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When Jessica Shoubridge and her family moved to Gun Lake, BC, she imagined a future rooted in the area’s natural beauty. She envisioned her commercially zoned property one day hosting an eco-tourism venture built around the lake and featuring a west-facing view of the hillside.
Then, the 2023 Downton Lake Wildfire ripped through the Bridge River Valley, burning up nearly 10,000 hectares, destroying 43 properties and exposing Shoubridge to a network of logging access roads previously under tree cover.
Now, two years after the fire, Shoubridge says she has watched the forest recover naturally.
“The natural regeneration that’s happened in the last two years has been remarkable," she said. "We’re like, “It’s going to be OK, it’s starting to look good now. Things are starting to grow back.’”
Resident Sarah Frood describes a similar scene.
“Across the lake, where it burned, you can see green,” Frood said. “We’ve been biking out on the trails that burned. You can see natural regrowth happening. It’s coming back to what it was.”
Partly in light of that regrowth, Shoubridge, Frood and other residents are raising the alarm over a proposal to log fire-damaged timber above the lake. The practice, known as “salvage logging,” is becoming increasingly common in B.C. as forestry outfits look for ways to capitalize on areas damaged by forest fires.
Locals are concerned the practice will undermine the area’s recovery, risk eroding the slope above residents’ properties as the community tries to rebuild and put drinking water drawn from the lake at risk. They’re asking for the province to put the proposed salvage logging operation on pause until more research can be done.
Salvage logging usually involves logging in a burned area.
It’s an attractive option for forestry outfits, producing “waste” wood for pulp and paper at a time when the B.C. forestry industry is struggling to cope with increasingly damaging wildfires and pine and spruce beetle infestations. In 2024, the B.C. government announced plans to expedite salvage logging permitting in an effort to boost the province’s forestry sector.
Still, the practice is controversial.
Proponents argue salvage logging reduces fire hazard by removing potential fuel for future forest fires, captures timber value before it decays, creates jobs and accelerates reforestation by removing dead trees and planting saplings for future forest stands.
But in a letter shared with Pique, Robin Naidoo—Gun Lake resident and lead scientist with the World Wildlife Fund—argued a more holistic assessment of the benefits of salvage logging in Gun Lake is necessary before the project can proceed.
“Wildlife, biodiversity and other non-timber values within the Downton Lake fire area could be severely compromised unless post-fire salvage logging is scaled back,” Naidoo wrote to the Cascades Natural Resource District, which approves timber harvesting in the area.
“[The] dead wood, nutrients and complex burned vegetation structure that will be ‘salvaged’ in fact support a whole host of unique biodiversity that has adapted to post-wildfire disturbance,” he continued. “Retaining a significant portion of this burned vegetation complexity is critical to whether forests regenerate [well] or become monoculture 'ghost stands' that are devoid of biodiversity, like so many of Canada's logged-over, secondary forests.”
Studies show salvage logging can also increase sedimentation and destabilize slopes, spurring concerns from residents around efforts to rebuild homes below the proposed salvage logging on the steep, west side of the slope and worries that increased landslide risk could compromise their water source. The lake is the main drinking water source for the 260 properties in the area, according to the Gun Lake Ratepayer’s Association.
“If there’s a big storm [and] we’re at greater risk of landslides and sediment getting into the water, who is going to be there to clean that up if the worst-case scenario happens?” Frood asked.
A hydrological assessment, which studies the potential for disasters spurred by the movement of water—including floods, droughts, and landslides—was produced in 2024 for St’át’imc Tribal Holdings Biomass Ltd. (STH).
The report found “salvage in high-severity areas [like Gun Lake] is not expected to worsen hydrologic hazard if best practices are used,” including re-planting once harvesting is done.
“The exception would be where retention could aid in the deposition of post-fire hydrogeomorphic events such as debris flows and debris floods,” the report added, echoing concerns from residents about debris making its way down to the newly rebuilt homes and the lake itself.
The current project proposal, led by Interwest Timber Ltd. on behalf of STH, would involve cutting salvage blocks on the steep, fire-scorched slopes above Gun Lake.
Interwest has already reduced the size of its proposed cut blocks since the project was first identified in early 2024—removing areas that overlapped with hazard zones identified in a provincial post-fire risk assessment. At the behest of Xwist’en First Nation, an STH co-owner, the current proposal also leaves behind more high-quality, still-living trees, rather than harvesting them along with the burned stock.
The net block size, excluding the wildlife tree patches to be left behind by the logging operation, stands at 81.8 hectares across three cut blocks—77.4 hectares on the west side of the lake, and two smaller cut blocks (1.3 and 3.5 hectares) on the east side, according to a visual impact assessment summary form conducted in August.
Still, despite that reduced mandate, residents of Gun Lake are calling for a full stop before the operation is approved by the province—sounding off on social media, signing a petition firing off letters to officials.
And while they’re raising concerns over the environmental factors above, they’re hoping last year’s hydrological report represents the most compelling case to reject the proposed salvage logging operation.
“There is a preference on the part of [STH] for salvage to occur as soon as possible before the burned stands lose value from an economic perspective," the report reads, in part. "Based on extensive fire-related damage to the roots and boles of the affected timber, mainly Douglas‐fir, stands are expected to be become uneconomic within 12 to 24 months.”
But it’s now been more than two years since the fire.
“We’re past that window,” Frood told Pique. “I feel like we need an updated assessment before they proceed … Is the economic benefit really worth the risk to 200-plus homes that are getting their drinking water from the lake? We don’t know, because it’s not up-to-date anymore.”
Both Shoubridge and Frood stress they are not opposed to logging in principle; they’re looking for a more up-to-date assessment.
“I just want them to use the best evidence, and right now, it feels like it’s being driven by the economics and not the bigger picture for what’s best for this community,” said Frood.
The decision on whether to approve Interwest’s salvage logging proposal now rests with the province. In the meantime, residents continue to press for a halt, an independent hydrological study, and a more transparent consultation process. So far, 198 people have signed the petition to stop salvage logging.
Interwest and the BC Ministry of Forests did not respond to requests for comment before Pique's publication deadline.