The Provincial government has announced rule changes to prevent the reforestation of farmland.
In 2015 the North Central Local Government Association passed a resolution calling for the changes after a large multinational company planted pine, spruce and fir trees on about 500 hectares of fruit and alfalfa producing farmland near Fort Fraser for carbon offset credits. (previous story)
The company championed their ‘Trees for Change’ program, saying it has planted several million seedlings in B.C. on “previously deforested land.”
“Fortunately Reckitt Benckiser put it on pause themselves, much I would credit to the local outcry and public pressure.” Chair of the Agricultural Land Commission (ALC) Frank Leonard said “They thought they were doing something that would get them good media and it got them bad.”
New changes under the Agricultural Land Commission Act announced this week will require landowners to make an application to the commission if they want to plant trees on more than 20 hectares of land in the Agricultural Land Reserve. Food producing tree are exempt.
The Province says the 20 hectare threshold was decided upon as a result of discussions with the ALC, BC Cattlemen’s Association and BC Agriculture Council, recognizing 20 hectares is large enough for most agricultural purposes, and carbon sequestration projects would require a larger land area than that to be feasible.
“Under our new management practices, we are turning applications over in 60-90 working days, so it’s not much hardship but it will preserve agricultural land and that’s important to everyone in BC.” Leonard said
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