’s no place like the Carmanah Valley.
This haven of old-growth forests on the central west coast of Vancouver Island is the spirit of the soul of B.C. Like a heart is to a human, these forests are the lifeline of nature in the Pacific Northwest. They pump life into rivers, creeks, lakes and oceans that sustain us.
This is the ancestral territory of the Ditidaht First Nation. Carmanah is the English translation of the Ditidaht word kwaabaaduw7aa7tx, meaning “thus far upstream.”
The salmon that make it this far upstream have taken the challenge we marvel at, as humans.
What happens when that salmon bids farewell to its life is more life. They fertilize the waters that help places like Carmanah become truly unique. Trees as old as 1,000 years, and where one Sitka spruce stands nearly 100 metres tall, nestle next to Carmanah Creek where coho and chinook have made it “thus far upstream.”
The Carmanah is a protected valley. It took great efforts to protect it from logging, to keep this forest and watershed pristine. Protests and civil disobedience led by the First Nation’s kwaabaaduw7aa7tx hereditary chief, the late Peter Knighton, and other community members were the catalysts to why those trees are still standing now.
These actions helped the public understand the way we were all connected to this ecosystem. A salmon’s remains nourishes a watershed that helps a forest grow, and that forest acts as a carbon sink in addressing our greatest threat: the climate crisis. We are part of the land and water, and we act as their stewards.
What happened next was government action. The provincial government bought the land. It listened to earth’s shareholders, instead of industry’s.
That was three decades ago. Since then, governments have mismanaged the protection of our greatest assets to better lives: land and water.
Governments have slashed funding for B.C. Parks, giving way to more poaching in areas like Carmanah, detailed so diligently in Lyndsie Bourgon’s book Tree Thieves. Groups around B.C., and around the world, have been sounding the alarm about the declining percentage of old-growth forests in B.C., especially on Vancouver Island.
This advocacy led most recently to the Fairy Creek protests. Nearly 30 years after Carmanah was protected, protests around Vancouver Island were again putting these special forests at the forefront of public attention. Musicians, artists, celebrities, authors, scientists, athletes and many more were calling for action from the government.
And again, it worked.
Recently, the B.C. government announced a new $300-million conservation financing mechanism — $150 million from the province, matched by a commitment to raise an additional $150 million though the B.C. Parks Foundation.
Called a made-in-B.C. conservation tool, in which financing will ensure that First Nations and the province can conserve critical habitat, better manage the climate crisis, and further government’s action on protecting more of B.C.’s lands and waters, and implementing the old-growth strategic review.
I sat at the Resolve Restoration conference at the beginning of fall, where the theme was Indigenous-led restoration. It was here that B.C.’s minister of water, land and resource stewardship, Nathan Cullen, hinted at this with comments about the need for innovative ways to spend on conservation.
They backed those words up with a key part of this tool. Funded projects must be Indigenous-led.
Unlike 30 years ago, our leaders are now consulting the land and water’s original stewards.
“First Nations have always believed that if we take care of nature, it will take care of us,” Terry Teegee, regional chief of B.C. Assembly of First Nations, has said. “Many Nations are creating Indigenous-protected areas and wildlife corridors as well as looking for ways to have an economy that is in harmony with nature. This funding will help support Nations who have a vision of abundance in their territories. That will benefit everyone.”
The best form of restoration for old-growth forests is protecting.
The big return of pink salmon we’re seeing this fall took far too long. A catalyst was removing open-pen fish farming in the Discovery Islands. To keep our salmon coming back means we need to keep our big trees standing.
There are still ways to go before we are “thus far upstream,” but there is still cause to celebrate, and many people to thank on this big step for our big trees of B.C. — First Nations, NGOs, local community groups, scientists, on-the-ground activists and governments. It takes collaboration to achieve long-term solutions, and that’s evident here.
Matt Brown is director of western watersheds for Swim Drink Fish Canada. The organization specializes in education around watersheds. He is a resident of North Vancouver.
