What Comes Next for Forestry in British Columbia

British Columbia’s forests are under growing strain. Decades of intensive forest management, combined with a rapidly changing climate, are leaving forests and watersheds less able to recover and adapt. Wildfires and pests are becoming more severe, many forests are now emitting more carbon than they store and the habitat that many old‑growth dependent species rely on is shrinking and breaking apart. At the same time, we cannot ignore the importance of the forest-based economy to the people of B.C.. For the last 100 years the forest industry has been a source of wealth and opportunity for families and communities. There are many families like mine who have worked in forestry over multiple generations. But that too is at risk: increasing costs, decreasing log values and more unpredictable markets are causing a crisis in the forest sector too.

The factors underlying these crises are not new or unknown, nor have they appeared suddenly. We have been trying for decades to reconcile the economic benefits of logging with its environmental costs. Since the introduction of the Forest Practices Code in 1994-95, there has been a virtual revolving door of policy proposals and fixes that have struggled to get the balance right, but this has neither provided enough protections to mitigate environmental harms, nor sufficient certainty, cost management and sustainable access to operational timber to maintain a robust industry.

In hindsight this is perhaps unsurprising. When the underlying system was designed from its inception to maximize timber production, how is it likely to react when a series of operational constraints to protect non-timber resources are simply layered on top of it? How can a system produce an optimal result when it has two sets of incentives that are so fundamentally at odds with one another? It is no wonder that the result has often been polarization and mistrust, and occasionally conflict and controversy.

Shifts in international trade have made it impossible to ignore long-standing pressures in our forest sector.  We have been muddling through for a long time, but now there can be no question: the system we have built is perfectly designed for a world that no longer exists and is no longer serving any of us very well.

It is unsurprising, then, that there is a growing call from all sides for a major shift in how we manage our forests in order to better fit the world we live in. At the same time there is a growing fear about what the future holds, and what major change might mean for stakeholders and rightsholders whose lives could be upended by it. The level of trust it takes to put one’s fate in the hands of another’s decision is exceedingly high: a seemingly impossible task in a polarized and politicized environment where trust is already very low.

Perhaps the answer is not to fight about who gets to decide how the future is built. Perhaps the answer is to find a way to build the future together. If people with different points of view can come together in good faith to have a clear-eyed conversation about where we are, hold genuine curiosity about what is possible and bring an innovation and problem-solving mindset, then who knows what we could create?

Here’s what that could look like.

Start with a shared understanding of the system. Different stakeholders and rightsholders experience different parts of the forest system. We see different risks, benefits and constraints. No individual or organization can see the whole picture on its own. If we want policies that genuinely improve outcomes, we need to work together to understand what the system actually is, not just how it appears from a single vantage point.

Align what we measure with what we value. Forests provide many benefits: jobs and economic opportunity, public revenues, ecosystem services, community safety, and social, cultural, and recreational value. What gets measured gets managed, so lets make sure we are measuring and managing for the things we actually value most.

Avoid false choices. All‑or‑nothing thinking has contributed to a competitive and politically charged landscape that erodes trust and makes collaboration harder. When decisions are framed as either/or choices we lose many opportunities to find optimal solutions.

Learn from what’s already happening. Community Forests and Indigenous tenure holders across British Columbia are demonstrating new ways to manage for both timber and non‑timber values while keeping community benefit at the heart of their work. Many foresters, scientists and companies are also experimenting with innovative approaches. Collectively this could be a powerful foundation for a culture of adaptive management and continuous learning and improvement.

If we work together, we can build a system where we are clear about what we value, and where all of the incentives of the system are consistent with those values. But this will require more than simply collecting perspectives. It will require us to find a way to have challenging but respectful conversations with one another to build a shared understanding and policy solutions that are effective and politically durable. That is the foundation of a management regime that is both trusted by the public and worthy of that trust.

At Nature United we work alongside communities, Indigenous Nations, industry, and governments to support dialogue, share learning and help create the conditions for thoughtful, credible change. In spite of all of the challenges the sector faces, we are encouraged by the many thoughtful conversations and innovative ideas that are beginning to emerge. Now more than ever is the time to listen to one another.