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LANDSCAPES AND WATERSHEDS IN BC ARE AT A HEIGHTENED RISK: “While scientists have determined a causal link between logging and flood events, the historical approach to incorporating flood management into forestry planning has been overly simplistic,” wrote Dr. Julee Boan in an article for the Natural Resources Defense Council

Note to Reader:

Julee Boan works collaboratively with Indigenous peoples and organizations, local and national conservation groups, plus industry and governments to protect Canada’s boreal forest. She has a PhD in forest sciences, where she researched approaches to mitigate the impacts of industrial logging on boreal caribou. She has taught in the Indigenous Learning department at Lakehead University. Julee Boan is a staff member with the Natural Resources Defense Council and is the NRDCs Canada Project Partnership Manager.

 

 

Forest Degradation Increases Community Vulnerability to Extreme Floods

“Management of natural resources has a tendency to reduce complex systems to simple and easily quantifiable measurements – what is known as a reductionist approach,” wrote Dr. Julee Boan in her article titled Forest Degradation Increases Community Vulnerability to Extreme Floods.

“For example,” she continued, “the UN’s definition of a forest is: Land spanning more than 0.5 hectares with trees higher than 5 meters and a canopy cover of more than 10 percent. Under this definition, recent clearcuts and second- or even third-growth plantations are considered the same as forests that have never been logged.”

Clearcut logging in Caycuse Valley, British Columbia. Credit: TJ Watt

 

Integrating flood risk into forest management planning

In her article Julee Boan references research by Dr. Younes Alila of the University of British Columbia to describe how the historical approach to incorporating flood management into forestry planning has been overly simplistic. As a result, flood projections often haven’t reflected the true risk of flooding after logging, particularly during extreme weather events that are increasing with climate change.

To Learn More:

To read the complete article, download a PDF copy of Forest Degradation Increases Community Vulnerability to Extreme Floods.

 

Watersheds in BC are at a heightened risk

Dr. Younes Alila in the UBC Faculty of Forestry has been making headline news. He is courageous in challenging conventional wisdom about what he believes to be the “misguided and scientifically indefensible” practice of forest hydrology in BC. His findings are relevant to urban drainage practice.

Younes Alila is in the news because he is raising the alarm. His message boils down to RISK AND LIABILITY. The actual consequences of clearcut logging, he warns, are magnified in this era of weather extremes. This mirrors what communities are seeing and experiencing, including in the urban environment, due to radical alteration of landscapes.

Trained as a civil engineer, Younes Alila found himself having to do science. In the process, he landed on a discovery of great import.

For more than a century, Dr. Alila explains, scientists have clung to a “deterministic” analysis. To use a strategic board game analogy, this is like looking at each move in isolation and thinking, “If I move here, then I should win.” It fails to account for the roll of the dice, the cards you draw, and what your opponents might do—all of which can change the game.

 

Photo Credit: Conservation North (via Younes Alila)

Landscapes and watersheds in BC are at a heightened risk due to clearcut logging

In speaking out, Dr. Younes Alila is having an impact. So much so, his findings have been debated in the BC Legislature. Consider this sample of headlines:
Research by Younes Alila and his grad students over the past three decades demonstrates how clearcut logging leads to more frequent flooding, including extreme floods. Their work also shows that larger, intact watersheds reduce flood risk more effectively.

More frequent flooding, more extreme floods

“The story of my forest hydrology research over the past 30 years is actually a traumatizing story,” says Dr. Younes Alila. “Most of the landscapes in British Columbia and most of our watersheds are sitting at a very heightened risk when it comes to hydrology and geomorphology.”

“And that in itself is of course a trauma. It is also a trauma personally because the science that I have been building and publishing in peer-reviewed papers goes against mainstream thinking in forest hydrology as practiced in British Columbia.”

“The risks are greater than we were led to believe by government, industry, and professionals. But scholars in the philosophy of science will tell you that scientists will never admit to erroneous precedents. An eminent scientist once said, science progresses one funeral at a time.”

To Learn More:

To read the complete story, download a copy  of Living Water Smart in British Columbia: Landscapes and watersheds in BC are at a heightened risk.

DOWNLOAD A COPY: https://waterbucket.ca/wcp/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2024/05/PWSBC_Living-Water-Smart_Younes-Alila_Forest-Hydrology-and-Floods_2024.pdf