New Mapping Project Reveals That Nearly All Of British Columbia's Old-Growth Forest Is Already Gone
Many people imagine British Columbia as a province carpeted in forests, with giant old-growth trees, but a new interactive map reveals that little remains of B.C.s original and ancient forests, showing logging and other industrial human activity as a vast sea of red.
The Seeing Red map, released Tuesday by the Prince George-based group Conservation North, took one year, 10 provincial and federal government datasets and $4,200 to pull together. The cumulative impacts of industrial forestry have never really been put on display for analysis or review, Conservation North director Michelle Connolly told The Narwhal. And it became clear that if we wanted the truth, we would basically have to figure it out for ourselves.
Connolly said one of the most striking things about the map is how little primary forest remains in B.C.s interior, especially in the rare inland temperate rainforest where skyscraper cedar trees can be more than 1,000 years old and endangered deep-snow mountain caribou live in the spring and early winter, surviving on lichen found only on old-growth trees.
All B.C. old-growth forests are primary forests also known as original, or primaeval forests meaning they have never been logged. But not all B.C. primary forests are old-growth, as some have been affected over the centuries by natural disturbances such as wildfire. Scattered amidst an enormous blaze of red, the map clearly depicts the few old-growth conservation opportunities that are left in the provinces interior, Connolly said. This part of B.C. has been ignored when it comes to discussions about old-growth forests.
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https://thenarwhal.ca/bc-forests-old-growth-impacts-map/