A New Democratic Party government led by Adrian Dix would expand child care, reduce fees for seniors' long-term care, ban the cosmetic use of pesticides, put a moratorium on independent power projects, stop renovictions and create disincentives for exporting raw logs.
Cortes is very lucky to have forests like this because they are rare and quickly disappearing. Red legged frogs are rare too. They are provincially listed and declining in numbers. On Cortes Island, those rare forests are about to be logged, and the little frogs may be facing their last winter.
A big issue in the Cortes dispute is the extent to which our government regulates activity on private land. The private foresters claim they are governed by more than 30 acts and regulations. However, the environmentalists say companies like Timberlands are allowed to apply a model of “professional reliance” which means that there is little meaningful regulatory oversight. It’s a pity the current administration has all but forsaken its role as steward and peacekeeper in the woods. A measure of leadership would go a long way right about now.
The current impasse over logging on private land on Cortes Island is unique by B.C. standards. In a province where wars in the woods have often been bitterly waged, the Cortes standoff stands apart. Cortes environmentalists and Island Timberlands have been debating the company’s logging plans for about four years without coming to serious blows. The islanders are not trying to ban logging altogether, they are asking for Timberlands to adopt an ecosystem-based, selective logging harvesting plan that spares old growth.
Echo Lake is a spectacular, unprotected, lowland ancient forest near Agassiz, BC on the east side of the Lower Fraser Valley. It is in the unceded territory of the Sts'ailes First Nations band (formerly the Chehalis Indian Band). The area is home to perhaps the largest concentration of bald eagles on Earth, where thousands of eagles come each fall to eat spawning salmon in the Harrison and Chehalis Rivers and hundreds roost in the old-growth trees at night around Echo Lake.
The China Investment Corporation (ICI), one of the world's largest sovereign wealth funds, is set to become a powerful landowner in British Columbia if a $100 million deal with Island Timberlands, the second-largest owner of private forests in the province, goes through.
Potential impacts of a $100 million dollar deal between China Investment Corporation (CIC) and Brookfield Asset Management Inc, the majority shareholder in Island Timberlands (IT), have made headlines internationally and alarmed activists in British Columbia. The story was first reported in early November by the Wall Street Journal.
Here are a series of articles in the Sing Tao Daily News, a major Chinese-language newspaper in Vancouver, about the biggest trees of Vancouver that also features the Ancient Forest Alliance and our campaign to protect them!
Conservationists renew call for BC Liberals to commit to restoring and expanding a “BC Park Acquisition Fund” to purchase and protect endangered forests on private lands.
Last week, Cortes environmentalists, residents and supporters repeatedly blocked Island Timberlands’ crews from beginning logging operations near Basil Creek. Zoe Miles, a member of Wildstands, says the community has attempted to work with the company for more than four years to develop an ecosystem-based approach to forestry. “The community is now left with no choice but to stand in Timberlands’ path to defend these ecologically significant forests.”
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