A University of Northern British Columbia graduate wants to set the record straight.
David Radies did not discover the Ancient Forest located approximately 120 kilometres east of Prince George but he did discover the logging tape that marked the trees destined for the chainsaw in the area.
"The tape around those trees is a clear indication of how well B.C. is capable of managing our forests," said Radies.
"So, if anything, the Ancient Forest is an indicator of how poor forest management has gotten in British Columbia. It's an indicator of how British Columbia forest management and the British Columbia government is failing us."
The Ancient Forest system is rare, Radies said.
In the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, the annual snow and rainfall accumulations are so high the area resembles a coastal rain forest. Some call the the Ancient Forest the snow forest, instead of rain forest.
"There's real challenges out there," he added.
"The cedar hemlock forest contributes less than one per cent of our timber supply for the Prince George district but the government is unwilling to remove it from its timber harvesting land base. The British Columbia government managing our forests is like the fox guarding the hen house. Forest management is no longer determined with rational thought but driven by political decisions lobbied by industrial desires that may not reflect what the people wish."
The Ancient Forest is bigger than the small site that people visit, Radies said.
"It's a much broader topic than this little site," he said. "The work Nowell Senior and his group are doing out there is fantastic because they are raising awareness about those forests. I think it's a great educational piece for people to understand there's a fair bit of that forest in the Prince George district that is not protected."
There's various levels of protection and people need to understand the facts, said Radies.
"The government has to look at these rare forests and [has] to make some good decisions around it," he said. "The forests out there are financially valued at the same stumpage fee as dead pine - so if you want to talk economics it doesn't make economic sense to be logging these forests at a salvage rate. Basically British Columbians will get 25 cents to a dollar per tree for the oldest trees that exist in the interior of B.C."
There are questions that need to answered, he added.
"Why is there a hemlock forest there?," Radies asked. "You have to understand the reason why you're seeing large trees. It's much like why you see large carrots in your garden - because there's the right amount of environmental conditions - water, nutrients, sun to allow for that tree to grow for that period of time and to develop the way it does."
The gigantic trees seen in the Ancient Forest is part of about 6,000 hectares of old growth forest that potentially exists in the Prince George Forest District.
During Radies research of lichens in the district he said there was other forest of comparable size and stature scattered throughout the Robson Valley.
"But that comes with a caveat because the Ancient Forest that does not burn in that area is approximately 120,000 hectares," Radies said. "When you're in an old-growth forest by ecological terms it's like when you go to the coast - not all coastal trees are huge. You'll only find them in certain locations but it's all part of a body that you call a forest."
Sustainability is also an issue.
"Will you be able to maintain the forest's value by cutting around it?" he asked. "Leaving it there, sitting there as a postage stamp and clear cut all around it - that's a question that we can't answer and we don't know what the effects are. The question is will the Ancient Forest survive? What was fascinating about it is how little we know about those forests except that we know where they exist and we know that the government is unwilling to put them aside for now."
There is a high probability that the highest levels of biodiversity exists in the interior of the province in those forests because they have been developing undisturbed for thousands of years, said Radies, a graduate student of natural resources and environmental studies.
"So what happens is that you get all these little things that grow underneath and small things that you can't even see and that's what's defined as biodiversity," he said.
"Some of these small plants, lichens, fungal species can have secondary metabolites, which once discovered and studied, can potentially lead to medical breakthroughs because of their chemistry."
It doesn't make sense to log the ancient forest that holds potential value as compared to logging pine forest valued the same in the logging world, he added.
"Whether it be for tourism or if it is for biodiversity and making sure we are capable of maintaining species on this planet, the ancient forest needs to be left alone," said Radies. "Since the government doesn't have proper inventories of biodiversity in the province there are major problems with the way in which we approach forest management."
The road used to get to the Ancient Forest used to be surrounded by trees, Radies said.
"If it takes building a trail and have hundreds and thousands of people come out just to protect 50 hectares of it, what is that telling you," said Radies. "Don't forget about the other 120,000 hectares, is what I've got to say about it."
No comment was provided by the Ministry of Forests after leaving several messages.
