Why is it critical for MLAs to hear from us now about old growth?

We know that targeting local MLAs has been one of the most effective strategies so far to make old growth protection and a wider paradigm shift in forestry a priority for the B.C. government, but our work isn’t over yet.

While the B.C. government has implemented some emergency logging bans (also known as deferrals) across the province, secured significant conservation financing, and signalled sweeping policy change, a considerable amount of old growth remains unprotected. On top of that, distributing funds and implementing policy change continues to be delayed.

In the face of this past year’s economic uncertainty, especially US tariffs and rising unemployment, the B.C. government has backslid alarmingly on its old growth commitments while also abandoning many of its broader climate plans. 

Even during these cascading disappointments, people power has been persistent, and together, we can ensure this issue is not deprioritized. We are constantly hearing from people inside the government that more constituents are emailing them in support of a new oil pipeline than asking them to step it up on nature protection and climate action. It’s time for us to change this. 

At this moment, decision-makers are more likely to act on forest protection than on climate, so we want to lean into this. while keeping up the pressure for climate action.

Our strategy to secure action on old growth

There is a significant information gap within the B.C. government – we’ve heard that the Ministry of Forests is not adequately communicating with MLAs. That’s why we’re calling on constituents in several key ridings around the province where there are MLAs who genuinely care about communities, climate, and the environment to consistently engage with their elected officials. 

The more these MLAs hear from their constituents and are provided useful resources, the better equipped they will be to fill the information gap, challenge the Ministry of Forest’s talking points, and advocate for old growth protection inside their own caucus.

After this first wave of meetings, we plan to support constituents through ongoing engagement with your MLAs. You can find evidence of imminent or active logging in at-risk old growth forests, like this Forest Eye alert via our website:

Our goal this year is to build a cohort of MLA champions for old growth protection, but we can only do this together with constituents like you!

Click here to commit to having a first meeting with your MLA, and we’ll be in touch with you to get organized and support you at every step along the way. That said, you also don’t need to wait for us to get started – this toolkit should provide everything you need to plan your meeting!

How to book a meeting with your MLA:

Step 1: Look up your MLA’s information

You can find this information here: www.leg.bc.ca/members/find-mla-by-constituency

If you live in any of these ridings, your MLA is one of our potential champions:

• Vancouver-Little Mountain
• Vancouver-Strathcona
• Richmond-Steveston
• Oak Bay-Gordon Head
• Powell River-Sunshine Coast
• Kootenay Central
• Kootenay-Monashee
• North Coast-Haida Gwaii

In addition to requesting a meeting, we would love to connect you with other constituents in your riding so that you can strategize and be more powerful together.

If you don’t live in any of these ridings, it’s still very helpful for your MLA to hear from you so that everyone in government understands what’s really happening with old growth and the significant changes needed from this government to secure meaningful protections, so please still do request a meeting! 

Step 2: Email your MLA to set up a meeting in person or over Zoom (or the phone!)

You can choose to attend the meeting alone, organize with people in your riding to join the meeting, or invite friends and family members along.

Usually, the staff at your MLA’s office will let you know the date and time your representative is available, but you can request that it be as soon as possible and before the summer break in the Legislature, given the long-overdue promises regarding this crisis and imminent threats to old growth, as well as some time/day slots that work best for you or your group.

Not hearing back from your MLA? Try a phone call, re-sending the email, tagging them on social media, and highlighting that you are a constituent, or even going into the office in person!

Step 3: Prepare for your meeting or call

Once you’ve heard back about a date and time that your MLA can meet, it’s time to prepare for your call. If you’re meeting as a group, we suggest that you plan a meeting to prepare and discuss who will speak to what aspects/talking points.

We have a handout with key information that you can print and bring along to an in-person meeting or email to your MLA for a virtual meeting.

Talking points

We’ve provided some timely information below, but it is powerful to speak in your own voice and raise your personal concerns around this issue. 

Quick overview:

• I’m a constituent, and I am deeply concerned.
• This government made some excellent commitments with the Old Growth Strategic Review, but they seem to have fallen by the wayside. I’m asking you to be an internal advocate and get old growth protection back on the agenda.
• I want to tell you about two places where this government could act to stop imminent old growth logging and protect crucial ecosystems today.
• Old growth forests are one of our best defences against climate change, landslides, and wildfires, and replacing healthy forests with tree plantations and clearcuts is one of the biggest wildfire risks.
• Providing economic pathways for Nations who want to protect old growth on their territories is also part of our commitment to reconciliation.

More in-depth talking points: 

Introductions  

• I’m a constituent in your riding who is deeply concerned about ongoing government delays in protecting old growth and a wider paradigm shift in forestry. Old growth logging is still happening, and as an MLA who cares about communities, climate, and the environment, I/we’re asking for you to be an internal advocate to raise the alarm about imminent, current, and recent logging in the most at-risk forests around the province.
• Today I want to talk with you about two places where very special old growth forests are at imminent risk of logging – going against your government’s commitments to protect ecosystems like these and specifically stop advertising and selling them within BC Timber Sales (BCTS) – and where your government has the power to stop this.

Examples of old growth at-risk of logging:

Tsitika 

• An old growth forest home to towering cedars, hemlock, and balsam fir, and at-risk species, cutblock TA1375, near Tsitika Mountain, was sold for logging by BC Timber Sales (BCTS) in March 2026, but the B.C. government can still cancel that sale. 
• This sale came after months of First Nation leaders, scientists, environmental groups, and grassroots organizers demanding that this area be protected for its cultural and ecological importance. 
• This forest is home to the marbled murrelet, which is listed as a threatened species and protected under the International Migratory Birds Act and the federal Species At Risk Act (SARA). They are actively nesting and breeding in this forest. 
• Specklebelly lichen, listed as a species of special concern and an indicator of the oldest old growth forests, is also found here. 
• While there are towering old growth cedars in these blocks, BCTS documents show that over 90% of the forest is hemlock and balsam fir, some of the lowest timber value of all species. They are worth more standing. 

You can implore the Ministry of Forests to use the Forest Act to stop imminent logging in this area today.

Glen Lake in the Peachland Watershed

• BC Timber Sales (BCTS) plans to log old growth in the Peachland Watershed and Glen Lake areas that are home to climate-resilient yellow cedar and the rare and threatened Northern Pygmy Owl. This owl is protected from harm under Section 34 of the British Columbia Wildlife Act, and they are considered “Identified Wildlife” under the BC Forest and Range Practices Act, meaning they require special management to protect their habitat during forestry operations.
• The proposed logging – three cut blocks totalling over 80 hectares and 4 km of new roads – also threatens drinking water quality and watershed health for 5,600 Peachland residents. 
• Given the well-documented impacts of climate change in the Okanagan — including increasing drought, extreme heat, flooding, and wildfire risk — any further industrial activity in this already stressed watershed presents serious risks and harm to the environment and community. 

You can implore the Ministry of Forests to use the Forest Act to stop imminent logging in this area today.

BC Timber Sales 

• BC Timber Sales, the government’s own logging agency, is still auctioning off some of the best of the best old growth forests. In a 2021 announcement, the BC NDP said that “to support the deferral process, the government will immediately cease advertising and selling BC Timber Sales in the affected areas.” This decision was based on sound science, and we’re calling on the government to recommit to it.

Wildfires 

• As wildfire season approaches, I/we want to underscore that intact old growth forests are one of our best defenses against fires, and there is an abundance of data and literature that has proven this.
• I’m greatly concerned by the recent legislative amendments to the Forest Act and Forest and Range Practices Act, that is streamlining BCTS’ access to fibre, which may use fire safety as justification for continued old growth logging.
• The B.C. government should be investing more funding and removing barriers to uplift Indigenous-led fire stewardship practices like cultural burning, which has effectively protected communities and revitalized food and medicinal plants, and enhanced habitat for millennia.

Respecting DRIPA and Title and Rights of First Nations 

• The B.C. government must stop blaming First Nations for its failure to protect old growth. Old growth protection without conservation financing is a false choice. It is critical to me that your government honours the intent and commitments in the Declaration of Rights for Indigenous Peoples Act (DRIPA), and respects the inherent Title and Rights of First Nations. Support for economic diversification, including real options to protect critical ecosystems like old growth forests, is part of those commitments. 

Top Responses from MLAs to Prepare For

There is “no problem” because 80% of old-growth is protected, covered by deferrals or uneconomic to harvest with the implication this means old-growth isn’t at-risk.

• Not all old-growth is the same. The definition of old-growth is just based on the age of the trees (250 years in rainy forests and 140 years in dry forests). Both of these forests are important ecologically, but both have different values. 
• The 20% of old growth that is still available for logging and is considered economical is likely inclusive of big trees at low elevation, which is easier to access and supports more biodiversity and carbon storage than the high elevation old growth with smaller trees.
• These are the forests that are being targeted, and these are the forests that the government’s own Technical Advisory Panel clearly indicated are in need of immediate and permanent protection, alongside a paradigm shift in forestry at large.

Forest Landscape Planning is in process, and there is nothing we can do in the meantime to protect old growth. 

• The B.C. government was meant to implement emergency protections (deferrals) within 6 months of when it committed to its own appointed Old Growth Strategic Review Panel recommendations in 2020; meanwhile, longer-term solutions pathways were worked on with First Nations and impacted communities. 
• The government can still implement these deferrals through the Forest Act, and especially in the case of BC Timber Sales (BCTS), its own agency, it can stop auctioning off forests that overlap with old growth as it promised to in 2021.

The lack of progress is effectively beyond the government’s control. The province has referred the proposed deferrals to First Nations and First Nations have rejected half of them. We can’t tell First Nations not to log old growth forests on their lands. 

• Old growth logging is a false choice. The B.C. government has long only incentivized logging and not protection. This recent article by Ben Parfitt, titled “BC Must Stop Blaming First Nations for Old-Growth Logging,” elaborates on some key examples of this and the history of it. 
• It is critical to me that your government honours the intent and commitments in the Declaration of Rights for Indigenous Peoples Act (DRIPA), and respects the inherent Title and Rights of First Nations. 
• Support for economic diversification, including real options to protect critical ecosystems like old growth forests, is part of those commitments such as Article 29. 
• This divisive moment is a reflection of the B.C. government’s failure to provide meaningful financing for Indigenous-led conservation solutions and land-use planning, which the Union of BC Indian Chiefs and many Nation members have long been calling for. 
• Instead of giving away millions each year in taxpayer handouts to these logging corporations, the government should instead repay what’s owed to Nations so that they can choose forest protection as a viable economic pathway.

We’re not hearing enough public support for old growth protection and climate. 

• The history of resistance to industrial old growth logging in B.C. is decades long. There has been a surge of public support for protection since 2020 when the B.C. government released the Old Growth Strategic Review report, and residents, as well as concerned people internationally, realized just how little of these irreplaceable forests were left. 
• The Fairy Creek blockade was erected in August 2020 and became the largest act of civil disobedience in Canada. In 2023, the United We Stand for Old Growth Forests Declaration was released with 227 signatories across environmental, social justice, labour, and community sectors.
• There continues to be majority support for old growth protection in this province, but people have also been feeling greatly disenfranchised and burnt out by continuous government inaction. This has created a situation wherein many residents of B.C. feel that engaging with elected officials will not result in any real change on the ground. Nevertheless, people who care passionately about this issue remain persistent. 
• There was another blockade on Vancouver Island in the Upper Walbran that was erected in August 2025 that garnered local and international support once again, but it too was disbanded by police. 
• Thousands of people across the province continue to show up to public demonstrations B.C. wide, like that of the “Broken Promises Rally” in November 2025. Now, constituents province-wide are rising up again to ensure this clearly important public issue is not deprioritized once more.  

We need to increase access to timber because of the economic crisis we’re in. 

• With the US tariffs on softwood lumber, the biggest export country for B.C., there is an opportunity to usher in a long-awaited transition away from old growth logging to ecologically sustainable second-growth and value-added industries, as well as restoration, regenerative forestry and economic diversification, for workers and communities. 
• The current economic argument for continued old growth logging is not only shortsighted, but it has many holes in it when considering how many taxpayer dollars are given to the industry, which is in the hundreds of millions per year. 
• When you also consider the amount of money spent on policing on the ground old growth protection camps like those in Fairy Creek and the Walbran, and disaster costs that are in the billions for floods and fires, which are greatly exacerbated by old growth logging, it becomes even clearer who is benefiting. It’s not the people of B.C., it’s logging corporations. Now that these corporations have extracted most of the old growth across this province, they are shuttering their mills and moving to the U.S. South, putting thousands of workers out of jobs.

Commercial thinning and salvage logging of old growth forests affected by wildfire, insect outbreaks, or windthrow mitigates forest fires. 

• The demand for high-value old growth timber is high, and using “fire safety” as a justification can be a convenient public narrative to maintain logging rates. Industrial logging, which has left the province incredibly fragmented, is one of the key factors that have worsened forest fires. 
• Old growth forests are far more resilient to fires than the timber plantations and clearcuts that have replaced them. Younger trees are extremely flammable due to dense spacing, thin bark, and low-hanging branches. 
• They are also more susceptible to insect outbreaks, leading to dead standing trees that are susceptible to fire. Salvage operations can remove large, fire-resistant trunks but leave behind smaller debris, which intensifies fires. 
• The B.C. government should be uplifting Indigenous communities that have, in many ways, been leading wildland fire mitigation and prevention in Canada since time immemorial, relying on local Indigenous knowledge systems. Fire stewardship practices like cultural burning, which is often defined as the controlled application of fire on the landscape to achieve specific cultural objectives, including but not limited to language preservation, fuel mitigation, food and medicinal plant revitalization, and habitat enhancement.

More examples of imminent, current, and recent logging:

South Coast

Fairy Creek 

• The emergency logging ban (also known as a deferral) area in Fairy Creek was extended to September 2026, which was heartening to see, however conservation financing is needed for long-term protection and nearby old growth forests remain under threat. 
• Teal Cedar received approval in March 2026 to log Cut Block 56684 8027 in Pacheedaht territory, an old growth clearcut just 30 metres from the Fairy Creek ridgeline, along with the construction of a new logging road into ancient forests. 
• This proposal threatens to log millennia-old yellow cedars, fragment one of the largest remaining unprotected old growth forests on southern Vancouver Island, and destroy critical habitat for Marbled Murrelets and Old Growth Specklebelly Lichen.

Nahmint

• At the end of 2021, emergency logging bans (also known as a deferral) on some of the most ecologically important old growth forests in the Nahmint Valley, Central Vancouver Island (near Port Alberni), on Hupacasath, Tseshaht, and Yuułuʔiłʔatḥ First Nations territories, were deferred from logging as recommended by the B.C. government’s Technical Advisory Panel. But, much of the valley remains open to logging and planned cutblocks still threaten some of the valley’s last strongholds of big-treed old growth forests.
  

Walbran

• The most recent old growth protection camp led by Pacheedaht elder Bill Jones that was stopping logging in the Upper Walbran from late summer of 2025 was disbanded by police after an injunction was granted, and this iconic area is now being destroyed. These forests were home to big-treed red cedar, Sitka spruce, white pine, and douglas fir – a crucial part of one of the last intact old-growth watersheds on what’s currently called Vancouver Island. 
• The Walbran was a cornerstone of the broader “War in the Woods” in the 1990s — Walbran Witness Camp and other direct action stopped logging, similarly to the recent camp. While the Lower Walbran was protected as a result, the Upper Walbran was left out of the park, creating a legacy of conflict and division exacerbated by the B.C. government’s failure to provide meaningful financing for Indigenous-led conservation solutions and a transition for impacted communities. 

Interior

Caribou habitat

• Ecojustice — representing Stand.earth, Wildsight, and the Wilderness Committee — filed a lawsuit in Federal Court in February 2026 against Canada’s Environment Department over its more than 11-year delay in fully mapping critical habitat for threatened Southern Mountain Caribou. 
• Habitat mapping is a necessary first step under the Species at Risk Act (SARA) to protect and recover caribou and other threatened and endangered species. Caribou are now disappearing because of habitat loss from logging and other industrial development in southern and central B.C. Eight of 18 herds are already extinct. 
• Stand.earth, Wildsight, and the Wilderness Committee published this report last year, which used provincial satellite data to show that 57 square kilometres of old-growth forests were either approved or pending approval for logging in the ranges of three endangered caribou herds: the Columbia North, Groundhog, and Wells Gray South herds.

Northern BC

Prince Rupert Gas Transmission and Coastal Gas Link Pipelines

• The PRGT right of way is threatening 13,733 hectares of old growth and culturally important forests across northern B.C. Coastal Gas Link likewise has gone through an estimated 1160 hectares of old growth deferrals on its 670 km route to the coast. Stand.earth released its Tall Talk report in 2023 that highlighted this. 
• Throughout the old growth review process, there has been little mention of the old growth destruction caused and threatened by oil and gas projects, but the impact of oil and gas on forests is well documented and affects First Nations Rights and Title. 
• 24 pipeline projects cut long corridors through the forest that, while narrow, span hundreds of kilometres. TransCanada Pipelines (TC Energy) was the fourth biggest threat to old growth deferrals in active and pending logging permits at the time for the Coastal Gas Link and PRGT pipelines. And although TC Energy has since sold PRGT, the grave threat remains.  

Forest Biomass and Old Growth Logging

• Last year, Stand.earth released an investigation that revealed that international biomass giant Drax purchased logged trees from at-risk old growth forests in B.C. in 2024, and very likely in 2025, to supply its wood pellet plants. Drax exports wood pellets from Canada to countries including the United Kingdom and Japan, where they are burned for utility-scale energy. Not only did the B.C. government fail to protect old growth, but it allowed for it to be destroyed for one of the lowest value forestry products. 
• The labour sector has also voiced its concern about the growth of this industry in that light. Forest biomass is one of the fastest-growing alternatives to fossil fuels gripping the energy sector, but it’s a dangerous distraction in the race to cut carbon emissions. One of the reasons being is that it emits more carbon dioxide at the smokestack than coal.

B.C. Wide

• BC Timber Sales (BCTS) blocks that overlap with old growth. Save What’s Left is a grassroots organization that is focused on targeting BCTS around the province. They have created a list of grassroots opposing BCTS logging around the province.

Additional Resources

Reports and analyses from organizations:

• Stand.earth, Wilderness Committee & Wildsight Analysis: Old Growth Logging in Endangered Caribou Habitat

• Stand.earth Forest Eye Satellite Monitoring of Old Growth Logging and Risk

• Sierra Club BC report: Intact forests, safe communities

• Sierra Club BC Report: Closer to the Brink: The state of the forest in B.C. in 2025 

• Save What’s Left Paper: Public Forests, Public Trust – Reforming BC Timber Sales in a Time of Ecological and Economic Urgency

• Stand.earth Truckloads of Trees: An investigation into Drax’s wood pellet sourcing in Northern British Columbia

• Blog by Tobyn Neame, Wilderness Committee Forest Campaigner: Old-Growth, Old Lies

First Nations-led:

• February 2026 UBCIC resolution page 16-18: Failure of the Province of British Columbia to Implement the Old Growth Strategic Review (OGSR) Recommendations

• Cultural Burning and Prescribed Fire Website
• Indigenous Leadership Initiative

Technical Advisory Panel and Old Growth Strategic Review Panel reports:

• BC’s Old Growth Forest: A Last Stand for Biodiversity. British Columbia

• A New Future for Old Forests: A Strategic Review of How British Columbia Manages for Old Forests Within its Ancient Ecosystems

Recent articles:

• Article by Ben Parfitt: BC Must Stop Blaming First Nations for Old-Growth Logging

• Article by Sarah Cox: The Forest Quietly Removed from BC’s Old-Growth Deferral List

• Article by Brenna Owen: Panel appointed to map B.C.’s old-growth forests say province is failing to save them

Digital action tools to target decision makers:

• Stand.earth digital action tool to email more decision makers around the imminent logging in Tsitika 

• Peachland Watershed Protection Alliance (who has been leading on advocacy around the old growth under threat in the Glen Lake area) website 
• Stand.earth digital action tool to email more decision makers around the imminent logging in Glen Lake area