By Zander Chila

All life on earth is dependent on water. Indeed, it’s the only reason there is life at all on our lonely rock.

Living on the West Coast, it’s easy to overlook the importance of water as you’re shaking the rain off your umbrella for the 30th day this month. But even here, we see the impacts of drought. Consider for a moment wildfire-evacuation orders that have occurred across the province.

In light of global warming and climate impacts, we need a better understanding of water, the role of B.C.’s rain forests, and the risks in clearcutting some of the last ancient trees on Vancouver Island and the South Coast.

A recent report on forests and water from the International Union of Forest Research Organizations stresses the role of forests in the water cycle. It is well understood that forests create their own microclimates through cooling temperatures, reducing wind speeds, and increasing moisture levels, but it has recently been shown that they also create their own rain across large regions.

Plants lose their water to the atmosphere through pores on their leaves. This could be compared to sweating, only instead of salty water, the product is clean, fresh water. The water stays in the air in the form of clouds, where it is carried for eight or nine days by the wind before being released as rain. In this way, rain ‘hops’ from one area of forest to another in eight- to nine-day cycles, following the wind. In this way, rainfall and groundwater are recycled through local plants back into the atmosphere.

These water currents have been called “flying rivers”. It is estimated that flying rivers account for up to half of global rainfall over land, with the percentage increasing the farther inland you look.

While the ocean accounts for the majority of our coastal rainfall, it is likely that through flying rivers our coastal rainforests are responsible for watering the interior of B.C. and large parts of Western Canada.

That’s great—until you consider the state of our forests, particularly B.C.’s globally rare coastal and inland temperate rain forests, which are in danger.

BC’s colonial history is largely built on forestry, which comes as no surprise to anyone living in the province. Over the past centuries, we’ve logged large tracts of our intact old-growth rain forest and continue to do so in the face of research showing the unparalleled and essential functioning of these old forests. On Vancouver Island, less than a quarter of the original old-growth coverage remains—and an even smaller fraction of the most productive forests with the biggest trees.

Recent clearcuts and younger forests—such as some areas close to Sooke and Nanaimo that burned this summer—are drying out faster and are more prone to wildfires than intact old-growth rain forest. Recently logged forests also only generate a fraction of the rainfall compared to an intact forest. Continued logging of old-growth will not only destroy wildlife habitat, carbon sinks, and tourism values, it will also worsen droughts and the risk of fire. 

While the rest of the province burns, endangered, high-functioning, and essential old-growth is being logged on Vancouver Island at a rate of 10,000 hectares per year—that’s two soccer fields every hour.

If intact forests can produce more rainfall than degraded forests, what does that mean for wildfires? Continuing to destroy the last old growth could make summers downwind of these forests even drier.

To top it off, cutting down trees not only upsets the water cycle, it releases greenhouse gases and reduces our ability to sequester those gases. Combined, these factors can have devastating consequences, leading us down a path of irreparable change.

It’s time for the people of B.C., Canada, and the world to stand up for the forests we rely on. September 23 to 29 is National Forests Week and a perfect time to get in touch with your MLA to let them know you expect them to stand tall for the last endangered old growth of Vancouver Island and the South Coast.

Will we advocate for a just and equitable transition to second-growth logging, saving thousand-year-old trees and protecting their ability to address climate impacts such as increasingly severe droughts, fires, and flooding?

Or will we look upon fire-scarred landscapes ashamed, knowing we could have made a difference?