THE HAIDA GWAII CLIMATE FOREST RESTORATION
by John Disney, on behalf of the Old Massett Village Council

Recently, BC’s government pledged to commit its many resources to the battle against climate change. The direction BC will follow is akin to that adopted in California, where serious emissions targets, taxes, and government subsidies promise to have significant, positive impacts on the state’s environment and economy. One of the industries certain to be encompassed in Premier Gordon Campbell’s initiatives is BC’s long-standing forest sector.

There was once a belief that the forests of BC would yield an infinite and inexhaustible supply of lumber for the forest industry. Today some people think the atmosphere is an inexhaustible sink for pollutants and life will not be adversely affected by industrial emissions. But we are now faced with the realization, both in the worlds of climate change and forestry, that there is a limit to the natural resources of this world that must be respected. This new reality brings with it new challenges in balancing our energy, industrial, and economic demands with environmental realities.

The forest sector has accepted that excessive timber extraction has impacted the sensitive balance of forest ecosystems and the planet as a whole. It is also understood that, in order to successfully restore the delicate atmospheric and ecosystem balance that evolved over millennia, the forest industry must begin to make choices and undertake activities with an understanding of their impact on our planet as a whole. To begin, the forest ecosystem must stop being what the economists call an externality, and the environmental impact of forestry activities must be transparently accounted for at the industry’s bottom line. 

Every litre of fuel that is consumed in the manufacture or delivery of goods costs the producer at the bottom line, much as it costs the environment. The mantra of the environmental movement - reduce, recycle, reuse - also makes economic sense. It makes sense to audit manufacturing, resource extraction, and service industry activities to determine their impact on the planet, and assess how improvements can be made at every stage of these industries to increase their environmental, and economic efficiency. 
The proponents of the Haida Gwaii Climate Forest Project believe that it is possible to increase the environmental efficiency of any given industry or activity, and that to do so will eventually increase its economic efficiency and profitability. For example, even the most neglected and un-monetized scrap of land can be audited and its environmental impact improved through the application of long-standing forest management techniques. This concept is the basis of the Haida Gwaii Project, which seeks to convert inefficient brush-dominated riparian reserve, park, and agricultural crop land into healthy, native conifer-dominated forest.

The land that is appropriate for this restoration activity is land that is otherwise unproductive to the forest sector. It is logged land that is protected as a riparian reserve zone, land that lies within protected parks, and land that was converted from forest for agricultural purposes but is no longer being used as crop land. What these different lands have in common is that they have ceased to be otherwise productive in the forest sector. It is for this reason that they lie untouched and are usually dominated by brush species.
While it is long recognized that these lands will eventually develop the old growth characteristics they bore prior to being logged, it is also generally acknowledged that restoration activities undertaken on these lands help to speed this natural process. The key to the Haida Gwaii Project is using the restoration activities themselves to make this land profitable again.

Once the land is identified and the necessary agreements entered into with the appropriate regulatory agencies, restoration work begins. The land is painstakingly restored to mimic the old-growth characteristics it possessed before it was logged. 

Brush species are controlled and native conifer seedlings are arranged in a mixed-species planting. Wildlife habitat is mimicked in snags, which are left to provide inviting nesting and foraging habitat for native amphibians, birds, and mammals. Where this work is conducted on a riparian reserve zone, efforts are also made to improve the in-stream spawning habitat of native fish. Collectively, these activities help improve the overall biodiversity and environmental efficiency of the land. This activity also has a positive effect on climate change because it increases the amount of atmospheric carbon this once inefficient land converts into and stores as plant fibre. It is the net difference in sequestration capacity of the land post-restoration that is the monetized product that is sold in order to fund the restoration activities.
The Haida Gwaii Project also addresses one of BC’s major social and economic problems. The project is spearheaded by the people of the Haida Gwaii and represents a real solution to the serious economic and unemployment issues faced, in particular, by the Haida of the Queen Charlotte Islands. This project represents a stable source of employment for the Haida that is founded not on harvesting natural resources, but in payment for the atmospheric benefits of restoring the land to its native biodiversity and health. As such, it is employment that is far more in keeping with the Haida cultural values and beliefs. 
The Haida Gwaii Project arose out of a desire to meet the demands of an increasingly challenging and competitive global forestry market with an innovative way to fund important environmental restoration activities. It also arose out of an awareness that a significant portion of BC’s forested land was not being managed due to the realities of the increasingly demanding global forestry economy. In the true spirit of sustainability, the project grew out of a belief that there was a way to fund the much needed restoration of these lands through the restoration benefits, and also provide much needed employment to one of BC’s most genuinely depressed areas. 

From a climate change perspective, the project will remove several mega tonnes of carbon from the global atmosphere over the course of the Haida Gwaii Climate Forest’s monetized life of 100 years. At the same time, the province of BC will benefit from the restored riparian reserve zones and protected forests for the whole age of the forest, up to 1000 years. The project therefore represents not only an innovative approach to answering the challenges of climate change, but a long-term solution that has the very positive side effects of increasing the biodiversity, biomass, and health of otherwise neglected lands for the life of the forest ecosystem. 

The Haida Gwaii Project represents the kind of innovation required to address BC’s commitment to answering the climate change challenge. It also represents the kind of potential there is in our declining forest sector to answer this challenge through optimizing sometimes decades-old conventions and technologies. The proponents of the Haida Gwaii Climate Forest Project hope that those who read this article will look to their own professional activities and seek out how they can help bring solutions to the challenges of climate change while helping improve the health of Canada’s forest ecosystems. 

For more information on the Haida Gwaii Climate Forest Project, please contact John Disney, Economic Development Officer to the Old Massett Village Council on Haida Gwaii, by email at ecdev@mhtv.ca.