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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Celebrate BC Rivers Day with a Community Cleanup of Cottonwood Creekimage.png

Nelson, BC – September 23, 2025
In celebration of BC Rivers Day, Friends of Kootenay Lake Stewardship Society (FoKLSS), in partnership with Living Lakes Canada (LLC), invites the Nelson community to join a streamside cleanup along Cottonwood Creek on Monday, September 29, 2025, from 1:00 to 3:00 PM.

Meeting at the Cottonwood Falls Park parking lot, volunteers of all ages are encouraged to participate in this hands-on effort to protect and restore one of Nelson’s most iconic urban waterways.

This is the second annual cleanup of Cottonwood Creek, supporting LLC’s ongoing Cottonwood Creek Revival Project, which aims to revitalize the creek’s health and biodiversity. Supplies such as buckets, trash pickers, gloves, and garbage bags will be provided in limited quantities — volunteers are encouraged to bring their own if possible.

Light snacks and refreshments will be available, and FoKLSS swag will be offered by donation. Families and children are welcome to attend.

“We’re proud to celebrate BC Rivers Day by connecting the community with this important urban stream,” says Lily Feeback, FoLSS Program Coordinator. “Events like this help us build a culture of care and stewardship around local water bodies.”

How to Participate:

This event is made possible thanks to the Outdoor Recreation Council of BC, celebrating 45 years of river advocacy and stewardship.

For media inquiries or more information, please contact:
Lily, Program Coordinator lily@friendsofkootenaylake.caGrace Sabo (she/her)
FoKLSS Stewardship Coordinatorwww.friendsofkootenaylake.ca | Become a member!

2025-09-19-Connecting Communities Feature FINAL (1)Download
    
For Immediate Release — September 10, 2025
Five years on, B.C. fails to deliver Old Growth Strategic Review “paradigm shift”Wilderness Committee slams the provincial government for inaction on forest promises while unrest continuesVICTORIA / UNCEDED LEKWUNGEN TERRITORIES — Tomorrow is the fifth anniversary of the B.C. government’s Old Growth Strategic Review (OGSR), which marked a turning point in the province’s relationship with forests in 2020. Sadly, the lack of meaningful action on it since then continues to drive the destruction of irreplaceable ancient forests and deepen public distrust in forest management.

None of the OGSR’s 14 key recommendations, aimed at shifting the province away from unsustainable, status quo logging practices, have been fully implemented. Instead of decisive action, the government has delivered a series of confusing and opaque deferrals, initiated additional layers of review and consultation, and returned to the same old narrative that “forests are being managed well.” This shift in tone became especially evident after Ravi Parmar took over as Minister of Forests, and the province began downplaying the ecological crisis and promoting the industry as a clean, sustainable economic driver.

“We were promised a paradigm shift. Instead, we got business-as-usual forest management with a rebranded message,” said Forest Campaigner Tobyn Neame. “Ancient forests are still being logged and ecosystems are still collapsing. Meanwhile the public is led to believe the province is protecting old-growth.”

One of the ways the province claimed they would implement the OGSR was through a biodiversity and ecosystem health framework. However, after showing a draft nearly two years ago, they have not released the framework.

Old-growth forests are critical for biodiversity — they provide rare, complex habitats that support species found nowhere else. Many plants and animals, including at-risk species like southern mountain caribou and northern spotted owls, rely on these ancient ecosystems for their survival, and cannot thrive in younger, managed forests.

“We need a biodiversity and ecosystem health law, not just a flimsy framework that the province is backpedaling on releasing. Logging in southern mountain caribou habitat is pushing these already threatened animals to the brink of extinction,” said Conservation and Policy Campaigner Lucero Gonzales. “At the end of the day, what species at risk in B.C. need is habitat protection. Half measures, broken promises and endless delays will not save these species from extinction.” 

One of the OGSR’s core recommendations — to defer logging in the most at-risk old-growth forests — has been selectively and opaquely applied. Meanwhile, ancient forests are being clear-cut, sometimes without consent from First Nations, like the Ma’amtagila Nation, stewarding the land. 

To make matters worse, the province has intensified its messaging that the forest industry must become an even bigger “economic engine of Canada” in the face of rising U.S. tariffs. Pushing industry expansion at the expense of environmental commitments and Indigenous Rights will only worsen the ecological and social crises.

“You can’t build a sustainable economy on a non-renewable resource,” exclaimed Neame. “Old-growth forests take centuries to grow. Once they’re gone, they’re gone. Contrary to what the industry tells you, you can’t clearcut old-growth twice.”

Worsening wildfire seasons are making communities across B.C. more vulnerable, adding urgency to the crisis. Contrary to industry spin, logging old-growth forests does not reduce wildfire risk — it increases it. Ancient forests are more fire-resistant than second-growth tree plantations, which are drier and more flammable. 

“The science is clear. Old-growth keeps water in the landscape, creates shade and slows fire spread. Logging the forests not only destroys biodiversity — it puts people at risk,” said Neame.

The government’s failure to act undermines one of the OGSR’s most urgent goals: restoring public trust in forest management. With continued logging in endangered old-growth forests and few legislative changes to protect them, that trust remains broken. Recent blockades in the Walbran watershed on Pacheedaht Territory highlight this broken trust and lack of change over the last five years.

As the BC NDP, under Minister Parmar, continues to sideline its environmental promises in favour of short-term industry gains, advocates say the window to act is closing and ecosystems and wildlife are already paying the price.

The Wilderness Committee is calling on the B.C. government to fully implement all 14 OGSR recommendations, create a Biodiversity and Ecosystem health Law and end the use of forest policy as a tool to greenlight logging expansion under the guise of economic recovery, now.

“This isn’t just about trees. It’s about climate, community safety, Indigenous Rights and the future of forests in B.C.,” said Neame. “The longer the province delays, the more we’ll all lose.”-30-
For more information please contact:Tobyn Neame | Forest Campaigner
403-461-5151, tobyn@wildernesscommittee.org

Lucero Gonzalez | Conservation and Policy Campaigner
604-700-3280, lucero@wildernesscommittee.org
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Five years later, BC is still failing to protect old-growth forests

Five years after the release of the Old-Growth Strategic Review report, the BC NDP’s momentum towards a “new, holistic approach” to the management of old-growth forests has slowed almost to the point of regression. 

“Rather than the ‘paradigm shift’ we were promised, we’ve seen Premier Eby’s government doubling down on its prioritization of timber and industry profits over all other values,” said Eddie Petryshen, Wildsight Conservation Specialist.

“Large portions of the East Kootenays now contain less than 10% of their historical old-growth stands, and every field season I see fresh clearcuts and roads in the old and ancient forests that our deep-snow caribou rely on. It’s hugely disappointing.”

After its public release on September 11, 2020, the BC NDP government promised to enact all 14 recommendations made in the landmark Old-Growth Strategic Review (OGSR). The goal: to shift its focus towards ecosystem health, rather than timber.

Since then, temporary logging deferrals have been put in place in high-risk old-growth stands in some parts of the province, and a 2023 Draft Biodiversity and Ecosystem Health Framework was released for public review. But the framework still hasn’t been finalized, and the temporary deferrals remain just that — stopgap measures that leave large areas of old-growth on the cut block. Across the province, deferrals have been implemented in approximately 40 percent of the high-risk old growth identified by the Technical Advisory Panel. 

“Five years on, the government has barely made any progress on its commitments to protect old growth and usher in a new era of land management. Wildsight is concerned it’s now regressing back to the outdated concept that these forests only have value when they’ve been cut down,” said Petryshen.

“Just last year, before the provincial election, Premier Eby pledged to achieve an assured annual harvest level of 45 million cubic metres, which would be a 22% increase on our already unsustainable harvest levels. At the same time, he released an update on his government’s ‘progress’ towards the OGSR recommendations.” 

“This is a leader who knows his voters care deeply about the protection of old-growth forests and so says the right words. But when push comes to shove, he is still putting industry interests ahead of our wildlife, climate and clean water.”

“The fire sale of British Columbia’s last old-growth forests must stop. These forests are not a renewable resource; once they are gone, there is no getting them — or the species that will disappear with them — back.”

-30-

Wildsight is a registered charity that protects biodiversity and encourages sustainable communities in Canada’s Columbia and Rocky Mountain regions. We work with industry, scientists, the teaching community and all levels of government, including First Nations, to shape and influence land-use decisions, guide practice and steward change on the ground. At our heart, we are a grassroots organization, harnessing our power from the people whose lives affect and are affected by our work.

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