British Columbia old-growth deferrals and mill closures

In September 2020 the British Columbia government published the report “A New Future for Old Forests” by Al Gorley and Garry Merkel. One of its 14 recommendations was to defer logging in old forest at high risk. The first deferrals covered nine areas of about 353,000 hectares. In June 2021 a two-year deferral was announced for Fairy Creek and Central Walbran (about 2,034 hectares); by December 2021 there had been 1,188 arrests at Fairy Creek. In November 2021 deferral was recommended for 2.6 million hectares of “at-risk old forest”. These were government decisions, not court rulings, and implementation was tied to the agreement of First Nations.

When the 2.6 million hectare recommendation was made, the Council of Forest Industries (COFI) said deferrals would close 14 to 20 sawmills and two pulp mills and cost 18,000 jobs; the government estimated up to 4,500 jobs. In May 2024 the government said 2.4 million hectares were “temporarily” deferred.

Stand.earth reported that at least 31,800 hectares of the areas recommended for deferral in 2021 were logged by November 2023. A November 2025 analysis reported by The Narwhal found that forest inside recommended deferral zones was four times more likely to be logged than forest outside them, and that about 4% of the remaining old forest had burned in the previous four years. The government said total harvest had fallen 40% since 2021 and harvest in at-risk old forest had fallen 50%. In March 2026 five former members of the old-growth panel said the process was not working as intended and that the government continued to approve logging in forests they had identified.

Mill closures in the province coincided with the deferrals, but the sources record other causes. Natural Resources Canada reported that the mountain pine beetle outbreak affected more than 18 million hectares and killed 752 million cubic metres, 58% of merchantable pine, by 2017. In May 2024 Canfor said its actual 2023 harvest was 42% below its allowable cut, a gap not seen since the 1960s, and closed its Polar mill (about 180 workers). In September 2024 it announced the closure of the Plateau and Fort St. John mills (about 500 workers). The Globe and Mail reported that West Fraser produced more lumber in the United States than in Canada in 2022 (3.02 billion board feet against 2.64 billion), with the US South's share of its production rising from 11% to 53% over about two decades. COFI said 21 sawmills had closed permanently or indefinitely since 2023 and more than 30 since 2017; the industry linked closures to the deferrals and permitting processes; US duties on Canadian lumber, recorded as 35.16% plus a further 10%, were above 45% in total in October 2025.