Campbell River, B.C., area will be first to test new proposed forest management model

By: The Canadian Press Posted: 4:58 PM CDT Tuesday, Sep. 15, 2026

VANCOUVER - British Columbia's Forests Ministry has chosen a stretch of land near Campbell River to be the first candidate for a proposed new model of how forests and timber are managed in the province.

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VANCOUVER – British Columbia’s Forests Ministry has chosen a stretch of land near Campbell River to be the first candidate for a proposed new model of how forests and timber are managed in the province.

Under what the province has dubbed the “working forest landscape model,” the area north of and adjacent to Campbell River would be divided into three zones that dictate how and where trees can be logged.

Forests Minister Ravi Parmar says the goal is to end “cut-block-by-cut-block permitting” and move to “operational plan forestry,” while environmental groups have pushed back, saying the plan would create guaranteed logging zones and obstruct the public’s ability to protect and conserve forests.

Lumber awaiting shipment is seen stacked at the Gorman Brothers Lumber sawmill, in West Kelowna, B.C., on Tuesday, August 5, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

Randene Neill, B.C.’s minister of water, land and resource stewardship, told a news conference Tuesday that the working forest landscape model, which includes partnerships with First Nations, is a good test of what needs to be done to transform forestry in a sustainable way.

Parmar says the exercise of deciding how the zones will be divided has to be community-based and involve First Nations, local government, industry and environmental groups.

A statement from the Forests Ministry says officials will undertake technical, socio-economic and environmental analysis to better understand how a three-zone approach could be applied to the landscape.

Dallas Smith, president of the Nanwakolas Council that is partnering with the province on the Campbell River plan, says there has been talk of the need for change in B.C.’s forests for decades.

“We’re happy to be participating in this actual paradigm shift, where we’re talking about how a working forest works hand-in-hand with the conservation values that are important to us as British Columbians, the biodiversity values,” says the First Nation leader.