In today’s program we embark upon our forest resource management investigative series. Today we will focus on the present status and importance of Old Growth forests in British Columbia.  Joining us for this episode are two of the authors of an important recent publication entitled “BC's Old Growth Forest: A Last Stand for Biodiversity”.   
Our first guest Dr. Rachel Holt, originated from the UK and concluded her graduate studies and research in British Columbia which spawned her passion for the BC landscape and its incredible biodiversity. Dr. Holt is trained in the science of conservation biology, and is accomplished in the art of applying science towards land and resource management initiatives.
Our second guest is Dr Karen Price, an ecological consultant based in an off-grid log cabin near Smithers, BC who works at the interface of science and management with her partner Dave Daust.  Dr Price developed her passion for ecology early, collecting skulls and lichens at age 5, in her relatively tame native English countryside. She came to BC at 12 years of age and spent hours in the wild forests near Vancouver. She realised her childhood dream of studying behavioural ecology in grad school at Simon Fraser University where she obtained her PhD in behavioural ecology.
The present situation is abysmal.  In British Columbia, of the 50 million ha of forest cover, about 13.2 million ha are classified as old growth (about 25%), and only approximately 415,000 ha are productive old growth. This is < 1%.  Nearly half of ecosystems have < 1% of the amount expected naturally, and of our remaining old growth, 3% is productive.
To learn more about today's topic or guests, please visit the following:
Dr. Rachel Holt
Dr. Karen Price
"BC's Old Growth Forest: A Last Stand for Biodiversity" - Publication