Old-growth forests, wildlife corridors and other long-protected timber zones in the British Columbia Interior could be opened up to logging in order to keep mills operating, according to a cabinet document detailing a proposal under consideration by the provincial government.
For more than a quarter century, logging companies at the government's blessing have been on a tear through British Columbia's expansive interior forests. Well the day of reckoning is now very close at hand and the government's response leaves a heck of a lot to be desired.
A leaked provincial cabinet document indicates that the provincial government is contemplating "suspending" the powers of one of its most powerful public servants in order to expedite a controversial logging program that has raised alarm bells in the professional forestry community.
Friends of Stillwater Bluffs hosted a group of 50 people and 10 dogs on a hike around Stillwater Bluffs on Sunday April 15. It was part of an awareness-raising campaign that this area needs to be protected before Island Timberlands follows through on its plans to log it.
Overfishing was partly to blame for the loss of salmon, Proctor said. So was predation by seals, sea lions and dolphins. But particularly galling was the free for-all in the forest industry: bridges and culverts disrupting streams, mudslides silting up the spawning gravel, the shock of blasting for road building killing roe.
The B.C. Liberal government has, since December, been exporting raw logs that its own advisory committee has been saying should be going to producers in B.C.
B.C. Forests Minister Steve Thomson has overruled recommendations from his own advisory board on log exports dozens of times in the past three months, electing to send millions of dollars worth of raw logs to Asia rather than local mills.
A campaign to protect Stillwater Bluffs south of Powell River received high-profile help from a provincial organization recently. Jason Addy, of the Friends of Stillwater Bluffs, joined Ken Wu, co-founder of the Ancient Forest Alliance, at a press conference at the Sooke Potholes. The groups were calling on the BC government to form a land acquisition fund dedicated to protecting parkland.
Different conservationist groups, at the Sooke Potholes on March 1, called on the B.C. government to form a land acquisition fund that would be dedicated to protecting park land.
The movement will take the shape of a new festival, appropriately held April 20 to 22 during Earth Week. Creatively United for the Planet, a three-day, all-ages event, will mix entertainment with opportunities to support green charities, including Ancient Forest Alliance.
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