Deep in the heart of BC’s Inland Temperate Rainforest a logging plan threatens ancient and globally rare forest in the Seymour River area, northwest of Revelstoke. The area is part of the epicentre for the largest remaining and most viable southernmost caribou herd in BC.
A cumulative logging plan by BC Timber Sales ( and Louisiana Pacific is proposing to log more than 620 hectares of predominantly old and ancient forest in provincially identified core caribou habitat. The loss will severely fragment ancient forest, degrade core caribou habitat, limit connectivity, and put the Columbia North herd at greater risk of extinction.
Several of the blocks overlap with provincially recommended old growth deferral areas.
The Seymour River and its tributaries Blais, Ratchford and Myoff Creek(s) are part of what some call Canada’s Forgotten Rainforest, the Inland Temperate Rainforest (ITR). A vast, rugged, and globally unique ecosystem that stretches from Northern Idaho to Prince George, spans multiple mountain ranges and is home to many species of plants and lichen that only exist in this unique rainforest. Historically the vast majority of the forests in this ecosystem were old growth. Today the vast majority of these forests have been converted into young forests, primarily through logging. The wet cedar hemlock rainforests of this region are the ecosystem’s crown jewel. But these same cedar hemlock rainforests are being systematically logged at an alarming rate. Scientists give the ITR as little as ten years before full ecosystem collapse – unless we act now
The logging plan could result in the loss of up to 200,000 tons of carbon as these low-elevation wet cedar forests are amongst the most carbon-dense forests on a global scale. Once clearcut, these forests lose nearly 4/5th of their carbon.
The Seymour River, Blais Creek, and Ratchford Creek are in the heart of what biologists refer to as “the Hub” area for the Columbia North caribou which now number approximately 200 individuals. The province’s 2020 herd census highlighted just how important the Seymour River area is. 90 of the 159 Columbia North caribou counted in the region’s caribou census were in the Seymour/Blais/Myoff/Bischoff Lakes/Kirbyville epicentre area. Caribou usage in these areas is well documented with more than twenty years of telemetry data and census reports.
The cumulative logging proposals from BCTS and LP total more than 620 hectares (gross block size) of predominantly old growth-low-elevation habitat, the loss of which will severely fragment and degrade core caribou habitat and limit connectivity.
Louisiana Pacific, who has proposed 366 hectares of logging in the Seymour watershed, is currently in the process of selling their licence to Pacific Woodtech. The transfer is currently open to public comment and the province is reviewing whether the transfer is in the public interest. Pacific Woodtech has the choice to not go forward with logging in the Seymour.
Take action and call on the province, Louisiana Pacific, Pacific Woodtech, and BC Timber Sales to halt all planned logging development in the Seymour and tributaries until the caribou herd planning process and the old growth strategic review is implemented.
We want protection, not logging for the ancient forests in caribou habitat in the Seymour River.
Protect ancient forests in caribou habitat
