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

səl̓ílwətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh), xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam) and Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish) Territories (Vancouver, B.C.) — New investigative research from Stand.earth released today reveals that Drax purchased logged trees from at-risk old growth forests in British Columbia in 2024, and very likely in 2025, to supply its wood pellet plants. Drax’s Houston, Burns Lake and Meadowbank pellet plants in British Columbia received at least 3,039 truckloads of whole logs that the company purchased from forests containing old growth.

The research was conducted using publicly available data, including invoices and weigh slips; Stand.earth’s in-house satellite monitoring tool Forest Eye; and eyewitness documentation of one pellet yard and several cutblocks linked to Drax purchases through timber marks.

Drax exports wood pellets from Canada to countries including the United Kingdom and Japan, where they are burned for utility-scale energy – a process that often emits as much carbon dioxide at the smokestack as burning coal. The company has received massive subsidies, including billions in taxpayer funds from the United Kingdom and millions from the Canadian government.

In April and May of 2024, Drax’s Houston Plant received 90 truckloads of coastal old growth from three cutblocks in Skeena region, which consisted predominantly of trees classified as over 250 years old. Also in 2024, Drax’s Houston plant received 219 truckloads of whole logs from a different set of cutblocks in Skeena region that overlap with sensitive moose habitat. Data analyzed by Stand.earth strongly suggests that logs from these wildlife-sensitive areas were delivered to Drax.

Stand staff visited Stellat’en territory in June 2025 and saw clearcuts linked to Drax’s Burns Lake wood pellet plant. Stand investigators also visited the Burns Lake pellet yard multiple times in June and August of 2025, documenting large piles of logs, including some that they aged as well over 200 years old by counting rings. Spray-painted markings on the logs indicated that some were delivered as recently as May and June of 2025.

“Drax claims that it makes wood pellets in Canada from sawdust and sawmill residues, or from forest waste. But it’s bought whole logs that were clearcut from some of the last remaining old growth forests in B.C. Old growth is never waste,” said Tegan Hansen, Senior Forest Campaigner at Stand.earth. “We saw firsthand whole logs stacked over ten feet high at Drax’s Burns Lake Pellet yard. Many were clearly older trees, and bleeding fresh sap from where they were cut.”

Drax has faced increased scrutiny in recent years. In 2024, Drax paid a £25 million fine for failing to properly disclose full data on its wood sourcing from Canada. 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. The U.K.’s Financial Conduct Authority has an open investigation into the company’s past statements regarding its biomass sourcing.

The Government of British Columbia has maintained the position that the biomass industry relies on “waste fibre.” Meanwhile, five years have passed since the B.C. government promised to do more to protect what little old growth remains. Premier David Eby has been routinely criticized for not following through on commitments to implement all 14 recommendations of the Old Growth Strategic Review.

“Our investigation shows that B.C. government officials have misled the public with past statements about sourcing from old growth to make wood pellets,” Hansen said. “Premier Eby has a choice: he can keep looking the other way while repeating wood pellet industry talking points, or he can ban the sale of old growth logs for biomass export.”

Past reports of logs from old growth and primary forests have been met with inaction by the provincial government. Union leadership has previously highlighted the wood pellet export sector as a poor jobs proposition, which is especially relevant at a time when mills are increasingly closing and moving south of the border. Premier Eby’s B.C. NDP government has an opportunity to support real value-added milling under a framework that upholds its commitments to protect old growth as well as the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act, by reinvesting funds in local operations that uplift forest communities.

Stand is calling on multiple governments, including those of the United Kingdom, Canada and British Columbia, to stop subsidizing utility-scale forest biomass energy. British Columbia must take further action to ensure old growth and whole trees cannot be turned into wood pellets for overseas export. 

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Media contacts:

Kathryn Semogas, Communications Specialist (English) | kathryn.semogas@stand.earth
Tegan Hansen, Senior Forest Campaigner (English, French) | tegan@stand.earth
Liz McDowell, Senior Campaigns Director (English) | liz@stand.earth