Truckloads of Trees: Drax sourced wood pellets from old growth forests in B.C. in 2024, and likely 2025

Our findings indicate a need for urgent action – including a ban on the use of whole trees to make wood pellets and sourcing from old growth, as well as an immediate end to public subsidies.

HEADER IMAGE: Cutblock on Stellat’en territory containing old growth trees that was logged by West Fraser, and linked through the timber mark (EM5776) to Drax’s Burns Lake wood pellet plant. Photo by Desiree Wallace / Stand.earth, June 2025.

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Disclaimer:

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

Key research findings: 

Data pulled from the Government of British Columbia’s Harvest Billing System and confirmed using Forest Eye’s satellite monitoring shows that Drax sourced old growth trees in 2024 for wood pellets to be exported and burned as electricity.

In 2024, Drax received at least 90 truck loads of confirmed coastal old growth whole logs from three cutblocks in the Skeena region.

• The old growth logs purchased by Drax in April and May 2024 were predominately mountain hemlock and fir trees classified as over 250 years old, with some classified as irreplaceable or high priority for old growth conservation under the B.C. government’s framework.

In 2024 and 2025, Drax received at least an additional 425 truck loads of whole logs that likely included old growth trees.

• Sixty-three of these truckloads of whole logs came from three cutblocks in the Skeena region that were over 90% old growth forest, meaning that this purchase almost certainly contained old growth.
• The remaining 362 truckloads of whole logs that our research identified came from 22 cutblocks in the Skeena region that were over 80% old growth, meaning that it is likely they contained old growth.

The true volume of old growth sourced by Drax is likely higher than what our research was able to track, because of spatial data limitations.

Our data also strongly suggests that Drax sourced whole logs from sensitive moose habitat, which is meant to be protected but still allows logging under certain conditions. In the spring and summer of 2024, Drax received 219 truckloads of whole logs from a set of cutblocks that overlapped with moose habitat in the Skeena region.

These research findings were underscored by firsthand documentation at Drax’s Burns Lake wood pellet yard in June and August 2025, which confirmed old growth sourcing and the presence of large, old trees.

Introduction

The province of British Columbia (B.C.) in Canada is home to some of the world’s last-remaining old growth forests. These rare, biodiverse forests are vital ecosystems that store massive amounts of carbon and as such, are one of the best natural defences we have against climate change. Every forest is located on First Nations’ territories. They hold cultural significance for many First Nations and are sources of food, medicines, and community resiliency. Old growth forests are also critical habitats to many species that are at risk of extinction.

Decades of widespread industrial logging across B.C. has left a just tiny fraction of old growth standing. In recent decades, when old growth forests in B.C. are in a more precarious position than ever, a new threat to their survival has emerged – the forest biomass export industry.

The international forest biomass industry promotes burning wood in the form of pellets or chips to generate electricity at utility scale. As many countries move to decrease their use of fossil fuels, burning biomass to produce energy has been promoted as a sustainable alternative to burning coal. In reality, burning biomass often emits as much or more carbon dioxide than coal at the smokestack. Proponents claim that woody biomass is renewable energy because new trees planted will eventually absorb back the carbon emitted when the wood pellets were burned. However, this process takes decades to replace even small trees and would take hundreds of years or even longer for old growth forests, which store vast amounts of carbon and are effectively irreplaceable as carbon sinks. The growing demand for biomass fuel has also been linked to logging in sensitive forest ecosystems, resulting in concerns about its negative impact on biodiversity.

Despite being a highly polluting energy source with sourcing practices that have been alleged to degrade natural forests, woody biomass currently accounts for 55 percent of so-called “renewable energy” worldwide. And the global biomass industry is positioned to expand even further, threatening natural forests around the world. The carbon-rich, natural, and biodiverse forests in B.C. are among those being clearcut to provide fuel for the biomass energy sector.

British Columbia exports more wood pellets than any other province in Canada, totalling almost half of what Canada ships abroad. Most of these pellets end up at power generating stations in Japan, the United Kingdom, and South Korea, as well as in European Union countries like Denmark, France, and the Netherlands.

Pelletizing old growth to burn as fuel for power grids overseas is not only an additional contributor to the growing climate crisis, but also an egregious use of irreplaceable forests in the midst of a biodiversity crisis in British Columbia. Furthermore, converting whole trees into wood pellets is a poor jobs proposition for struggling forest communities in the province, and entrenches logging practices like clearcutting that elevate the risk of wildfires and floods for local communities.

Under Investigation: International biomass giant Drax

One of the leading players in the global biomass industry is the United Kingdom’s Drax, an international company that has a near-monopoly on wood pellet production in British Columbia.

The Drax Power Station, located in North Yorkshire, England, is the single largest power station in the U.K., generating about 5% of the country’s energy. In 2013, it completed the conversion of its first unit to solely burn biomass instead of coal. It burned coal for the last time in 2023 and has been burning only biomass since then. According to independent energy think tank Ember, Drax’s power plant is the top carbon emitter in the U.K. and has been for the last 10 years running. Recent analysis from Ember found that emissions from the biomass plant increased by 16% in 2024 alone, and are now greater than the country’s six largest gas plants combined. Drax is expected to remain the top polluter in the U.K. through 2030 due to government subsidies because it is classified as “carbon neutral” despite making no progress on biomass energy carbon capture and storage (BECCS).

In addition to sourcing wood pellets from B.C. to burn in its own power station in the U.K., Drax also exports them to Asian and European countries. In 2021, Drax purchased Canadian wood pellet company Pinnacle and contracts of Pacific BioEnergy, and it now directly owns and operates 10 pellet mills in B.C. and Alberta.

The company is also underpinned by billions in public subsidies. In 2024, Drax received £869 million in renewable energy subsidies from the U.K. government (which relies on biomass to meet its renewable energy targets) – or more than £2 million a day.

Over the past several years, investigative reports, documentaries, and shareholder reports all confirm that biomass companies are increasingly turning to logging whole trees and primary forests to supply pellet plants. In particular, Drax’s sourcing practices in B.C. have come under increased public and government scrutiny. A 2024 investigation by Land and Climate Review found that Drax and its suppliers’ wood pellet plants in B.C. and Alberta violated environmental laws at least 189 times since Drax began sourcing pellets from Canada.

In 2024, Drax paid a £25 million fine for failing to properly disclose full data on its wood sourcing from Canada. In the same year, the U.K. National Audit Office declared a lack of confidence in the government’s ability to demonstrate that the biomass supply chains Drax relies on to meet its net zero goals and subsidies with billions of public funding each year are sustainable. Past U.K. Energy Ministers have been quoted saying that Drax’s supply chain “is not sustainable” and “doesn’t make any sense,” even calling biomass carbon accounting “barmy in wonderland stuff.” And a former senior lobbyist turned whistleblower has said that during her time at the company, Drax was “misleading the public, government and its regulator” about its green credentials.

Most recently, in August 2025, Drax’s share price tumbled after the U.K.’s Financial Conduct Authority opened an investigation into the company’s past statements regarding its biomass sourcing.

Previous investigative research from Biofuelwatch, Bulkley Valley Stewardship Coalition, and Conservation North in their 2024 report Logging What’s Left highlighted Drax’s sourcing of old growth in 2023, as did reporting from the BBC.

Our latest analysis adds to this body of evidence by definitively confirming that Drax purchased whole logs from old growth forests in 2024, and likely into 2025. The research methodology is presented in further detail below.

Denials from the B.C. Government

Provincial government officials and Drax have downplayed previous investigations that linked old growth to biomass sourced from B.C. Both the B.C. government and Drax have consistently claimed that wood pellet sourcing makes use of so-called waste wood, which would otherwise be burned as slash piles in cutblocks.

Responding to media inquiries about the findings of Drax’s continued old growth sourcing in the 2024 Logging What’s Left report, B.C. officials repeated the claim that wood pellets are “made almost entirely from waste fibre.” In March 2024 correspondence to the CBC, the B.C. Ministry of Forests claimed, “Reports that whole forests and quality sawlogs are being turned into pellets by the forestry industry are simply false.”

Speaking to an audience in Nelson in August 2024, B.C. Premier David Eby said, “I know that the pellet industry has taken a lot of waste wood and generated jobs out of wood that was otherwise burned in slash piles on sites at previously logged areas.”

This statement is misleading because it gives the impression that wood pellets are mostly, if not exclusively, manufactured from slash piles. Documentation in wood pellet sourcing areas over multiple years, up to and including from the summer of 2025, has shown large clearcuts full of massive slash piles waiting to be burned, while whole logs were trucked away to be turned into pellets.

Despite promising to protect old growth, the B.C. government continues to permit logging of these rare, irreplaceable forests and today only small fragments are left of once-vast ecosystems that have been stewarded and managed by First Nations for millennia. Stand.earth’s satellite monitoring tool Forest Eye has tracked a disproportionate amount of old growth logging in the Skeena and Omineca regions – areas where there is also a concentration of wood pellet plants operated by Drax.

In the wake of these denials and continued old growth logging in B.C., our team set out to investigate whether Drax was still buying whole trees from rare old growth forests to turn into wood pellets. This research combines government data with spatial analysis, supported by satellite monitoring and on-the-ground documentation, and it definitively concludes that Drax has continued to source old growth to produce wood pellets for biomass fuel. Old growth sourcing for biomass was consistent throughout 2024 and has likely continued into 2025.

Research Approach

In British Columbia, the Ministry of Forests operates the Harvest Billing System (HBS) to track logging in the public record. This system uses invoices that include information like harvest license, species of tree logged, and the grade of trees — a classification used to rate timber for their milling value. These invoices are generated from scale sites, facilities where each truckload of harvested logs is weighed and measured before being sent to a mill or pellet plant. Scale sites record the volume, species, and grade of the timber, which allows companies and the government to track how much merchantable (usable) wood is harvested.

Each load arriving at a scale site is associated with one or more timber marks, unique codes assigned by the B.C. Ministry of Forests, which identifies the forest area where logs were harvested. Timber marks are often stamped or painted onto logs for tracking and billing in the Harvest Billing System. Since each timber mark is linked to a specific cutting permit and geographic area, it can be connected to spatial datasets of approved cutblocks. By combining timber mark information with cutblock data and mapping it against old growth forests, it is possible to show where logging has occurred on the landscape.

Detailed Findings

• Drax has received at least 3,039 truck loads of logs sourced from forests containing at-risk old growth.
• In 2024, Drax received 90 truck loads of confirmed coastal old growth forests from three cutblocks in the Skeena region.
• Our data strongly suggests that in addition to old growth, Drax also sourced whole logs from sensitive moose habitat.

Drax Continues Sourcing from Old Growth Forests

Using the Harvest Billing System to map Drax’s pellet sourcing areas against old growth forests reveals a shocking overlap. Since January 2024, Drax’s Houston, Burns Lake, and Meadowbank pellet plants in British Columbia (Figure 1) have received at least 3,039 truck loads of logs sourced from forests containing at-risk old growth.

Overall, the analysis shows that Drax’s pellet operations in British Columbia sourced logs from areas containing significant old growth forests across multiple timber marks in the Skeena (Northwest) region (Figure 2).

Case Studies in British Columbia’s Skeena Region

In 2024, Drax received 90 truck loads of confirmed coastal old growth forests from three cutblocks in the Skeena region.

These 90 truck loads of whole logs were confirmed to come from timber mark GY1011, which includes five cutblocks in the Skeena region near the Nass River. As of September 2025, three cutblocks confirmed to be entirely old growth have been logged. These cutblocks contained an estimated 60,000 individual trees – many over 250 years old. Between January 2024 and July 2025, Drax purchased volume amounting to 45 percent of the timber mark for processing into wood pellets to burn for electricity.

In 2024 and 2025, our research confirmed that Drax received an additional 425 truck loads of whole logs that likely included old growth trees.

Sixty-three of these truck loads of whole logs came from three cutblocks in the Skeena region that were over 90% old growth forest (timber mark EM808Q), meaning that this purchase almost certainly contained old growth (Figure 4). Additionally, one of these cutblocks confirmed arriving at Drax’s pellet mill contained logs from within a recreation reserve — areas meant to be set aside for public recreational use, where logging is sometimes permitted.

The remaining 362 truckloads of whole logs came from 22 cutblocks in the Skeena region that had over 80% overlap with old growth forests, meaning that it is likely that some portion of the loads delivered to Drax from the four associated timber marks contained old growth logs.

The true volume of old growth sourced by Drax is likely higher than what our research was able to track. This analysis only includes areas with available cutblock data, so it misses areas that have not been added into the government cutblocks layer or volume purchased from private lands that are not linked to a specific location. Without knowing exactly where private volume came from, we cannot tell whether they overlap old growth forests. Logging may also happen in old growth areas that are not mapped or are incorrectly classified. Due to this, the total volume of timber from old growth areas potentially delivered to Drax for wood pellets is a conservative estimate.

In addition to sourcing old growth, our analysis strongly suggests that Drax sourced whole logs from sensitive moose habitat, which is meant to be protected but still allows logging under certain conditions.

In the spring and summer of 2024, Drax received 219 loads of whole logs from a set of cutblocks that overlapped with moose habitat in the Skeena region. One timber mark, GY1007, overlaps a Moose Ungulate Winter Range (UWR) and 62% came from this wildlife sensitive area (Figure 5). Logging of the moose habitat occurred in June 2024, in a window where Drax was the majority customer of logs from this site. Based on the timing and proportions, our data strongly suggests that logs from this wildlife-sensitive area were delivered to Drax. These findings contradict Drax’s “Nature Positive” commitments, as the company continues sourcing logs from at-risk old growth forests and wildlife-sensitive areas.

These research findings were underscored by firsthand documentation at Drax’s Burns Lake wood pellet yard, which confirmed old growth sourcing and the presence of large, old trees.

Drax’s Burns Lake wood pellet plant is by far the largest pellet plant in B.C. by capacity. Stand’s investigative team made multiple visits to the log yard at the pellet plant in June and August of 2025. The team documented several logs piled in the yard, where they are stored before being chipped, ground up, and turned into wood pellets. Several trees were stamped with timber marks, indicating where they were logged. Rings counted on a small sampling of logs indicated multiple were well over 200 years old.

Satellite Monitoring Through Forest Eye

Using Stand’s satellite monitoring system, Forest Eye, we verified and added more detail to our research by tracking logging in old growth forests linked to biomass sourcing, and confirming the exact proportion of old growth logged for each timber mark linked to Drax. For this research, we examined all timber marks associated with Drax that overlap old growth forests (Table 1). For each timber mark, we calculated the total cutblock area, the proportion classified as old growth, and the amount of old growth logged, using Planet Labs’ satellite imagery to confirm these areas (Table 2). While we cannot say that all old growth identified as logged was delivered to Drax, our analysis shows that some timber marks have high overlap with old growth, and in many cases the majority of old growth within that overlap was logged. We confirmed at least one instance (timber mark GY1011) where old growth logs were delivered to Drax in 2024 for wood pellets.

90 loads of old growth confirmed going to Drax (GY1011)

An est. 51 hectares of old growth forests were logged in November 2023 near Swan Lake in the Skeena region.

An est. 20.4 hectares of old growth forests were logged in January 2024 near Nass River in the Skeena region.

63 loads of logs almost certainly contained old growth (EM808Q)

Canfor logged an est. 42.2 hectares of old growth forests in September 2024 near Poplar Creek in the Skeena region.

Canfor logged an est. 45 hectares of old growth forests in September 2024 near Macleod Lake in the Skeena region.

Conclusion

These findings confirm the ongoing practice of old growth logging to fuel electricity generation in biomass plants overseas, made possible by a lack of B.C. and federal protections for old growth forests, along with weak sourcing policies from U.K.-based biomass giant Drax. Subsidies from multiple jurisdictions, especially the United Kingdom, as well as Canada and British Columbia, further support this sector and its ability to use old growth and whole trees to produce wood pellets for export.

Our findings also indicate a need for urgent action – including a ban on the use of whole trees to make wood pellets and sourcing from old growth, as well as an immediate end to public subsidies. The B.C. provincial government must work in true partnership with First Nations to advance land use visions and protection for old growth forests on their territories. And governments around the world must ensure that these rare, primary forest ecosystems are not being destroyed to generate highly polluting electricity anywhere, from Japan to the United Kingdom.

Concrete actions must be immediately taken to prevent further irreversible loss, including:

• Governments at all levels must stop subsidizing Drax and the forest biomass sector. The governments of British Columbia, Canada, Japan, and the United Kingdom especially must stop using public funds to support utility-scale biomass, including through Drax’s operations. Ending these subsidies would free up millions – and, in the case of the U.K., billions – in funding to reinvest in true renewable energy like wind or solar, community resiliency to climate impacts, and Indigenous-led forest conservation and management.
• British Columbia must ban the sourcing of whole trees and old growth for wood pellets, including those currently categorized as “wood waste” or “residuals.” The provincial government must uphold its commitments to protect old growth and change unsustainable forestry practices in B.C., including by implementing the Old Growth Strategic Review and the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act.
• In order to ensure long-term resiliency for forest ecosystems and communities, British Columbia must finalize the draft Biodiversity and Ecosystem Health Framework and co-develop a corresponding law with First Nations. Interim protection measures must be implemented to ensure at-risk old growth is not destroyed in the meantime.

Methodology

In this report, timber marks in the Harvest Billing System were screened for client number locations tied to Pinnacle Renewable Energy scale sites, a subsidiary of Drax. Data was extracted by scale date from January 2018 to July 2025 to calculate the total log volume delivered for each timber mark. A subset of this data was used to calculate a more recent proportion of deliveries arriving at Drax’s pellet mills between January 2024 to July 2025.

To locate these timber marks spatially, the B.C. government’s FTEN Cutblocks dataset was used to compare against old growth forest data as well as environmentally sensitive areas, including wildlife habitat areas, old growth management areas (OGMAs), old growth deferrals, and ungulate winter ranges. This provides a transparent way to identify and track where old growth logging is taking place in British Columbia and where logs are headed. Logging history can also be tracked using another government dataset known as RESULTS openings. However, this layer was excluded from the analysis with the exception of timber mark K1AAAB which may have led to an underestimation of total timber mark area due to discrepancies between the FTEN and RESULTS layers and data input lags.

Old growth forests are defined using the Technical Advisory Panel’s (TAP) Old Growth Map 8 definition, which identifies old growth older than 250 or 140 years depending on ecosystem type. Consequently, timber marks and associated cut blocks relating to Drax scale sites during this time period were spatially mapped with the B.C. government old growth areas. Finally, Forest Eye was used to associate any active logging taking place within these regions.

In total, 82 timber marks supplied biomass to Drax between January 2024 and July 2025. Of these, 79 could be spatially linked to cutblocks covering an area of 14,009 hectares, of which 2,305 hectares (22%) contained old growth forests. In particular, 25 timber marks had more than 10% overlap with old growth forests (Table 1).

1. As of September 2025, these 25 timber marks cover 7,524 hectares, of which 2,946 hectares (39%) contain old growth forests. Forest Eye verified that 2,030 hectares (69%) of this old growth had been logged (Table 2). Based on this data, we had high confidence that some timber marks containing old growth were delivered to Drax, but the exact volume overall could not be determined from the Harvest Billing System alone because no timber mark is 100% old growth.
2. The entire timber mark volume was delivered to Drax along with other companies.
3. Some old growth area within each timber mark was not logged.

In order to get a fuller picture, we then proceeded with manual verification using our Forest Eye satellite monitoring tool. 

Drax-sourced cutblocks were manually reviewed using recent satellite imagery from Planet Labs to determine total old growth overlap and amount logged. For example, timber mark GY1011 showed a 93% overlap with old growth forests. Satellite imagery confirmed that three of the five cutblocks under this timber mark were logged as of September 2025, all containing 100% old growth. This confirms that the entire volume Drax received from GY1011 as of September 2025 originated from old growth forests.

Similarly, timber mark EM808Q showed a 93% old growth overlap, with Drax sourcing 18% of the total volume from this mark. Given the extensive overlap, we can say with near certainty that some volume Drax received included old growth logs. This certainty arises from the high proportion of old growth and the confirmation that some volume from these timber marks were delivered to Drax’s pellet mills. In other words, the likelihood that any delivered volume from a cutblock with >90% old growth overlap did not include old growth logs is extremely low.

In addition, four timber marks (EP1247, GY1007, EM808E, FX9012) showed 80 to 90% old growth overlap. While slightly lower than EM808Q, the overlap is still substantial, and therefore it is highly likely that a portion of the 362 loads delivered to Drax from these timber marks contained old growth logs. The difference in wording reflects the slightly lower proportional coverage of old growth, but the conclusion is based on the consistently high overlap of these cutblocks and the recorded volumes delivered to Drax’s pellet mills.

One timber mark, GY1007, overlaps a Moose Ungulate Winter Range (UWR) (Figure 5). Of the 133 hectare timber mark, 44 hectares, or one third (33%) of the total area falls within this wildlife-sensitive area. Logging of this wildlife-sensitive area occurred in June 2024, and Drax received 70% (11,186 m³ of a total 16,092 m³) from this timber mark between March and July 2024. In particular, 52% of the total volume that Drax received arrived at the pellet mill between June and July 2024. Based on the timing and delivery dates, our data strongly suggests that Drax received logs from this wildlife-sensitive area for wood pellet production.

An additional step was completed using a Python script which utilized the Google Document AI API to extract log grade, volume, and species for the Drax linked timber marks.

Our initial examination of the Harvest Billing System and development of this methodology referenced the work of Conservation North, Bulkley Valley Stewardship Coalition, and Biofuelwatch in their 2024 report Logging What’s Left.

Research and writing team: Tegan Hansen, Phoebe Lam, Matthew Lichty, Liz McDowell, Kathryn Semogas, Dr. Devyani Singh, Desiree Wallace