Millions of trees on the way for ravaged B.C. forests
Written By
Aviña De Gante Paula Ivanna
The B.C. Climate Leadership Plan was met with lukewarm reviews last week, but the province's reforestation industry sees the potential for a major surge in tree planting operations.
To meet carbon reduction goals, the province has called for 300,000 hectares of forests damaged by wildfire and pine beetle to be rehabilitated over the next five years in order to turn the forests back into a carbon sink. It's titled the Forest Carbon Initiative.
While the overall Climate Leadership Plan was panned by environmentalists who don't believe it will lead to any meaningful reduction in GHGs, for many members of the province's forestry sector, the commitment stands out.
"If this is really 300,000 hectares that are going to treated over five years, then that would amount to [the replanting] of hundreds of millions of seedlings," said John Betts, director of the Western Silvicultural Contractors' Association. "That would be huge."
Betts says the Forest Carbon Initiative represents the largest commitment the industry has seen out of the government in decades.
The pine beetle has damaged over 17 million hectares of forests in British Columbia, and decaying logs contributes significantly to the province's greenhouse gas emissions.
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