OVERVIEW OF LOGGING IN CLAYOQUOT SOUND: 2000-2009
Date:
Sunday, November 1, 2009 (All day) 
Source:
Terrestrial Committee, Clayoquot Biosphere Trust 
Executive Summary
Clayoquot Sound is an area of land and ocean on the west coast of central Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. It encompasses 272,000 hectares of terrestrial area (263,000 land / 9,000 lakes), and 78,000 hectares of Pacific Ocean. Globally rare temperate rainforest covers 90% (244,000 hectares) of Clayoquot’s terrestrial area and includes 181,000 hectares of old growth forest. Currently 173,800 hectares of terrestrial area are in various logging tenures. Over the last 21 years (1988-2008) approximately 6,260,000 cubic metres of wood were logged in Clayoquot Sound, virtually all old growth.
Overall, Vancouver Island has lost ¾ of its productive old growth forest to clearcut logging. Although Clayoquot comprises only 8% of Vancouver Island, it contains the largest area of old growth forest on the island and the island’s only cluster of intact (pristine) valleys, undisturbed by logging or other development. Currently, 60% of Clayoquot’s terrestrial base is off limits to logging: 91,400 hectares in parks, and 67,800 hectares in Scientific Panel watershed reserves within logging tenures.
The report gives historical context and describes the logging activities, future plans and economic profile of Clayoquot Sound’s current logging operators: Iisaak Forest Resources, Ma-Mook Natural Resources/Coulson Forest Products, International Forest Products (Iterfor), Island Timberlands, BC Timber Sales and Ahousaht First Nation woodlot. The most contentious issue coming up is logging of Clayoquot Sound’s remaining intact valleys, as companies have run out of forest to cut in the developed (partly logged) areas of Clayoquot Sound.
About This Report
The purpose of this report is to provide a one-stop overview of logging in Clayoquot Sound for the residents of the Clayoquot Sound Biosphere Reserve region as well as for the wider public, since no such document currently exists. The report focuses on the period from 2000 when Clayoquot Sound became a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, and also gives background context.
The forestry situation in Clayoquot has become more complex than in the well-publicized 1990s when MacMillan Bloedel and Interfor were the two logging companies operating here. At the same time, concise understandable information is not readily available, as it is dispersed among BC government agencies and logging companies, often in technical format, and not all of it is public.
As well, since 2006 publicly advertised 5-year logging plans no longer show proposed cutblocks and roads, depriving locals and the public of this previously available information about logging companies’ current and future operations.
This report is based mostly on original research and brings together information from various sources:
-Friends of Clayoquot Sound Forest Watch files, 1994 to present
-BC Ministry of Forests and Range (hereafter referred to just as Ministry of Forests)
-Clayoquot Sound Technical Planning Committee, Integrated Land Management Bureau, BC Ministry of Forests
-the logging operators in Clayoquot Sound: Iisaak, Ma-Mook Coulson, Interfor, Island Timberlands, BC Timber Sales
-Sierra Club of BC, Western Canada Wilderness Committee, Ecotrust Canada
The author can be contacted at Friends of Clayoquot Sound, maryjka at focs.ca.
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