Wildsight commends BC Timber Sales pause on developments in core caribou habitat in Revelstoke-Shuswap region

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May 20, 2025

Wildsight commends BC Timber Sales pause on developments in core caribou habitat

Wildsight is applauding BC Timber Sales for its commitment to pause new development in forests that are critical to the ongoing survival of endangered deep-snow caribou in the Revelstoke-Shuswap region.  

The decision, which was communicated to Wildsight via email, will help safeguard the future of the Columbia North caribou herd, one of the last remaining southernmost herds in British Columbia.

“BC Timber Sales controls important caribou habitat within their tenures in the Revelstoke-Shuswap region,” said Wildsight Conservation Specialist Eddie Petryshen. “This is a significant move and it sets a precedent for other licensees to stop logging core habitat in this region.”

Logging poses one of the biggest threats to the future of the Columbia North herd, which has only a third of its core habitat protected despite the draft federal recovery strategy determining that 100% should be protected.

In its email to Wildsight, BC Timber Sales said: “Within unprotected Core, we are only pursuing blocks that have had existing investments that were nearing completion.
BCTS will not be pursuing new investments in Caribou Core or unprotected Core Habitat until Caribou planning has been re-engaged and direction is provided.”

The exemption of existing developments from the BC Timber Sales pause means a 40-hectare timber sale that overlaps core caribou habitat in Nagle Creek, near Mica Creek,
is still on the table.

“If that block is clearcut, it will further fragment connectivity in the Columbia North herd’s low elevation habitat,” Petryshen said. “We urge licensees and contractors not to bid on this timber sale and BC Timber Sales to defer logging in this area.”

While the government moves at a sloth-like pace to catch up with its own recommendations, Indigenous Nations and environmental advocates have repeatedly pushed BC Timber Sales to proactively stop logging core caribou habitat.

In 2020, the organization came under huge public pressure over a timber sale near Argonaut Creek, north of Revelstoke. The Wildsight-led campaign resulted in the deferral of more than 300 hectares of new cutting. 

In 2022, BC Timber Sales again backed away from plans — this time to clearcut 266 hectares of core caribou habitat in the upper Seymour River Valley, 100 kilometres north of Salmon Arm — after pushback from conservationists, the public and Indigenous Nations.

“We’re grateful that BCTS is beginning to listen to the concerns of Indigenous Nations and the public,” Petryshen said. “This decision will take the pressure off the Columbia North herd while Nations and the province discuss new caribou habitat protections.”

The question remains: will other licensees like Louisiana Pacific, Downie Timber, Stella Jones, Revelstoke Community Forest Corporation, Interfor and Gilbert Smith follow BC Timber Sales’ lead? 

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Wildsight is a
registered charity that protects biodiversity and encourages sustainable communities in Canada’s Columbia and Rocky Mountain regions. We work with industry, scientists, the teaching community and all levels of government, including First Nations, to shape and influence land-use decisions, guide practice and steward change on the ground. At our heart, we are a grassroots organization, harnessing our power from the people
whose lives affect and are affected by our work.

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