Geography | |
---|---|
Location | Vancouver Island |
Coordinates | 48°35′1″N124°21′0″W / 48.58361°N 124.35000°W |
Administration | |
Province | British Columbia |
Regional district | Capital Regional District |
Pacheedaht First Nation |
Protests against old-growth logging in the southern Vancouver Island region of British Columbia, Canada escalated through later 2020 and into 2021. These events, many coalescing around the Fairy Creek watershed northeast of Port Renfrew, represent a critical moment in BC's recurring history of conflict related to ecological values and the forest industry, recalling the Clayoquot Protests (or "War in the Woods") of the early 1990s. [1] It has been described as "one of the largest [acts of] civil disobedience in Canadian history," with over 1,000 protesters arrested on the site as of February 11, 2022. [2] [3]
In August 2020, protests against old growth logging began to escalate in remaining sensitive watershed areas in southern Vancouver Island. [4] Precipitating events included the release in Fall 2020 of a major report [5] and recommendations related to managing and protecting old growth forests in British Columbia and subsequent delay in implementation of the report recommendations, together with increased logging activity in sensitive old growth areas of South Vancouver Island, including the Fairy Creek Watershed by Teal Jones, a forestry company based in Nanaimo. [6]
The Fairy Creek Watershed is in Pacheedaht First Nation territory. Pacheedaht elected leadership distanced itself from logging protest activity in 2021, citing their right to manage territorial resources within their resource stewardship plan. Pacheedaht First Nation entered into a forest revenue agreement with the BC government in 2017. [7] [8] In terms of stewardship, First Nations involved in the forestry industry may exceed provincial logging and replanting standards while relying on forestry activities to build and diversify their economies; through forest revenues Pacheedaht First Nation has purchased businesses and fee simple land in its territory, buying lands back from private developers. [9] In return for revenue sharing over a three-year term, the agreement requires the Nation not to support or participate in any acts that interfere with provincially authorized forest activities, and requires the Nation to support the provincial government in seeking to resolve actions taken by members that are seen to be inconsistent with the agreement. [10]
However, as the direct descendant from the family line claimed as the hereditary decision-makers or speakers for the territory, Pacheedaht Elder Bill Jones supported protest activity, speaking for careful stewardship of the Fairy Creek Watershed, and against the destruction of remaining sacred places for short term gain. [7] [11] Leaders from Tsleil-Waututh Nation travelled to Fairy Creek in Pacheedaht territory on May 29 to show their support. [12]
On June 4, 2021, Huu-ay-aht, Ditidaht, and Pacheedaht First Nations signed the Hišuk ma c̕awak Declaration to take back their power over their ḥahahuułi (traditional territories), [13] and on the following day gave formal notice to the province of B.C. to defer old-growth logging for two years in the Fairy Creek and the Central Walbran areas while the Nations prepare their stewardship plans. [14] This request was approved by the B.C. government five days later on June 9, 2021. [15]
Doug White (Kwulasultun), former chief and councillor of Snuneymuxw First Nation, a practicing lawyer and chairman of the BC First Nations Justice Council, situated the Hišuk ma c̕awak Declaration in the broader context of Aboriginal title in BC, in relation to Delgamuukw v. British Columbia, the Tŝilhqot'in decision, and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), asserting that the existing forestry regime of tenure and permits is inconsistent with Aboriginal rights, title and implementation of decision-making. [10]
In June 2023, the B.C. government extended the order to defer logging at Fairy Creek until February 1, 2025. [16]
On May 31, 2021, the B.C. Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development announced that reported sightings of endangered western screech owls in the area had been confirmed. [17] Radar surveys by the B.C. Wilderness Committee in July 2021 also reported over 240 sightings of endangered marbled murrelets in the Fairy Creek watershed and surrounding areas. [18]
Several instances of the rare lichen old-growth specklebelly ( Pseudocyphellaria rainierensis) have been found on trees within Fairy Creek. [19] The lichen's presence is due to the nutrient hotspots created by old-growth yellow cedar in the watershed. [20]
In spite of COVID-19 pandemic conditions, protest activity was sustained through Spring 2021, with social media calls going out for reinforcements as police removed activists from various camps and sites. Arrests and removals were made more difficult by what one visiting journalist described as highly inventive approaches taken by the protestors, who in many cases constructed "dragons" made of pipe and concrete to more effectively chain to equipment or roadbed ("sleeping dragons"), or who cantilevered themselves in high places where it would be difficult and time-consuming to extract them ("flying dragons"). [21]
On May 22, 2021, a visit to Fairy Creek by Tzeporah Berman, veteran of the Clayoquot protests of the 1990s and international programs director with Stand.Earth, ended in arrest for defying an exclusion zone being enforced by the RCMP. [22] Days later, scores of senior citizens joined protestors at Fairy Creek at the invitation of Pacheedaht Elder Bill Jones, passing unchallenged through the RCMP blockade. [23] Protests were also held in locations in Greater Victoria, including at the constituency office of British Columbia Premier John Horgan, [24] whose electoral riding area includes disputed old-growth forest and overlaps Pacheedaht territory.
By late August 2021, measured in terms of arrests, the Fairy Creek protests approached Canada's civil disobedience record, a threshold set in 1993 when 856 people were arrested during the "war in the woods" over old-growth logging in Clayoquot Sound, and one of the biggest acts of civil disobedience in Canadian history. [25]
On September 29, the Supreme Court of British Columbia rejected the extension of the injunction against the protesters requested by the logging company. [26]
On May 19, the RCMP arrested a journalist attempting to cover the protests, alleging the journalist has been obstructing the work of the logging company. However, videos posted on social media showed the journalist in question asking police what he was obstructing without answer just prior to the arrest. [27]
In May the Rainforest Flying Squad, an environmentalist group focused on the Fairy Creek Blockade, [28] alleged that Instagram deleted their account after they posted a video showing aggressive RCMP arrests of protestors. The group's account was restored the next day, with a Facebook spokesperson stating that it had been deleted in error. [29]
On May 26, the Canadian Association of Journalists, the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network, The Narwhal, along with several other media outlets, announced that they would be suing the RCMP over restrictions the police were imposing on media access to the protests. [30] [31] On July 20, 2021, the court action, initiated by a coalition of press groups including the Canadian Association of Journalists, Ricochet Media, Capital Daily Victoria, The Narwhal, Canada's National Observer, APTN News, The Discourse, Indiginews and Canadian Journalists for Free Expression, received a favourable decision in the British Columbia Supreme Court. The media groups' application was granted to add a clause to the injunction order granted to logging company Teal Jones in April, instructing the RCMP not to interfere with media access absent a bona fide operational reason for doing so. [32] [33] [34]
On May 28, 2021, the RCMP arrested every protestor at the Waterfall Blockade, except for one, stating that they had been unable to arrest that protestor safely. The next day, several hundred protestors marched on the site, re-establishing the blockade. [35] On August 9, 2021, the one year anniversary of the blockade, the RCMP raided Fairy Creek headquarters for the first time. Officers notified protestors they had 24 hours to evacuate the area, however witnesses reported the RCMP began enforcement before the injunction period ended. Over 20 protestors were arrested and the nearby Heli Camp was disbanded soon after. [36] As of February 11, 2022, over 1,000 protestors had been arrested. [37] [3]
In addition to the July 2021 court action against the RCMP initiated by media outlets, Rainforest Flying Squad reported individual journalists and protestors had submitted over a dozen complaints against the RCMP by August 2021. Complaints included excessive force, confiscation of food and water, and unlawful apprehension of personal possessions, vehicles, and items providing media access, including a satellite dish. [38] The RCMP came under further criticism when a number of its officers were seen wearing thin blue line patches while on duty at the site, despite official RCMP guidelines forbidding the symbol. [39] [40]
Social media campaigns and online fundraising campaigns mobilized public opinion and resources related to blockades and protests at Fairy Creek and in the forests of South Vancouver Island [41] at a time in the COVID-19 pandemic when travel in British Columbia was largely restricted to essential travel only, within local health authorities. [42]
In spring 2021, actor and photographer Cole Sprouse supported protestors by visiting and sharing a photo essay documenting Fairy Creek old-growth and protest activity. [43] Celebrity support for protestors was also offered by actor Mark Ruffalo [44] and former wrestler Hulk Hogan, and musicians Bruce Cockburn and Midnight Oil, who gave protest organizers permission to use their songs on social media. [45] In June 2021Vogue magazine also carried a photo essay featuring land defenders at Fairy Creek. [46]
On May 24, 2021, poet, writer, and publisher Gary Geddes crossed the police line at Waterfall Camp to be arrested and raise awareness of the protests. [47]
On July 1, 2021, PBS Digital Studios added a video called Terra explaining unique aspects of the temperate rainforest in Fairy Creek, including its mycorrhizal network and canopy soils which are still not fully understood. The call for conservation, narrated by Joe Hanson (host of It's Okay To Be Smart), was uploaded to the PBS website and YouTube channel as part of the Overview series. [48]
In 2021, two Fairy Creek protesters went missing while participating in the blockade.
On October 21, 2021, Gerald 'Smiley' Kearney was reported missing. He was last seen attempting to hike from Ridge Camp to Heli Camp, across the Fairy Creek watershed. To date, his body has never been found. [49]
On December 11, 2021, a protester named Kevin 'Bear' Henry was declared missing. They had last been in contact with their family on November 27. Henry, who uses they/them pronouns, later told reporters that their van had become stuck in a remote, wooded area. They managed to survive the winter by sheltering inside of a car and surviving "on beans and snow." [50] They were discovered on February 9, 2022, by a group of loggers and evacuated to safety.
Clayoquot Sound is located on the west coast of Vancouver Island in the Canadian province of British Columbia. It is bordered by the Esowista Peninsula to the south, and the Hesquiaht Peninsula to the North. It is a body of water with many inlets and islands. Major inlets include Sydney Inlet, Shelter Inlet, Herbert Inlet, Bedwell Inlet, Lemmens Inlet, and Tofino Inlet. Major islands include Flores Island, Vargas Island, and Meares Island. The name is also used for the larger region of land around the waterbody.
Tree sitting is a form of environmentalist civil disobedience in which a protester sits in a tree, usually on a small platform built for the purpose, to protect it from being cut down. Supporters usually provide the tree sitters with food and other supplies.
Carmanah Walbran Provincial Park, originally Carmanah Pacific Provincial Park, is a remote wilderness park located inside traditional Ditidaht First Nation ancestral territory. The park covers a land area of 16,450 ha (63.5 sq mi) immediately adjacent to Pacific Rim National Park Reserve's West Coast Trail on the south-western, coastal terrain of Vancouver Island. The provincial park comprises the entire drainage of Carmanah Creek, and a good portion of the lower Walbran River drainage, both of which independently empty into the Pacific Ocean. The park is named after the Anglicized diitiid?aatx word kwaabaaduw7aa7tx, or Carmanah, meaning "as far up as a canoe can go" and John Thomas Walbran, a colonial explorer and ship's captain. Access to the park is by gravel logging road from Port Alberni, Lake Cowichan, or Port Renfrew.
Golden Ears Provincial Park is a 555.9 square kilometres (214.6 sq mi) provincial park in British Columbia, Canada. It is named after the prominent twin peaks, which are commonly referred to as Golden Ears. The park was originally part of Garibaldi Provincial Park but was split off as a separate park in 1967. The area was logged extensively in the 1920s by the Lougheed and Abernathy Logging Company. Many recreational attractions are found within the park. Golden Ears Provincial Park is a protected area that contains many endangered species of flora and fauna.
Jordan River, founded as, and still officially gazetted as, River Jordan, is a small settlement on the west coast of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada, approximately 70 kilometres (43 mi) west of Victoria at the mouth of the Jordan River.
Opitsaht, spelled also as Opitsat and Opitsitah, is a First Nations settlement/community in the Southwest area of the Meares Islands, Clayoquot South, British Columbia. This peninsula-like region is the home to Tla-o-qui-aht First Nations of the Nuu-chah-nulth nation. The Tla-o-qui-aht are an Indigenous group from the Pacific Northwest region in the lower Vancouver area, known for their lifestyle revolving around the marine life trade and culture within the community.
The Ancient Forest Alliance is a grassroots environmental organization in British Columbia, Canada. It was founded in January 2010, and is dedicated to protecting British Columbia's old-growth forests in areas where they are scarce, and ensuring sustainable forestry jobs in that province.
Friends of Clayoquot Sound is a Canadian grassroots non-profit environmental organization, based in Tofino, British Columbia. It focuses on protecting Clayoquot Sound's globally rare ecosystem of temperate rainforest and ocean, and on building a local, conservation-based economy.
The Clayoquot protests, also called the War in the Woods, were a series of blockades related to clearcutting in Clayoquot Sound, British Columbia. They culminated in mid-1993, when 856 people were arrested. The blockades in the summer of 1993 against logging of the temperate rainforest were the largest act of civil disobedience in Canadian history until the 2021 Fairy Creek blockades.
Tzeporah Berman is a Canadian environmental activist, campaigner and writer. She is known for her role as one of the organizers of the logging blockades in Clayoquot Sound, British Columbia in 1992–93.
The Unistʼotʼen Camp is a protest camp and indigenous healing centre in northern British Columbia, Canada. It is located within the traditional territory of the Unist'otʼen clan of the Wetʼsuwetʼen First Nation peoples. Established after the proposal of several pipeline projects in the area, it is situated where several pipelines will pass, as a means to block their construction.
Boreal woodland caribou(Rangifer tarandus caribou) are a species of caribou and subspecies of North American reindeer. Boreal woodland caribou are also known as southern mountain caribou, woodland caribou, and forest-dwelling caribou. Mountain caribou are uniquely adapted to live in old-growth forests. The mountain caribou diet consists of tree-dwelling lichens predominantly. They are unique in this aspect as in the far northern regions of their habitat zones, the snowpack is shallow enough that the boreal woodland caribou can paw through the snow to eat the ground-dwelling lichens. In the inland Pacific Northwest Rainforests of eastern British Columbia, where the snowpack can reach upwards of five meters, the mountain caribou rely predominantly on the tree-dwelling lichens such as Bryoria spp. and Alectoria spp., hanging above the snowpack. As a result, these mountain caribou are reliant upon the old growth forests, which have been logged for centuries and continue to dwindle.
The Coastal GasLink pipeline is a TC Energy natural gas pipeline under construction in British Columbia, Canada. Starting in Dawson Creek, the pipeline's route crosses through the Canadian Rockies and other mountain ranges to Kitimat, where the gas will be exported to Asian customers. Its route passes through several First Nations peoples' traditional lands, including some that are unceded. Controversy around the project has highlighted divisions within the leadership structure of impacted First Nations: elected band councils support the project, but traditional hereditary chiefs of the Wetʼsuwetʼen people oppose the project on ecological grounds and organized blockades to obstruct construction on their traditional land. Wetʼsuwetʼen people opposed to the pipeline argue that they have a relationship with the land that the Coastal GasLink pipeline construction threatens.
The following is a timeline of the 2020 Canadian pipeline and railway protests which originated with the opposition by the hereditary chiefs of the Wetʼsuwetʼen people in British Columbia (BC), Canada to the Coastal GasLink Pipeline project.
From January to March 2020, a series of civil disobedience protests were held in Canada over the construction of the Coastal GasLink Pipeline (CGL) through 190 kilometres (120 mi) of Wetʼsuwetʼen First Nation territory in British Columbia (BC), land that is unceded. Other concerns of the protesters were Indigenous land rights, the actions of police, land conservation, and the environmental impact of energy projects.
The San Juan Valley is a small valley located in the Capital Regional District of Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada.
Mount Arrowsmith Biosphere Region (MABR) is a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve located on the east coast of Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada. It was designated in 2000 by UNESCO to protect a large second-growth coast Douglas fir ecosystem in the watersheds of the Little Qualicum and Englishman Rivers from being developed.
The Ecstall River is a tributary of the Skeena River in the province of British Columbia, Canada. It originates in the Kitimat Ranges, and flows about 110 km (68 mi) to the lower tidal reach of the Skeena River at Port Essington, about 30 km (19 mi) southeast of Prince Rupert, 95 km (59 mi) southwest of Terrace, and 85 km (53 mi) northwest of Kitimat. Its drainage basin covers about 1,485 km2 (573 sq mi) and contains the largest blocks of unlogged land on the north coast of British Columbia, although large-scale industrial logging operations, both active and proposed, have been occurring in the watershed since the 1980s.
The McNeil River is a tributary of the Skeena River in the North Coast Regional District of the province of British Columbia, Canada. It originates at Minerva Lake in the Kitimat Ranges of the Coast Mountains, and flows south about 13 km (8.1 mi) to the lower tidal reach of the Skeena River at Tyee Bank, across the Skeena from Port Essington, about 25 km (16 mi) southeast of Prince Rupert, 95 km (59 mi) southwest of Terrace, and 88 km (55 mi) northwest of Kitimat. Its watershed covers 41.4 km2 (16.0 sq mi), and its mean annual discharge is 4.07 m3/s (144 cu ft/s).
The Narwhal is a Canadian investigative online magazine that focuses on environmental issues.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)