File photo (image credit - CFJC Today)

By Michael Reeve

FOREST COUNCIL

MLA Stamer looking for more diversity on provincial forest advisory council

May 16, 2025 | 4:15 PM

KAMLOOPS — The province of B.C. has launched what its calling the provincial forest advisory council which is tasked with providing recommendations to government on advancing forest stewardship and supporting forestry workers.

Kamloops MLA and BC Conservative Forest Critic, Ward Stamer, is sounding the alarm around the makeup of the committee, as he questions why more voices from the worker ranks aren’t present.

“I’ve got some very strong concerns when you look at the list of people that are on this committee, on this council, and really [there is] no representation from industry,” Stamer said. “There is one person who worked at Western Forest Products but nobody else. It’s either registered professional foresters but they have worked for the government in the past or they are intellectuals or professors at UBC.”

“That is great on the science end of things, but from the operational perspective I would have hoped for a better cross section of people.”

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Stamer told CFJC Today that he respects the people who have been named to the committee, though he also said he feels it’s to much of the same thing. He believes that a bigger shift is needed to deal with the challenges across the industry.

“These are good people who are on the council, I have nothing against them personally, they have a ton of experience. But some of the people who are on the council are partly responsible for some of the situations that we are in,” Stamer added.

“Even talking about old growth management strategies, most people don’t realize you can just draw arbitrary boundaries around pieces of land in B.C. and call it good. Because we have a significant health issue in our forests, that is why we are having the magnitude of forest fires.”