Join us live for an eye opening film and an important discussion about forestry and flooding in BC. Trouble in the Headwaters is a hard-hitting documentary that investigates the 2018 Grand Forks flood and reveals the connection to clearcut logging in the headwaters of the Kettle River Basin.
The film follows Dr. Younes Alila, a professor of forest hydrology at the University of British Columbia, and two retired Grand Forks loggers (our own Wayne Tblus and Stan Swinarchuk) as they travel through the Kettle River Watershed and unravel the science connecting industrial clearcutting and the growing risk of flooding, landslides and drought across British Columbia.
Interact with the filmmaker, Daniel Pierce, and the main subject, Dr. Younes Alila, as well as local experts after the film, including Jennifer Houghton, Campaign Director for the New Forest Act project – a plan for changing legislation so that watersheds, communities, and workers are protected by law.
Date/time: Friday, Sept 5, 6:30-8:30pm
Location: USCC Community Centre (Doukhobor Hall), 6140 Community Centre Road, Grand Forks, BC
*Please note: no food or beverages are allowed in this venue except for water
Entry: By Donation
Tickets: click here to go to Eventbrite then click the red button that says Get Tickets
View the teaser/trailer
FILM SYNOPSIS
The City of Grand Forks has faced an onslaught of destructive floods. More than 100 families have been displaced and tens of millions of dollars have been spent on flood infrastructure. But new science has revealed that the root cause of the floods lies hundreds of kilometres upstream, where timber companies have logged vast swaths of the surrounding watersheds. We follow UBC hydrologist and engineer Dr. Younes Alila deep into the forest headwaters to reveal how clearcutting has unleashed a vicious cycle of flooding and drought on rural BC.
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT FROM DANIEL PIERCE
“It’s become clear that the costs of clearcutting now far outweigh the benefits. Dr. Alila’s science has exposed a dirty secret of the BC government and the timber industry – that they have wildly underestimated the flood risk being created by their logging. Now is the time to get together and have a real conversation about stepping into a new forestry paradigm in this province, one that protects communities and puts people to work restoring forests back to ecological health.”
DANIEL J. PIERCE – Writer, Director, Producer, Editor
Daniel Pierce is a filmmaker and journalist based in Vancouver, B.C. For more than a decade, he has documented the forests of British Columbia and the timber industry for his Heartwood documentary series. He’s crowdfunded $50,000, garnered hundreds of thousands of online views, and been published in The Narwhal, Vice and Seeker. His first long-form documentary, The Hollow Tree, was broadcast on Knowledge Network and CBC Documentary. Dan also co-wrote, produced and hosted a six-part CBC podcast called Pressure Cooker, which was nominated for a Webby and named one of Apple’s Top Podcasts of 2022. He also works as a story editor in non-fiction television, including multiple docuseries for Knowledge Network (Transplant Stories and Wildfire).
DR. YOUNES ALILA – Professor of Forest Hydrology, UBC
Younes Alila is a professor of hydrology in the Faculty of Forestry at UBC-Vancouver, and a registered professional engineer with EGBC. He teaches and conducts research on climate and land use change effects on water resources. His work over the last 20 years on forests’ effects on floods challenged a century-old wisdom on how forests affect large floods. His work has been the subject of peer reviewed discussions and generated press releases by the American Geophysical Union. Younes served as an expert witness in three court cases: Randy Saugstad vs. Tolko industries Ltd. (logging effects on hydrology, 2015), Waterway Houseboats Ltd. vs. British Columbia (flood hydrology unrelated to logging, 2018), and Ray Chipeniuk and Sonia Sawchuk vs. BC Timber Sales & Triantha (logging effects on hydrology, 2022). Younes continues to do research in the Kootenay and Kettle River Basin.
