CHEK News coverage of proposed logging by Island Timberlands in old-growth forest only a few hundred metres from the world famous Cathedral Grove in MacMillan Provincial Park on Vancouver Island.
Massive public uproar spearheaded by Independent MLA Bob Simpson and environmental groups causes BC Liberals to delete Section 24 (aka. “The Forest Giveaway Bill”) in omnibus Bill 8 that would have empowered BC’s Minister of Forests to grant exclusive logging rights over vast areas of public lands for major forest companies. Conservationists continue to push for old-growth protection legislation, sustainable second-growth forestry, and an end to raw log exports. Thousands of emails sent to BC government through https://www.BCForestMovement.com
Port Alberni – Conservationists are calling for much stronger, comprehensive old-growth protection policies in BC after having discovered a major logging threat to Canada’s most famous old-growth forest, Cathedral Grove in MacMillan Provincial Park on Vancouver Island.
"At first glance Bill 8 — the Miscellaneous Statutes Amendment Act — looks like housekeeping legislation. Read a little closer and one discovers one of the most pernicious pieces of forest legislation to be tabled in the legislature since a forests minister lost his job over the same issue in 1989. Bill 8 includes an addition to the Forest Act that would allow the forests minister to invite corporations to roll over their forest licences into Tree Farm Licences (TFL), effectively transferring private ownership rights to the corporation without any reciprocal benefit in the public interest…"
Thanks to the Powell River Voices, Sierra Club, and Communication, Energy, and Paperworkers (CEP) for hosting a great evening with a full house last night, with a presentation and discussion on raw log exports, TFL expansion/forest privatization, and ancient forest protection.
The Cowichan Valley Naturalists have a busy schedule of free public events coming up in the next few weeks.
If any of you are in Powell River, this Wednesday March 6th Ken Wu of the AFA will be speaking there at a forum on raw log exports and sustainable forestry from 7-9pm, at the United Church, 6932 Crofton St. Organized by Powell River Voices, Sierra Club and CEP union.
The Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA) is planning a provincial tour to mobilize communities in key swing ridings in a bid to stop the BC government's anti-environmental forest policies, including old-growth logging, raw log exports, and the recent proposal to increase the privatization of public forest lands by expanding Tree Farm Licences for major companies, and to ensure that the incoming government adopts new, sustainable policies. The tour will begin immediately after the organization’s March 16 “Pre-Election Rally for Ancient Forests and BC Forestry Jobs”
An area of rainforest near Prince George is so unique that it should be designated as a provincial park and protected as a United Nations World Heritage Site, says a new study by the University of Northern B.C. The area, called the Ancient Forest, contains massive stands of giant red cedars usually associated with wet coastal forests, as well as rare plants and lichens.
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