(Clockwise from top left: Bruce Findlay, Tek Manhas, Mike Caljouw, Becky Hogg.)
North Cowichan council ignores public consultation, moves one step closer to renewed logging of forest reserve
CAO Swabey suggests logging might not be possible before 2026 municipal election
Dismissing the public’s wishes for conservation and staff concerns over First Nation relations, North Cowichan council voted 4-3 Wednesday to make a resumption of logging in the Municipal Forest Reserve a strategic priority in 2026.
The next step is for staff to deliver a report with details and options, including the cost of starting up logging, where logging might occur and its impacts on issues such as trails and the environment, and whether the public and First Nations would be asked to weigh in.
But even if council formally decides at that time to proceed with logging, it’s debatable anything would happen before the next municipal election in 14 months.
“I suspect with forestry, this would be a pretty prolonged period of time to actually get started up.…” Chief Administrative Officer Ted Swabey told council. “I actually believe it would be very tough to harvest before the end of the term.”
He added: “I don’t envision this to be one that we could actually get going quickly. It needs to be thoughtfully done if council is interested in harvesting again.”
Councillors Bruce Findlay, Tek Manhas, Becky Hogg and Mike Caljouw voted in favour of the motion, while Mayor Rob Douglas and councillors Christopher Justice and Chris Istace voted against.
A lengthy public consultation process ending in 2023 showed 76-per-cent support for conservation management of the 5,000-hectare forest reserve. A parallel consultation with First Nations continues behind closed doors.
“We are actively engaged with Quw’utsun Nation in a co-management strategy,” Istace said. “We have a moral and ethical responsibility to do the right thing…We should not even be having this discussion.”
The public gallery was full; speakers on the forest reserve implored council to not resume logging.
(Protest sign outside municipal hall Aug. 20)
Sandy McPherson, who has been honoured with a BC Achievement Community Award, stood at the microphone and looked each council member in the eye.
“I ask that you set aside your ideology,” she said. “Have you ever heard of natural assets? There is not a price to be put on the forest reserve that can be monetary. Please look deep within your hearts and minds….”
Dozens of concerned citizens also sent in letters by email, though they had no impact on the four councillors who support more logging of the coastal Douglas-fir forest — the smallest and most at-risk forest type in BC.
“If it takes a year to put this together we’ll know that it’s an election issue and we’ll see how the electorate deals with it,” Findlay said. “If they don’t like the idea, then I’m out of here and that’s fine if that’s what the electorate wants. So be it.”
Justice said it “would be a major misstep and an error to return to forest harvesting,” noting that council’s suspension of logging and the public consultation resulted from citizens speaking out loudly against status-quo logging.
“I think it would just be completely arrogant of us after spending…taxpayers’ money, to learn what the community really wants, to now think we know better and to throw it all away, all that time and effort, and return to harvesting.”
The public consultation and forest review cost about $300,000.
(Forest ecologist Erik Piikkila addresses council on Aug. 20)
Douglas added: “To abruptly renew harvesting at a status-quo level while this partnership is being development would be a serious setback. Staff have expressed concern — and I share it — that such a move could cause lasting harm to our relationship with the Quw’utsun Nation.”
Findlay countered that a memorandum of understanding signed with Quw’utsun Nation on the forest reserve “doesn’t limit us from still monetizing the asset that we own in fee-simple title while we’re still communicating and coming up with a potential co-management strategy” for the forest reserve.
Caljouw said Cowichan Tribes could be involved with any harvesting program, adding that council ’s decision “doesn’t necessarily mean…that we want to clearcut the whole thing. I’m in the forest reserve all the time with my dogs. I’m hiking out there. I love it out there.
“And I do not want to see massive carbon sequestered areas.”
Forests are known to sequester carbon, which is a good thing. Caljouw has so far not responded to a request to clarify his remark. In 2024, he said of the forest reserve: “To me, I see it as a crop and it can be harvested,” adding: “I enjoy going through the clearcuts that are growing up….”
(Municipal clearcut atop Mount Prevost/Swuq'us).
Hogg enquired of Swabey to confirm that councillors would later have an opportunity to vote on any final logging plan. Manhas did not speak.
Read the previous article by sixmountains.ca: https://www.sixmountains.ca/article/4aab6dce-ed31-4285-bdaf-51ca7c6fd801
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— Larry Pynn, Aug. 21, 2025
