B.C. extends old-growth logging deferral in Fairy Creek
The province is extending its deferral of old-growth logging in the Fairy Creek watershed area of Vancouver Island until 2025.
The deferrals first came into effect in June 2021, and were set to expire this year, following more than a year of heated protests and blockades in the region.
The province enacted the deferrals after a request came from the Huu-ay-aht, Ditidaht, and Pacheedaht First Nations, whose territory includes the Fairy Creek and Central Walbran areas.
The deferrals have now been extended until Feb. 1, 2025, the province announced Friday.
Over the next two years, the province says it will continue working on long-term forest management plans in the Fairy Creek watershed area.
The deferrals protect 1,183.8 hectares of old-growth trees located on Crown land in the Fairy Creek watershed.
"The entire watershed falls within the Pacheedaht territory," said the B.C. Ministry of Forests in a release Friday.
"The province continues to work with First Nations rights and title holders to take unprecedented action to protect old-growth forests," the ministry continued.
The province says more than two million hectares of old growth have been deferred across the province since November 2021.
Deferrals do not mean protection in perpetuity, but are a temporary protection against harvesting as long as they are active.
RCMP made more than 1,000 arrests during protests and blockades in the Fairy Creek watershed area in 2020 and 2021, marking one of the largest acts of civil disobedience in Canadian history.
RCMP officers, including two wearing the 'thin blue line' patch, arrest a man during an anti-logging protest in Caycuse, B.C. on Tuesday, May 18, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jen Osborne
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
BREAKING Federal employees will be required to spend 3 days a week in the office
Starting in September, public servants in the core public administration will be required to work in the office a minimum of three days a week. The Treasury Board Secretariat says executives will need to be in the office four days per week.
Concerns about plexiglass prompt inspections at some Loblaws locations in Ottawa
Inspections are underway at more than one Loblaws location in Ottawa after complaints were filed about tall plexiglass barriers.
OPP officer said 'someone's going to get hurt' before wrong-way Hwy. 401 crash
As multiple Durham police cruisers were chasing a robbery suspect on the wrong side of Highway 401 Monday night, an Ontario Provincial Police officer shared his concerns, telling a dispatcher, "Someone's going to get hurt."
Canada's most wanted fugitive arrested in P.E.I. in connection with Toronto homicide
A suspect in a fatal shooting in Toronto’s east end last summer has been arrested in Charlottetown, just one week after he topped a list of Canada’s most wanted fugitives.
Poilievre returns to House unrepentant for calling Trudeau 'wacko,' Speaker not resigning
An unrepentant Pierre Poilievre returned to the House of Commons on Wednesday to pepper the prime minister about his drug decriminalization policies after being booted the day prior for refusing to take back calling Justin Trudeau 'wacko' over his approach to the issue.
Five human skeletons, missing hands and feet, found outside house of Nazi leader Hermann Göring
Archeologists have unearthed the skeletons of five people, missing their hands and feet, at a former Nazi military base in Poland.
Toddler of Phoenix first responder dies after bounce house goes airborne
A two-year-old child died after a strong gust of wind sent the bounce house he was in airborne and into a neighbouring lot in central Arizona, the Pinal County Sheriff's Office said.
Plane overshoots runway at airport in St. John's, N.L., no injuries reported
Investigators from the Transportation Safety Board of Canada are headed to St. John's, N.L., after a plane overshot a runway at the city's airport this afternoon.
A teen was found buried in a basement in New York. An engraved ring helped police learn her identity two decades later
For more than two decades, the unknown victim was nicknamed "Midtown Jane Doe" because she was found in the Hell's Kitchen neighbourhood of New York City. But this week, investigators finally revealed her identity.