B.C. environmental organizations have expressed outrage over comments made by the minister of forests about caribou and old-growth during an interview in Revelstoke last Tuesday.
Minister Ravi Parmar visited the community on June 9 to tour sites such as the Downie Timber saw mill, BC Hydro’s Revelstoke Dam and BC Housing’s Downie Street Redevelopment project.
Fitting in a chat in the rain with Black Press Media, Parmar spoke about local mills, lumber market diversification, old-growth forests, wildfire management, First Nations engagement and southern mountain caribou.
READ: B.C. forests minister talks saw mills, old-growth and caribou in Revelstoke
His comments included calling caribou “not the smartest animal” for fleeing long distances when disturbed, as well as pointing to wildfires as a main cause of destruction for caribou habitat, and claiming that logging in B.C. today relies on far fewer “1950s-style” cutblocks.
Black Press Media fact-checked these claims from the minister and found they all have inaccuracies.
Caribou have evolved over millennia from the last ice age to survive in old-growth habitat, and flee long distances from human disturbance the same way grizzlies and mountain goat have been documented doing in B.C.
Provincial data indicates that while fire is the leading disturbance for caribou in northern B.C., forest extraction remains the biggest threat for southern B.C. herds’ habitat, as well as for central B.C. herds’ wider matrix habitat.
The provincial government also reports that 199,000 hectares of Crown land forest on average were harvested annually between 1987 and 2023, mostly by clear-cutting while partial cutting has declined since the 1980s and ’90s.
Since publication, environmentalists across the province have taken to social media to voice concerns and disbelief over the minister’s comments in Revelstoke. These posts have garnered hundreds of reactions from outraged and gobsmacked members of the public, prompting some to email Parmar and the Ministry of Forests.
READ: Feds sued as Wildsight calls for protection of Columbia Mountain caribou range
“You heard that right — our Forest Minister just said that caribou are ‘not smart’ because they get ‘spooked’ by logging, and that’s what’s driving their extinction,” the Wilderness Committee posted. “Eight out of eighteen southern mountain caribou herds are gone, and Ravi Parmar’s comment is extremely concerning regarding the future of the remaining ten herds.”
Torrance Coste, who works for the Wilderness Committee, posted separately that “blaming caribou and calling them stupid for getting scared when their habitat is destroyed by logging is such a callous worldview to hold.”
Wildsight added that it was “deeply disappointed and disheartened by these comments” from the minister.
“Caribou are not to blame for the continued logging of their core habitat,” the organization wrote.
“There’s nothing dumb about an animal that adapted over thousands of years to survive this region’s long, harsh winters. There’s nothing dumb about an animal that evolved to evade predators and find food in dense, old-growth ecosystems.”
Anneke Rosch, a Nelson-based graphic artist, responded to Black Press Media’s article by illustrating a caribou fleeing from heavy-duty logging machinery.
“Dear Minister Parmar,” she wrote in the illustration. “Here is a caribou, shown to scale with a feller buncher. Running away is what any intelligent animal would do.”
Rosch added that “blaming caribou is a new low” for the minister and B.C. government, along with that “sustainable forestry isn’t just for caribou — it’s needed for the future of forestry jobs too.”
READ: Biologists call on Revelstoke to help protect unique old-growth wilderness
Biologist Amber Peters of the Valhalla Wilderness Society, which has for years pushed the B.C. government to protect the Rainbow-Jordan Wilderness old-growth area near Revelstoke as a provincial park, was particularly disappointed to learn Parmar told Black Press Media he wouldn’t support “saving land for the sake of saving land, and seeing mills close down.”
“Stand with me and be a voice for this ancient wilderness of globally significant biodiversity and trees up to 2,000 years old,” Peters encouraged others on social media.
Eddie Petryshen, a Wildsight conservation specialist who attempted to speak with Parmar about old-growth and caribou during his Revelstoke visit, is hopeful for a change of heart with the minister.
“I hope one day he’ll understand what it’s like to be the last person to walk through an ancient caribou rainforest before it gets turned into a shake, a two-by-eight, or toilet paper,” Petryshen posted.
“I hope one day he’ll understand what it means to be deeply connected to these caribou. To feel for those animals and ancient forests who future is in our hands.”