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> The provincial government of British Columbia says old-growth forests are particularly important and that companies should put off logging them. Why, then, s

> The provincial government of British Columbia says old-growth forests are particularly important and that companies should put off logging them. Why, then, selling those licenses in the first place? Sounds like something that could be made illegal if there was an actual will to do so. https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/industry/forestry/forest-tenures/timber-harvesting-rights/forest-licences https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/industry/forestry/forest-...

chaostheory 4y ago
Is it a federal license or a provincial one? It would be ironic if they were granted one from the province
- charles_f 4y ago
  Would be even more ironic if it were the federal[1] [1] https://globalnews.ca/news/8346968/cop26-pledge-deforestation-canada/ https://globalnews.ca/news/8346968/cop26-pledge-deforestatio...
- Tiktaalik 4y ago
  resources are a provincial thing so I'm not even sure if it's really possible for this to be a federal license. I mean, maybe so if the feds owned a bunch of land (ie. say from an old military base) that was wooded and they logged it, but this seems like an edge case. The "crown" land in BC is controlled by the Province.
blooalien 4y ago
Because old growth is also the most desirable wood and therefore valuable, and money is more important than literally anything else in the history of everything? (I'm just spit-ballin' a guess here, as I don't really know the answer either…)
- voisin 4y ago
  Reminds me of this: https://www.derekchristensen.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/shareholdervalue.jpg https://www.derekchristensen.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/...
- MonkeyMalarky 4y ago
  Don't worry, those trees will (maybe) grow back in hundreds of years. What's so bad about taking some short term profits in the mean time, right?
  - thomascgalvin 4y ago
    Hey, assuming humanity is still alive, that's just in time for our great-great-great-great-great grandchildren to enjoy them!
  - cjbgkagh 4y ago
    I wonder if trees grown in periods of high CO2 result in higher or lower quality timber.
    - hoosieree 4y ago
      Unscientific guess - trees are mostly carbon, so more CO2 can support more wood. Of course, we aren't simply adding CO2 while keeping everything else equal. Worse growing conditions due to drought or whatever don't help trees.
    - kevin_thibedeau 4y ago
      Fast growing trees tend to make inferior lumber. This is readily apparent with modern plantation grown species like fir and poplar that are not as high a quality as the same trees grown in natural forest conditions where their growth is slowed by competition for space.
      - beachy 4y ago
        Inferior perhaps but adequate for purpose e.g building houses. In that sense fast growing trees are superior.
      - citrusybread 4y ago
        not true for all woods. fast grown oak is better: https://blog.lostartpress.com/2020/11/17/slow-growth-oak-why-its-the-best/ https://blog.lostartpress.com/2020/11/17/slow-growth-oak-why... >Fast-growing oak has widely spaced annular rings, sometimes up to 1/4″ per year (see fig. 3.3, above). This timber is exceedingly strong because it has fewer rings, which creates a great concentration of the dense latewood that grows in the summer. But the resulting timber is visually distracting. Its radial face comes out looking heavily striped. It can also be difficult to work; it has an uneven texture resulting from the widely spaced transitions between the earlywood and latewood.
katbyte 4y ago
Recently a bunch of the old growth logging was on First Nations land so it was up to them iirc.
Tiktaalik 4y ago
For reference there has been a significant amount of protests in recent months about old growth logging in BC so this is a controversial issue. The current government has "deferred" a bunch of old growth logging licenses as part of damage control efforts in response to the criticism. A complicating factor is the fact that indigenous nations of BC are gaining more and more strength and control over their traditional territories and are not necessarily opposed to logging. Recently a nation on Vancouver island asked protestors to go home.

chaostheory 4y ago

Is it a federal license or a provincial one? It would be ironic if they were granted one from the province

charles_f 4y ago
Would be even more ironic if it were the federal[1] [1] https://globalnews.ca/news/8346968/cop26-pledge-deforestation-canada/ https://globalnews.ca/news/8346968/cop26-pledge-deforestatio...
Tiktaalik 4y ago
resources are a provincial thing so I'm not even sure if it's really possible for this to be a federal license. I mean, maybe so if the feds owned a bunch of land (ie. say from an old military base) that was wooded and they logged it, but this seems like an edge case. The "crown" land in BC is controlled by the Province.

blooalien 4y ago

Because old growth is also the most desirable wood and therefore valuable, and money is more important than literally anything else in the history of everything? (I'm just spit-ballin' a guess here, as I don't really know the answer either…)

voisin 4y ago
Reminds me of this: https://www.derekchristensen.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/shareholdervalue.jpg https://www.derekchristensen.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/...
MonkeyMalarky 4y ago
Don't worry, those trees will (maybe) grow back in hundreds of years. What's so bad about taking some short term profits in the mean time, right?
- thomascgalvin 4y ago
  Hey, assuming humanity is still alive, that's just in time for our great-great-great-great-great grandchildren to enjoy them!
- cjbgkagh 4y ago
  I wonder if trees grown in periods of high CO2 result in higher or lower quality timber.
  - hoosieree 4y ago
    Unscientific guess - trees are mostly carbon, so more CO2 can support more wood. Of course, we aren't simply adding CO2 while keeping everything else equal. Worse growing conditions due to drought or whatever don't help trees.
  - kevin_thibedeau 4y ago
    Fast growing trees tend to make inferior lumber. This is readily apparent with modern plantation grown species like fir and poplar that are not as high a quality as the same trees grown in natural forest conditions where their growth is slowed by competition for space.
    - beachy 4y ago
      Inferior perhaps but adequate for purpose e.g building houses. In that sense fast growing trees are superior.
    - citrusybread 4y ago
      not true for all woods. fast grown oak is better: https://blog.lostartpress.com/2020/11/17/slow-growth-oak-why-its-the-best/ https://blog.lostartpress.com/2020/11/17/slow-growth-oak-why... >Fast-growing oak has widely spaced annular rings, sometimes up to 1/4″ per year (see fig. 3.3, above). This timber is exceedingly strong because it has fewer rings, which creates a great concentration of the dense latewood that grows in the summer. But the resulting timber is visually distracting. Its radial face comes out looking heavily striped. It can also be difficult to work; it has an uneven texture resulting from the widely spaced transitions between the earlywood and latewood.

katbyte 4y ago

Recently a bunch of the old growth logging was on First Nations land so it was up to them iirc.

Tiktaalik 4y ago

For reference there has been a significant amount of protests in recent months about old growth logging in BC so this is a controversial issue. The current government has "deferred" a bunch of old growth logging licenses as part of damage control efforts in response to the criticism. A complicating factor is the fact that indigenous nations of BC are gaining more and more strength and control over their traditional territories and are not necessarily opposed to logging. Recently a nation on Vancouver island asked protestors to go home.