The True Cost of Clear-Cutting in BC

Clear-cutting forests is putting your water, your home, and your community at risk

Healthy forests aren’t just “nature.”
They are infrastructure that keeps communities safe.

They slow flood waters.
They store water for summer, reducing water scarcity and wildfire risk.
They keep rivers cool for fish and wildlife.

But across British Columbia, clear-cut logging is stripping that protection away and communities are paying the price.

Right now, forestry companies can remove large areas of forest without fully accounting for the downstream risks to people, homes, and drinking water.

That’s not fair. And it’s not sustainable.

👉 Tell your MLA: Put community safety ahead of short-term logging profits

How Clear-Cutting Increases Flood Risk

Trees are flood defence infrastructure. Without them, snowmelt accelerates, runoff spikes, and river banks are breached more often and more severely.

18x

More Frequent Floods

Floods on north facing slopes now occur up to 18 times more often in a study watershed logged in the 1950s.

105%

Larger Peak Floods

The biggest floods in that same watershed are now much larger than before logging — more than double the pre-cut peak.

84%

Flood Size Surge

Joe Ross Creek watershed saw an 84% surge in flood size after just 21% of its trees were clear-cut.

Community Risks

The damage affects us all. Heavily clear-cut watersheds mean damaged homes, washed-out roads, higher insurance costs, and taxpayer-funded repairs. This is why Vancouver and Victoria have bought up entire watersheds to protect their communities and drinking water supply.


Photo by Mark Worthing: LeMare Lake Logging in one of Kwakiutl Nation's most important salmon bearing rivers.

Wildfire Risk

Clear-cut areas leave behind dry debris and dense regrowth that burns easily. Replanted stands of trees managed to be dense stands of conifers burn more readily than deciduous trees, and facilitate the spread of parasites and disease that make the area more fire prone.

Photo by Mark Worthing, Central Walbran.

At the same time, older, more complex forest stands, which once slowed and buffered fires are removed.

The result is more fuel on the landscape, and fires that spread faster and burn hotter.

Landslide Risk

When you clear-cut a hillside, you destabilize it. A Vancouver Island study found logging triggered up to 16 times more slides than occurred naturally and the roads cut for logging access were the worst offender by far. Landslides endanger communities, infrastructure, and wild fish habitat.

Water Scarcity


A long-term UBC study found that clearcut logging caused snowmelt to surge earlier in spring, then drop sharply in June and July, exactly when farmers need water for irrigation and fish need cool, stable flows.



Photo by the Peachland Watershed Protection Alliance

Water Quality

Clear-cutting doesn't just change how much water flows — it degrades the quality of that water and strips away the living buffer that keeps streams healthy.

Sediment Overload

Logging roads are a major source of sediment into creeks and rivers. They cloud water, which damages fish gills and smothers the gravel beds where salmon lay their eggs.

Temperature Spikes

Loss of shade can raise summer stream temperatures by 4–6 °C — enough to stress or kill salmon and other aquatic species.

Turning the Tide: What Can Be Done Now?

The science is clear. The solutions exist. What's needed now is the political will to act and an informed public demanding better stewardship of BC's most vital natural infrastructure.

Restore Functional Forests

Right now, too many logged areas are replanted as single-species plantations designed for future timber harvest, not for water, wildlife, or community safety.

We need forests that actually work: diverse, multi-species, and structurally complex. That’s what slows floods, stores water for summer, and keeps rivers healthy.

Require Watershed Assessments

Logging decisions are still being made piece by piece, without fully considering how multiple clear-cuts add up across a watershed. That needs to change.

Before any approval, the province should require cumulative impact assessments to measure the real risks to communities, water, and fish.

Invest in Watershed Security

Healthy forests do the work of flood control, water storage, and wildfire defence.

When we neglect them, communities pay, through flooding, water scarcity, and higher costs.

Protecting watersheds is one of the most cost-effective investments BC can make.

We all rely on healthy forests — for safe communities, clean drinking water, and rivers that keep fish and wildlife thriving.

If we get this right, we can defend what we depend on today and make sure it’s still there for the next generation.

Photo by Tavish Campbell