Sign Our Petition

British Columbia’s forests are among the most diverse and carbon-rich on Earth. Yet every year, British Columbia continues to log vast areas of remaining primary and old-growth forests – ecosystems that are globally rare and irreplaceable.

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The results of this mismanagement are everywhere: collapsed wildlife populations, degraded watersheds, shuttered mills, and hollowed-out forestry towns. Jobs and small forestry businesses have declined alongside the forests, while profits flow to shareholders and investments leave the province.

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Over five years ago, BC’s provincial government made significant commitments to transition from timber extraction to ecosystem health and a value-based forest economy. Yet little has been implemented in terms of policy changes, stewardship and industry transition.

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These commitments have already been made — but not kept.

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The Province of British Columbia must now breathe life back into its forests and waters and get on the right side of history — fulfilling its moral and legal obligations to biodiversity, climate stability, and future generations.

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We call on the Province of British Columbia to:

1. Overhaul stewardship through implementation of Old Growth Strategic Review recommendations, including implementation of an ecosystem health law.

2. Direct a smaller, sustainable harvest into local, value-added producers that creates more jobs for less harvest, keeps profits and jobs in BC, and puts the control back in local hands.

3. Permanently protect the last irreplaceable old-growth forests.

4. Direct conservation financing so no First Nation is forced to choose between survival and stewardship.

5. Invest in restoration, carbon, and nature-based economies that heal rather than deplete the land.

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The petition was prepared by two independent scientists in British Columbia:

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• Dr. Suzanne Simard, R.P.F., Mother Tree Network Society

• Dr. Rachel F. Holt, R.P.Bio., independent ecologist