Thursday, August 25, 2016
Next year Canada turns 150. What better present than a gift to the futur…
Continue readingThursday, August 25, 2016
Next year Canada turns 150. What better present than a gift to the futur…
Continue readingThursday, August 25, 2016
Next year Canada turns 150. What better present than a gift to the futur…
Continue readingMonday, September 21, 2015 Even though water has been at the heart of logging conflicts in BC for many years, it is very rare that logging companies are actually made to pay financially when they harm watercourses. That’s why a rare out-of-court settlement announced this past week between logging giant,
Continue readingTuesday, July 8, 2014 Governments and businesses rely heavily on the advice of professionals on a wide range of environmental, resource management and land use planning decisions. That’s why it’s critical that the professionals who are making key decisions about our ecosystems and the evolution of our communities know about
Continue readingTuesday, June 17, 2014 Several of the most contentious changes to environmental laws passed during the 2014 spring session of the BC Legislature seem to have been developed, and pushed through, in a mad rush and without adequate public consultation. The goal of these laws seems, at least in part,
Continue readingThursday, May 22, 2014 The Mountain Pine Beetle epidemic – a direct result of climate change – has cost British Columbia billions in lost timber value alone – a reality that has influenced the public consciousness of British Columbians about the cost of climate change. Public awareness that climate change
Continue readingThursday, April 10, 2014 Following hot on the heels of the controversial Park Amendment Act (Bill 4), the BC government has introduced another bill that would open up some of the province’s most publicly valuable lands – in this case, its farmlands – to industrial development. Bill 24, the Agricultural Land
Continue readingMonday, March 31, 2014 The BC government has proposed changes to the Agricultural Land Commission Act thatput our food security seriously at risk. If passed, these changes would restrict the role of the independent chair of the Agricultural Land Commission, one of BC’s biggest agricultural champions. They would also divide
Continue readingMonday, March 10, 2014 With the BC Legislature’s Spring Session in full swing, there are lots of new, proposed laws to read and comment on, and we’ve been drawing your attention to legislation that we view as problematic (related to Parks and ownership of lakes, for example), but not all
Continue readingFriday, March 7, 2014 Can a private resort company own a lake? If so, are the fish in the lake private or public? And can the resort keep the public from fishing in that lake? These critical questions are central to a David vs. Goliath battle unfolding in BC’s Nicola
Continue readingTuesday, February 25, 2014 A little more than a week ago (on February 13th), the Association of BC Forest Professionals (ABCFP) awarded its first ever “Climate Change Innovators” Award to Alex Woods, a Forest Pathologist working for the BC Government. The launch of this award, a clear statement on the
Continue readingThursday, January 23, 2014 When the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations (FLNRO) tries to detect violations of BC’s forest laws, do they put their efforts into detecting violations by large logging companies or small-scale operators? It turns out that small-scale operators and individuals get over half of
Continue readingFriday, December 20, 2013 We’ve reviewed the Ministry of Forest, Lands and Natural Resource Operations Compliance and Enforcement Annual Reports from 1998 to 2012. And what we've found raises a whole lot of questions – dramatic declines in inspections and in the fines imposed on the forest industry, but stable
Continue readingThursday, March 28, 2013 In BC, key protection for fish habitat is supposed to be provided by the Riparian Areas Regulation (RAR) – a law intended to ensure that residential and other development is set back from the waterways that provide critical fish habitat on lands regulated by local governments.
Continue readingTuesday, March 12, 2013 In December 2012 the Environmental Law Centre at the University of Victoria published a collection of environmental law reform proposals, with contributions from a variety of leading environmental lawyers, which included a number of essays from West Coast Environmental Law. This essay, by West Coast Environmental
Continue readingWednesday, February 27, 2013 Last Wednesday (Feb 20th) the Provincial government announced proposed amendments to the Forest Act that will provide for the conversion of volume-based forest licences to area-based tree farm licences. This change has the potential to increase corporate control over our forests. At West Coast we have
Continue readingFriday, October 12, 2012 A recently announced agreement between the Province of British Columbia and the Gitanyow Nation is of deep significance not only for the people, the land, and the water of the Gitanyow territories in the mid-Nass and Skeena (upper Kitwanga and upper Kispiox) watersheds, but for all
Continue readingTuesday, April 10, 2012 In 2004 the residents of the tiny community of Stillwater, near Powell River, learned that BC Timber Sales (BCTS) was planning to auction off the rights to clearcut 12.5 hectares in the Jefferd Creek watershed, which is the source of their drinking water. Well, it’s been
Continue readingThursday, January 28, 2010
For some time West Coast Environmental Law has been advocating for the BC government to change the way it manages forests to recognize the reality of climate change.&nb…
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