Quesnel Lake residents stop logging, protect caribou
By Contributor
Local property owners and community members in Quesnel Lake have won a halt on cutblocks proposed by logging giant West Fraser. The corporation has agreed not to proceed with parts of its planned operations that residents say threatened their public safety and the recovery and survival of endangered southern mountain caribou.
Several additional cutblocks are still being considered in the area, and many more have already been approved and logged over the last couple of months.
While partial, this decision — agreed to by West Fraser and achieved solely through community efforts — marks a significant win for residents and advocates, underscoring a deep lack of public trust in the provincial willingness to deny logging permits, even when proposals pose clear risks to community members and biodiversity.
“Getting to the point where West Fraser would listen to our concerns was a long and stressful community effort,” said Mike James, property owner in Quesnel Lake. “Discovering the Ministry of Forests was ignoring government scientists saying, ‘don’t issue these permits’ kicked us into high gear. We’re happy with the pause, but it must be permanent. How long can we keep doing the government’s job of protecting our homes and the forest around them?”
Ministry ignoring ministry
In July 2025, the Ministry of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship (WLRS) sent a formal recommendation to the local forest district manager, advising that no new cutblocks be approved in the area.
WLRS warned the proposed logging, “may result in functional habitat loss, decreased use of key migration corridors during calving, and an increase in predator densities, access, and efficiency,” concluding that: “We therefore recommend these cutting permits are not approved in order to support caribou recovery.”
Later that same month, the Ministry of Forests ignored the WLRS advice and approved several cutblocks in the area. Additional cutblocks contested by the locals are still being considered for approval.
Local residents and the Wilderness Committee argue the province is undermining public trust and the federal Species at Risk Act. By approving logging against the advice of its own scientists, the government has failed its legal obligation to protect southern mountain caribou.
The groups warn that this results in the continued decline of caribou herds in the region, as well as a system where communities are left to absorb the risks and costs of fighting multimillion-dollar companies, cutblock by cutblock, to defend their safety, their homes, and the ecosystems the provincial government is responsible for safeguarding.
“What will stop Minister Ravi Parmar from allowing clearcutting in caribou habitat if he won’t even listen to scientists from another ministry?” asked Lucero Gonzalez, Conservation and Policy Campaigner with the Wilderness Committee. “Perhaps he will only recognize the damage once every herd has been pushed to local extinction. In the meantime, he is leaving the heavy lifting of protecting these forests to local communities while he continues to prioritize corporate interests.”
In March 2026, property owners received confirmation that West Fraser would pause the permitting process for cutblocks adjacent to their homes. However, the pause is temporary and does not apply to the broader network of cutblocks in the area that WLRS had also recommended against logging.
“I’ve spent 62 years on the North Arm, witnessing the disappearance of caribou,” said Duane Evans, another property owner in Quesnel Lake. “I feel compelled to speak out against the destruction of their core habitat because I still live in hope their habitat will be secured, so that the next generation gets to see healthy caribou herds roam the land once again.”
Property owners and the Wilderness Committee are calling for this pause by West Fraser to be permanent but most importantly, for the full protection of critical habitat for the endangered southern mountain caribou that would end the need for residents to fight multimillion-dollar logging companies block by block.
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