The Boundary Forest Watershed Stewardship Society will conclude its operations on November 13, 2026, and is proceeding with dissolution.
The New Forest Act proposal will remain publicly available. Jennifer Houghton, its principal author and Campaign Director, will become the independent custodian of the proposal and supporting documents. A new website is being created at newforestact.ca to provide access to the documents, videos, and resources people can use to advance the proposal.
BFWSS’s organized campaign will end. Jennifer’s continuing role will be to preserve the proposal and its resources, with occasional presentations. It will not include running an organization, coordinating volunteers, or accepting donations.
The BFWSS website at boundaryforest.org will become a public archive of the society’s work and history and will remain available for ten years. The YouTube channel will continue under the New Forest Act name, preserving access to its videos.
Thank you to everyone who contributed to BFWSS through donations, research, expertise, volunteer work, and participation. Those contributions helped develop a proposal that remains available for British Columbians to carry forward.
Protect what’s left. Restore what’s damaged. Harvest responsibly.
LETTER FROM JENNIFER HOUGHTON
BFWSS is Dissolving – What Happens Next for the New Forest Act
Hello Everyone,
I have an important update to share about the Boundary Forest Watershed Stewardship Society and the New Forest Act project.
The BFWSS Board has made the decision to dissolve the Society. BFWSS will cease operations on November 13, and the official New Forest Act campaign under BFWSS will end with it.
But the New Forest Act framework does not end on November 13.
The campaign may be ending, but the framework is there for everyone who wants to carry it forward.
OUR DEVELOPMENT
BFWSS has spent years investigating what was happening in the forests in the Kettle River watershed, bringing that information to the public, challenging forestry practices and government decisions, and pushing for something better. That work eventually led to a much bigger undertaking: developing an alternative to BC’s existing forestry system.
Development of the New Forest Act began in January 2024. The detailed proposal was first published in September 2024.
Since then, much of my work has been about getting that proposal out into the world: presenting it in BC communities, bringing it to local governments, organizations, and provincial officials; developing the supporting materials people need to understand it, and, most recently, presenting it directly to BC’s Ministers of Forests and Water, Land and Resource Stewardship.
BFWSS has carried the New Forest Act this far.
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT IS A HANDOVER
When the official campaign ends, the New Forest Act continues to be a body of work available publicly: the proposal, backgrounder, executive summary, supporting documents, presentations, videos, graphics, and other resources will remain freely available for people to use.
It can be studied, taught, taken to an MLA, and presented to a community group or local government. Organizations and individuals can advocate for it directly with elected reps.
Advancing the New Forest Act no longer belongs to BFWSS. It belongs to the people who decide it is worth advancing.
My role will change too.
After November 13, I will become the independent custodian of the New Forest Act documents and materials. I will preserve the work, maintain its permanent public home, and make sure the NFA remains accessible. But it will no longer be a full-time job for me.
I am not creating another organization or continuing the BFWSS campaign under another name. There will be no new Board, membership, fundraising campaign, or advocacy organization replacing BFWSS.
The point is now this: the New Forest Act does not depend upon either an organization or a single individual doing the work in order for the ideas to continue.
I am also preparing a permanent online archive of BFWSS’s work so that the Society’s reports, articles, videos, photographs, Forest Watchdogs material, and other parts of its history remain publicly accessible after BFWSS is gone. It will be available at the same URL as the current one: https://boundaryforest.org/
TO EVERYONE WHO HELPED MAKE THIS POSSIBLE
There are far too many people to name in one email.
Since 2019 BFWSS’s work was made possible by people who donated money, volunteered, served on the Board, contributed technical knowledge, helped with research, took pictures and video, watched the back roads, hosted presentations, shared our work, wrote letters, attended meetings, and supported the organization in countless other ways.
Some people contributed hundreds of hours. Others sent $20, showed up at a presentation, shared a video, or passed a document along to someone who needed to see it.
However you helped, it added up to something much bigger than any one contribution.
The New Forest Act could never have become what it did without the people who contributed their knowledge, reviewed material, organized and attended events, invited us into their communities, donated to the project, and helped get the proposal in front of people across the province.
If you were one of those people, thank you.
A PERSONAL NOTE
This is a strange email for me to write.
Since I began developing the New Forest Act in January 2024, it has occupied an enormous part of my life. I’ve researched, written, travelled, presented, made videos and graphics, answered emails, talked with people across the province, sat in government meetings, stood in community halls, and spent an astonishing number of hours trying to answer one question:
If the existing forestry system isn’t working, what should replace it?
I’m proud that we answered that question.
We didn’t produce another report describing the problems and end with a list of recommendations. We built an alternative framework and followed it through into the details: what the law should require, who should make decisions, where logging should and shouldn’t occur, how damaged landscapes should be restored, how communities could receive more of the economic benefit from public forests, and how the transition could actually work.
The New Forest Act framework now exists independently of the project that created it.
I don’t know what will ultimately happen with it. And increasingly, that isn’t mine to determine.
It’s up to you now.
If you believe the New Forest Act offers something worth pursuing, take it.
Read it. Learn it. Talk about it. Share it. Bring it to your MLA. Bring it to your local government. Bring it to your organization. Use the documents, presentations, videos, and other materials. Introduce it to people who have never heard of it. Ask elected representatives to read it and respond to it.
You don’t need me or BFWSS to do that. You don’t need my permission to do that.
And you don’t need to wait for someone else to organize it.
LEARN HOW TO ADVANCE THE NEW FOREST ACT
This is why I am holding the online Help Advance the New Forest Act Training Workshop on October 13 at 6:00 p.m. Pacific.
The workshop is not just another presentation about the NFA. It is part of the handover.
I will teach participants the arguments behind the framework, how to explain it clearly, how to answer common questions, and how to use the materials and resources that will remain available after BFWSS closes. Dave Weaver will be there to answer technical questions.
The goal is to equip more people to advance the New Forest Act themselves.
Register here: https://boundaryforest.org/training-workshop/
I also have two remaining NFA presentations before the official project ends: Hornby Island ForestFest on October 24 and the Watershed Security Alliance of BC gathering in Kelowna on October 30.
After November 13, I will no longer be running an active NFA campaign or seeking speaking engagements. But if significant opportunities arise where a presentation or briefing could help advance the proposal, I will make myself available when I can.
WHERE THE WORK WILL LIVE
Preserving the New Forest Act is important because it means this work does not disappear when the organization that created it disappears.
The New Forest Act materials are now available at: newforestact.ca
You can also follow me on facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/newforestact/
The BFWSS materials are being permanently archived at: boundaryforest.org
This BFWSS email account will continue to be monitored until January 31, 2027.
…………………………………………
And before I finish this chapter, I want to thank the people who made it possible for me to do this work.
Every donation bought time. Every invitation opened another door. Every person who organized a room, shared a post, offered expertise, attended a presentation, or wrote to say, “Keep going,” helped move the work farther than I could have moved it alone.
I won’t forget that.
Thank you for supporting this work.
Now it’s yours to carry forward.
I ask that you remember this for BC’s forests: nothing changes until the legislation changes.
Jennifer Houghton