Harvesting in North Cowichan’s 5,000-hectare municipal forest reserve is now considered a primary issue for the rest of council’s term, which ends in October, 2026.
At the council meeting on Aug. 20, council voted 4-3 to make harvesting in the MFR, which hasn’t taken place since 2019, one of its strategic priorities.
Coun. Bruce Findlay pointed out that the municipality has received no revenues from harvesting in the MFR for six years, and it may take several more years yet before harvesting can continue as negotiations with the Quw'utsun Nation on co-management of the MFR continue.
“So it’s my belief that we should be looking at what we can do in the near term to monetize the asset, and that means doing some spot harvesting or potentially getting back to a normal harvesting structure like was done in 2019 and previous years,’ Findlay said. “The MFR grows between 20,000 and 35,000 cubic metres a year , and we’ve maxed out at 17,000 at the highest year, so that’s less than half of the growth that we’re naturally getting. This is the most unbelievable renewable resource there is in the world as far as I’m concerned, and I think we should be looking at some options to harvest the MFR in the near term.”
Despite the vote to make harvesting a strategic priority for North Cowichan, CAO Ted Swabey advised council that he thinks that it’s unlikely that any harvesting could actually take place before the end of council’s term.
“There would be a pretty prolonged period of time to actually get (harvesting started) and, with the summer months and the wildfires, I expect it would be very tough to harvest before the end of the term,” he said. “This is not one we can get going quickly. It needs to be thoughtfully done.”
In 2019, North Cowichan’s council at the time stopped harvesting in the MFR until experts were tapped for their input and the public had been thoroughly consulted on what people want for the future of the public properties.
The public engagement aspect of the forest review concluded in early 2023, and the feedback from that process found very strong support for active conservation in the MFR, which would allow for targeted harvesting to provide some income for North Cowichan, while restoring and enhancing ecosystem conditions that promote biodiversity.
In 2024, the municipality and the Quw’utsun Nation agreed that they would work together to establish a co-management framework and plan for the forest reserve, and that work is ongoing.
Coun. Chris Istace said North Cowichan is currently actively engaged with Quw'utsun Nation in developing a co-management strategy, and the municipality has a moral and ethical responsibility to do the right thing in its relationship with the First Nations and not harvest before those talks are over.
He said council shouldn’t even be having this discussion.
“It’s disrespectful and it goes against what this council voted on together as a group, and we have a commitment to stand behind that,” Istace said.
Coun. Mike Caljouw said he didn’t think the issue is disrespectful to the Quw'utsun Nation and, in his opinion, council is just expressing its thoughts about the future of harvesting the MFR.
“With (CAO Ted Swabey’s) explanation of the time line of how long it would take to have this actually accomplished, even if this is passed tonight, it looks to me that the electorate will probably make the decision on whether or not harvesting is going to continue because it won’t be until after the election before we can actually get this started,” he said.
Coun. Christopher Justice said he thinks it would be a major misstep and an error to return to harvesting.
“I think we won’t get to this until the end of the term in any case, but we will get to it in a way because it will cause all sorts of pain for us in terms of the way that the public would react to it, and the effects that it would have on our relationship with First Nations,” he said.
“It should be remembered that this pause in harvesting wasn’t a council or staff initiative, it was the public coming to us in huge numbers and saying this is what they wanted.”
Mayor Rob Douglas said that after several rounds of public consultations over the past five years, council knows without question that North Cowichan's residents want a stronger focus on conservation in terms of how the MFR is managed.
“The message from the community was loud and clear,” he said.
