The British Columbia government has approved a legal order to extend temporary protections to an old-growth forest on Vancouver Island even as the minister of forests acknowledged that the RCMP are investigating reports of tree spiking in the area.
Ravi Parmar said he was informed of the reports last week, calling the news of such vandalism "incredibly alarming."
Spikes are typically metal and can injure or even kill a person who attempts to cut down or mill the tree.
"I want to be very crystal clear to British Columbians, anyone who goes out and spikes a tree, puts the lives of forestry workers on the line, risks their safety, potential death each and every day, I want to condemn these actions," Parmar told reporters on Wednesday.
The minister said spiking is a "dangerous criminal activity" that puts health and safety of forestry workers at risk, adding that the province immediately notified both the forestry licensee and the local First Nation.
“It is outrageous that individuals and the groups they are connected to feel that causing serious injury to workers furthers their cause," said Brian Butler, president of United Steelworkers Local 1-1937.
The Fairy Creek area received international attention in recent years due to protests after logging permits were granted in 2020. This allowed the cutting of timber, including old-growth trees, in areas in and around the Fairy Creek watershed.
Almost 1,200 opponents of old-growth logging were arrested at Fairy Creek for defying court orders preventing interference with harvesting operations.
The Teal-Jones Group, whose tree farm licence covers the Fairy Creek area, said in a 2022 statement that spikes had been found in trees logged from the area.
It said that while they have measures to detect spiked logs, one made it through and the blade hit the metal spike, destroying the saw and nearly hitting a worker, which could have killed him.
The provincial government's announcement that it granted a logging deferral extension to Sept. 30, 2026, applies to the order that was first issued in 2021. It follows the first extension that expires Feb. 1 of this year and came at the request of the Pacheedaht First Nation, whose territories encompass the entire watershed.
"We have their support as they do the important work of developing an integrated resource management plan, which will decide the fate of their territories as it relates to forestry in the days and weeks and months ahead," Parmar said, adding they've still got some work to do and need more time.
The Forests Ministry says the deferral protects almost 1,200 hectares or Crown land in the Fairy Creek watershed.
It says the protections will allow for continued discussions about the long-term management of the watershed with the Pacheedaht First Nation, adding that the move is "consistent with government's commitments to reconciliation and to protecting British Columbia's oldest and rarest forest ecosystems."
