Sunday, June 06, 2021


Environmentalists hope threatened owls will end logging at Fairy Creek

But government says owls were not found in the watershed where old-growth trees are being logged

Author of the article: Lisa Cordasco
VANCOUVER SUN
Publishing date: Jun 04, 2021 • 
A screech owl. 
PHOTO BY JENELLE SCHNEIDER /PNG


VICTORIA — The discovery of two pairs of Western screech owls by provincial biologists at two sites on Vancouver Island have environmental groups calling for a halt to logging at Fairy Creek.

The biologists from the Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development confirmed the sightings in an area outside of the Fairy Creek watershed this week. They plan to return next week to search for nests and to examine half a dozen more locations where the birds have been reported.

The species of the Western screech owl found in coastal forests has been listed as threatened by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada. The Committee defines “threatened” as “likely to become endangered if limiting factors are not reversed.” The birds are “blue listed” under B.C.’s Wildlife Act, which is the equivalent of a threatened designation.

It’s believed predation by barred owls and a reduction in the habitat needed to sustain the screech owls have reduced their numbers to approximately 2,000 in North America. The owls need just the right sized hole between three and 10 metres off the ground in dead or decaying trees for their nests. Biologists believe they are virtually extinct in Vancouver, Victoria and on the Gulf Islands.

Environmental groups have said this week’s discovery on the west coast of Vancouver Island should force a halt to old-growth logging underway in Fairy Creek by the Teal Jones Group. Mark Worthing, the coastal projects lead for the Sierra Club of B.C. says both federal and provincial law demand it.

“It’s so important to study them, to make sure we know where they are, so that you can actually come to a scientific assessment. Is there enough suitable habitat for a said population? We don’t know,” said Worthing.

But David Muter, the assistant deputy minister of the resource stewardship division, said the discovery will not shut down the logging operations in the Fairy Creek watershed because the biologists’ work is being done some distance away from where the birds have been spotted. And, he said, Teal Jones has no immediate plans to log in the area of its tree farm licence being examined by the biologists.

“We know there is no logging activity there right now, so we’re not worried about any impending harvest,” he said, “But if we do need to do any additional habitat protections in the future, we want to get ready for that.”

Fairy Creek is 120 kilometres west of Victoria on Vancouver Island. It has been the site of logging protests that have led to the arrests of 158 people since the end of March.

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