ANALYSIS: Looking Back: 1985 Logging Blockade on Athlii Gwaii

Archie Stocker Sr. / Haida Gwaii Observer

At the beginning of October 1985, logging on Haida Gwaii dramatically increased, threatening the native environment and culture. This sparked an outrage of the locals, banding together to block the logging roads on Athlii Gwaii. They eventually deemed the area as the “Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve,” ensuring the old-growth trees would not be cut down. But Haida Gwaii isn’t the only place where logging has turned unsustainable.

Since many old-growth forests are not protected by BC’s provincial laws, they’re vulnerable to potential large-scale logging projects which could ultimately ruin the ecosystem.

In October of 1984, logging rights were given to the Vancouver-based company Western Forest Productions to clear cut old-growth forests on Athlii Gwaii. According to an estimate by Athlii Gwaii: Upholding Haida Law on Lyell Island (2018), Gwaii Haanas (the south end of Haida Gwaii) would have been stripped bare of its trees in 1996 if those logging grants went into full effect.

Moreover, the logging rights would have starved the Haida people of their culture. The Haida hold trees in high regard. They use the wood to create symbolic pieces of art, and build structures, and carve designs derived from their ancestral and cultural roots. Totem poles are a central piece of Haida culture, one of their most prominent expressions of art. The logging of the trees would result in the Haida slowly losing a branch of their traditions, as totem poles were made from such highly valued trees.

Throughout October and November of 1985, crowds of Haida protesters, including many elders, constructed blockades that cut off access to the logging areas. “There will be no logging in the area that Haida people have designated is not to be touched. This is Haida land and there’ll be no further logging in this area,” said one of the Haida protesters during a televised protest on November 2, 1985.

The protests preserved the forests of old Sitka spruce, cedar, and hemlock trees, protecting the forests against logging movements for about two months. Ultimately, 72 Haida protestors were arrested by the RCMP, and the forests were once again vulnerable to logging projects.  

The protest brought attention to the issue. In October, when the blockades of the Athlii Gwaii were at its peak, Minister of Environment Thomas McMillan made an executive decision. He ruled in favour of the Haida, ceasing all ongoing and future logging projects. Gwaii Haanas was designated as a Haida heritage site, protecting the land.

Despite this, controversial logging in other areas persisted until July of 1987. The Government of Canada and the Council of the Haida Nation had signed the South Moresby memorandum of understanding, which led the 1,450 square kilometres of land to officially become off-limits for loggers. The same two parties signed the Gwaii Haanas agreement in 1993, stating that the Government of Canada and the Council of the Haida Nation would both commit to a shared responsibility of the forests through the Archipelago Management Board (AMB).

Further agreements were signed after the year 2000. There was the 2009 Kunst’aa Guu–Kunst’aayah Reconciliation Protocol, which returned the title of Gwaii Haanas back to Haida people, and the 2010 Gwaii Haanas Marine Agreement, which gave the Haida people management control of the waters surrounding Haida Gwaii. Destructive logging on Athlii Gwaii and the Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve has since been discontinued, the land heavily protected.

Although the agreements helped protect the 1,450 square kilometers of old-growth forests, it was too late for Athlii Gwaii and other logged land. Currently, many old-growth forests across Canada still stand, but remain approved for logging. The rate of new logging sites increases every year, yet protection is rarely secured.

From April 2019 to the same month in 2020, about 592 square kilometers of new old-growth logging sites were approved. In the following year, the area of new logging sites on old-growth forests increased to around 847 square kilometers, a 43 per cent increase from 2019-2020 and does not show many signs of slowing down.

Amid a global climate crisis, preserving old-growth trees might even be considered a priority. According to Jens Wieting, Senior Forest And Climate Campaigner with the Sierra Club BC, the province’s south coast and Vancouver Island alone have forests around 15,000 square kilometers that hold carbon equal to 13 times BC’s annual emissions. Clearing the forests for lumber would release all that stored carbon into the atmosphere, doing further harm to the environment along with deforestation of old-growth trees.

In addition, the old-growth forests that line the coast of BC create ecosystems for thousands of species. The Sierra Club BC calculates that “a minimum of 30 per cent of old-growth coverage per ecosystem is needed to avert a high risk of species extinction for coastal temperate rainforests.” BC’s 20,000 square kilometers of rainforest ecosystems, of which are mostly on the south coast, are currently “below the critical limit needed to sustain species.”

The Haida people who organized the 1985 blockade were able to fight and win against imminent deforestation of Gwaii Haanas, saving its valuable forests, the ecosystem inside, and the culture that surrounds it. A Haida protester said in an interview during the blockade: “It’s time that, in the exploitation of resources and in the management of these islands, the people who are here sharing these lands with us respect equally with everyone else the aspirations and the values of the Haida Nation. These are our homelands. We’ve been here for thousands of years; we intend to live here for thousands more.”

If you are interested in primary and old-growth forests and would like to learn more, visit the website for both “Conservation North” and “Wilderness Committee.” If you would like to know more about Haida Gwaii and Gwaii Haanas, you can see the website for the “Council of the Haida Nation.”