In the Bight: The BC Forest Industry Today

Over a decade ago, Ken Drushka’s Stumped: The Forest Industry in Transition emerged as the definitive text on the British Columbia forest industry. In a clear, concise manner, Drushka explained the inner workings of the forest industry and unravelled its complexities, identifying its fundamental problems and explaining how our forests, a resource owned by all British Columbians, were being mismanaged by the industry, the government and the forestry profession.

But that was fourteen years ago - a lot has changed since. Now, Ken Drushka is back with In the Bight, a fresh look at the management of BC’s forests. Drushka details the evolution of the forest industry, from the industry’s arrogant superiority exhibited up to the late 1980s to its current position of confused decline and despair. He describes the problems confronting recent governments, their attempts at solutions, and their shortcomings of policy and enforcement, with informative analysis of recent initiatives including the Forest Practices Code, the CORE process, Forest Renewal BC, and the Protected Areas Strategy. As he did in Stumped, Drushka presents his analysis in the context of historical background and proposes practical alternatives to current policy, which is not solving our forestry problems.