Deadwood: People, place, and neoliberal forest policy in British Columbia, Canada

Abstract

This article describes the people and forests in traditional Secwépemc territory in the Interior Plateau of British Columbia (BC), Canada. It examines the intersection of neoliberal forest policy and profound ecological change in the south-central region of the province, with careful attention paid to the wider contexts of settler colonialism. The article critiques the implementation of forest policy reform (the Forest and Range Practices Act, enacted in 2004) as it coincided with one of the first major climate change events of landscape-altering magnitude in BC – the mountain pine beetle outbreak. Between 1998 and 2014, the outbreak resulted in tree mortality for roughly half of the mature lodgepole pine trees in the province. It left an expanse of ‘deadwood’ on the landscape, leading to heightened social and political conflict over how the beetle-affected areas were managed. Research methods include transcripts from a public hearing in Tk’emlúps/Kamloops, supplemented by eighteen semi-structured interviews. The article argues that the confluence of neoliberal forest policy and climate change has further entrenched the settler colonial and corporate capture of forests.