Old Growth Logging in Endangered Caribou Habitat

Endangered southern mountain caribou in British Columbia rely on old forests, but the provincial government continues to permit old growth logging that threatens their survival. Research presented by Stand.earth, Wilderness Committee, and Wildsight highlights the risk to caribou habitat for three of the southernmost – and some of the most endangered – herds.

Key findings:

• • Old growth logging is continuing in endangered southern mountain caribou habitat, with logging and road-building documented as recently as May 2025.
  • Three of the southernmost remaining herds – Columbia North, Groundhog, and Wells Gray South – have an alarmingly high degree of risk to their habitat, with 58% of their combined habitat at risk of logging. The Columbia North caribou herd has the highest degree of risk, with 76% of their habitat at risk of logging.
  • Thousands of hectares of old growth and primary forests are currently pending approval for new logging, or have been approved for logging that has not yet taken place. Proposed and approved logging totals 5,713 hectares across the habitat of the Columbia North, Groundhog, and Wells Gray South herds.

• Human disturbance across the three ranges is exceptionally high: of the total habitat area of 2,188,626 hectares, about 889,394 or 41% is considered disturbed – meaning it is impacted by activities like clearcut logging, mining, hydroelectric infrastructure, and resource roads. This figure is well above the maximum disturbance threshold of 35% in matrix habitat and minimal – or as undisturbed as possible – in core habitat, according to what Canada considers acceptable under the species’ federal recovery strategy.

Calls to action:

The provincial government must work in true partnership with First Nations to advance protection for southern mountain caribou while fully upholding Nations’ right to free, prior and informed consent. With imminent logging in endangered caribou habitat, the Government of British Columbia must take urgent steps, including:

• Immediate measures to stop pending and proposed activity like old growth logging and road-building
• Instructing district office staff to withhold approvals for new logging in critically endangered southern mountain caribou habitat

Disclaimer: This document has been prepared using best practices and due diligence using information available at the date of publication. All information is subject to change. All data is obtained from public and/or government sources including but not limited to B.C. Government data sources. If you represent a company that appears in this material that you believe is not accurately represented, supplemental information can be sent to info@stand.earth.

Lead researcher: Tory Brantner
Researchers: Claire Goldberg and Geoff Senichenko
Contributors: Eddie Petryshen, Lucero Gonzalez, and Tegan Hansen

Southern mountain caribou are an iconic species in British Columbia that rely on old growth in inland rainforests to survive. In 2020, the federal government noted that southern mountain caribou had declined 53% over six years.

Southern mountain caribou are divided into several groups. The Southern Group and its habitat have been hit hardest with local extinction, with eight of 18 herds extirpated largely within the last two decades. Three of the southernmost remaining mountain caribou herds – which are considered to have the best chance of recovery – are the Wells Gray South, Groundhog, and Columbia North herds. Caribou in the Columbia Mountains were once the dominant ungulate in these systems, with thousands of caribou in places where today there are only hundreds. These caribou herds are already considered at high risk of extirpation while continuing to face enormous pressure to their habitat from ongoing logging.

Caribou and old growth:

Old forests are complex, rich ecosystems that mountain caribou rely on for their survival, including a primary food source: lichen, a symbiotic organism characteristic of these old forests in B.C. The destruction of old forests and the decline of southern mountain caribou are closely intertwined. Despite promising to put high-risk old growth forests off limits to logging as part of the Old Growth Strategic Review, the provincial government has continued to permit old growth logging in caribou habitat.

Defining old growth and caribou forests: The provincial government has multiple data sets defining old forests, and uses several age class definitions for old growth across the B.C. interior. That means in wetter forest types — for instance, through the Inland Temperate Rainforest — trees must be over 250 years old to meet the provincial definition for old growth. In the majority of interior forests, that age sits at 140 years. Southern mountain caribou depend on complex, old, and primary forest ecosystems for their survival — many of which fall between this age range, and have never been industrially logged. Given the importance of these forests and the need to accurately assess risk to caribou, this analysis uses a provincial forest cover dataset to define old growth as stands greater than 140 years across caribou habitat (see Figure 1). For this reason, some of the forests will meet the province’s age class definition for old growth, and some — at less than 250 years old — may be considered mature. We refer to these forests as “old” throughout this analysis.

British Columbia divides caribou ranges into core habitat – where caribou migrate, eat, breed, and calve – and matrix habitat – surrounding areas that impact caribou activity. Both areas are critical to the species’ survival. Risk to their habitat is determined by calculating the area open to resource extraction like logging. Across all three herds, risk is considered high at 58%.

Breaking down risk to the herds at highest risk of local extinction:

Columbia North
The Columbia North herd faces the highest degree of risk to their habitat, at 76%. Additionally, 68% of the herd’s core habitat is considered at risk, while 88% of their matrix habitat is at risk of logging (see Figure 3).

Groundhog
Between the Columbia North and the Wells Gray South herds, Groundhog’s smaller habitat area also features a high degree of risk. Of the herd’s total habitat, 68% is at risk, which translates into 35% risk in core habitat and 87% risk in matrix habitat.

Wells Gray South
While the Wells Gray South herd has a higher degree of habitat protection than Columbia North, the herd still faces a significant degree of risk, at 42% in total. The majority of this risk is in the herd’s matrix habitat at 75%, with 19% of risk in core habitat.

Examples of recent old growth logging in caribou habitat:

High risk translates to destruction on the ground. Forest Eye alerts and satellite monitoring have documented old growth logging across critical habitat for the Columbia North, Groundhog, and Wells Gray South caribou herds – as recently as May 2025.

Recent Logging (since March 2025) in Columbia North habitat

• Louisiana Ltd. is logging old growth forests in April 2025 near Shuswap Lake in the Okanagan region, and an estimated 2.7 hectares of a possible 4 hectares cut has been harvested so far.
• Interfor logged an estimated 22.7 hectares of old growth forests in April 2025 near Mt Celista in the Okanagan region.
• Louisiana Ltd. is logging old growth forests in April 2025 near Seymour River in the Okanagan region and an estimated 10.13 hectares of a possible 36.52 hectares cut has been harvested so far.
• Interfor Corporation is logging old growth forests in March 2025 near Upper Adams River Park in the Thompson-Okanagan region, and an estimated 11.9 hectares of a possible 19.3 hectares cut has been harvested so far.
• Canoe Forest Products logged an estimated 23.7 hectares of old growth forests in March 2025 near Mt. Mobley in the Thompson-Okanagan region.

Less Recent Logging (since December 2023) in Groundhog habitat

• Interfor logged an estimated 7.47 hectares of old growth forests in July 2024 near North Thompson River in the Thompson-Okanagan region.
• Interfor logged an estimated 4.9 hectares of candidate old growth deferrals in December 2023 near Foghorn Creek in the Okanagan region.

Pending logging and permit approvals in caribou habitat:

There are currently thousands of hectares of cutblocks that could soon be logged, most of which are pending approval by B.C.’s Ministry of Forests staff in district offices across the southern interior. Some forests are still standing, but have been approved for logging. Hundreds of hectares overlap old growth forests that were mapped for candidate logging deferrals as part of the Old Growth Strategic Review recommendations, which the provincial government committed to implement but so far has not.

Using two provincial datasets – the Forest Operations Map (FOM) and the Forest Tenure Administration (FTEN) – we assessed both approved cutblocks and proposed cutblocks, which are pending approval by the B.C. government. The majority of approved and pending cutblocks were found within the FOM Cutblock layer.

By herd, there were 2,398 hectares of approved logging and pending approvals in Columbia North habitat; 1,456 hectares in Groundhog habitat; and 1,860 hectares in Wells Gray South habitat. Across all three herds’ habitat, that totals 5,713 hectares of forest that has either been approved for logging or is pending approval, as of the completion of this analysis.

Companies responsible for logging caribou forests:

A handful of logging companies are having a disproportionate impact on the destruction of old growth forests across the endangered caribou habitat of the Columbia North, Groundhog, and Wells Gray South herds. These companies include West Fraser, Interfor, Canoe Forest Products, Stella-Jones, Integrated Fibre, and Louisiana-Pacific.

Top five companies’ approved cutblocks (in hectares) for logging across all three caribou herds:

spacer

Columbia North:

spacer

Groundhog:

spacer

Wells Gray South:

spacer

Top five companies’ pending cutblocks for logging across all three caribou herds: 

spacer

Columbia North:

spacer

Groundhog:

spacer

Wells Gray South:

spacer

High disturbance means high risk of extinction:

Overall disturbance reflects the degree to which human activity like road-building and logging has fragmented caribou habitat, making it harder for the animals to safely breed and calve, find food, escape predators, and survive in the long-term. In Canada, under the Federal Recovery Plan for caribou, the lowest acceptable threshold is 65% – meaning that a minimum of about two thirds of a caribou’s matrix range should be undisturbed by human activities like industrial resource extraction. In core habitat, 100% of core caribou habitat must remain undisturbed to support effective recovery. Each one of the southern mountain caribou herds in this analysis far exceeds this disturbance threshold, meaning that their habitat is not sufficiently protected to ensure their survival.

Of the three herds’ total habitat area of 2,188,626 hectares, about 889,394 or 41% has been disturbed by industrial activity. The Columbia North herd has 42% of its habitat disturbed, while the Groundhog herd has 69% of its habitat disturbed, and Wells Gray South has 33% of its habitat disturbed. Overall, that means for these three herds, the habitat disturbance threshold of 35% in matrix habitat has already been exceeded across the total habitat (in both matrix and core), except for in Wells Gray South – which is approaching the threshold. In core habitat disturbance is meant to be kept as close to zero or undisturbed as possible. All three herds have had their core habitat significantly disturbed, with a level of 35% for Columbia North, 47% for Groundhog, and 20% for Wells Gray South. Despite this high level of existing disturbance, the B.C. government continues to approve new logging permits.

Conclusion:

The risk facing endangered southern mountain caribou habitat is unacceptably high. Urgent action is needed from the Government of British Columbia to protect endangered caribou habitat, starting with immediate measures to stop pending activity like old growth logging and road-building, and instructing district office staff to withhold approvals for new logging in critically endangered southern mountain caribou habitat – especially that of three of the southernmost remaining herds with viable populations: Columbia North, Groundhog, and Wells Gray South.

The need to protect southern mountain caribou habitat is clear and urgent. These areas also overlap with First Nations territories, whose inherent rights and title must be respected. The provincial government must work in true partnership with First Nations to advance protection while fully upholding their right to free, prior, and informed consent as recognized by the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Stopping proposed logging is an essential short-term measure to ensure First Nations title holders, the provincial and federal governments can implement successful strategies to protect and recover southern mountain caribou, and the old growth forests they depend on. With imminent logging across caribou forests, action must be taken immediately to give caribou a chance to recover and thrive.

Notes on methodology and sources:

The purpose of this analysis is to identify areas at risk of logging in B.C. caribou habitat.

Data Limitations

Defining Old Growth (Map 8 vs. Vegetative Resource Inventory)

Identifying old growth in B.C. can yield different results depending on the definitions and datasets used in the analysis. In this research, we used two datasets to define old growth: the Map 8 Old Growth layer (2021), which follows the Technical Advisory Panel (TAP) criteria and does not require additional queries, and the Vegetative Resource Inventory (VRI) R1 dataset (2024), where old growth was defined as stands classified as either “old” or “mature” with an age greater than 140 years.

While the Map 8 layer reflects TAP-defined criteria for old growth forests, it does not account for areas logged since 2021. The VRI R1 dataset offers more current information on recent harvesting but is known to include some uncertainty in forest attributes such as age class. By using both datasets, this analysis provides a balanced and transparent approach to identifying old growth, while recognizing that differences in data sources and definitions can influence how old growth areas are represented in spatial analyses.

Duplicate Polygons in FTEN and FOM Cutblock Datasets

Duplicate polygons were present in both the FTEN Cutblocks and Forest Operations Map (FOM) datasets. To minimize duplication, the Delete Identical tool in ArcGIS Pro was used to remove redundant features where polygons had the same geometry and area. This step ensured cleaner, more accurate spatial data for further analysis.

GIS Methodology

Data layers were clipped to the B.C. Caribou Herds of interest extent (Columbia North, Groundhog, and Wells Gray South). Once layers were clipped, a union was executed to roll-up the data into a single resultant table.

Data Dictionary

GIS Methodology 2 – Human Disturbance Impacting Herds Habitat

1. Clip Layers – all map layers were first clipped to the three caribou herd boundaries – Columbia North, Groundhog and Wells Gray South.
2. A Consolidated Human Disturbance layer was first created by taking the “BC Cumulative Effects Framework – Human Disturbance – 2023” layer and performing an Update overlay with “Harvested Areas of BC (Consolidated Cutblocks)” layer and logged queried “VRI R1 2024” to obtain an up to date Human Disturbance layer and to capture logged areas missed by the cumulative effects framework layer.
3. Buffered Consolidated Human Disturbance layer was then created by buffering the “Consolidated Human Disturbance layer” created in step 2 above with a distance of 500m.
4. Buffered Roads Disturbance layer was created by taking the “BC Cumulative Effects Framework – Integrated Roads – 2024” and buffering it by 500m.
5. Final Buffered Consolidated Human Disturbance layer was created by doing a Union of the “Buffered Consolidated Human Disturbance layer” (from step 3) and “Buffered Roads Disturbance layer” (from step 4 above) and then a subsequent Dissolve was done.
6. Habitat NOT Disturbed layer was created by doing an Erase overlay on the “BC Caribou Habitat” layer with the “Final Buffered Consolidated Human Disturbance layer” as the “eraser”.
7. Area in hectares was calculated on all the resultant layers by using the “Calculate Field” tool.

Data Dictionary 2