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A map detailing the area of planned logging.

Alberni’s "Hump" gets reprieve as Island Timberlands delays logging plans

Jan 21 2013/in News Coverage

Island Timberlands has for now backed away from plans to log the fringe of trees along the Hump near Port Alberni.

“We considered our plans over the weekend and now we are putting a temporary suspension on the harvest of the buffer along the highway,” Island Timberlands spokeswoman Morgan Kennah said in an interview Monday.

“We are still planning to harvest it in the future, but probably after we have replanted the harvested area behind and given it time to grow.”

That is likely to take several years, Kennah said.

The one caveat is that, if trees in the buffer pose a blowdown threat on the highway, they will be removed, she said.

The company has already logged most of the area behind the 40-hectare buffer meaning that if the remaining trees were removed, drivers heading to Port Alberni or the Tofino/Ucluelet area would be looking at a large clearcut.

The logging plans, resulting in the denuding of about 800 metres beside the highway, sparked outrage in the community and a vigil was planned for Monday evening, when logging was scheduled to start.

Opponents said views along the hilly section of Highway 4, know as the Hump, would be destroyed and could affect Port Alberni’s efforts to become an eco-tourism centre.

Others were concerned about evening road closures of 15 minutes at a time, from Jan. 21 to Feb. 8 and Highway 4 is the major road access to the Alberni Valley.

Island Timberlands was given permission by the Highways Ministry to close the road so logging could be conducted safely.

Public concerns about the inconvenience of the traffic interruptions and the visual aspect of the cutting brought about the change of plans, Kennah said.

“We always listen and, sometimes, we react in a way that might be considered favourable,” she said.

“This is one where we have heard lots of concern and we can be flexible on it.”

Alberni Valley resident Chris Alemany, organizer of Monday’s Witness the Hump Clearcut event, was startled by the change of heart.

“Wow. That’s great news. That’s amazing,” Alemany said.

“Maybe they saw just too much opposition. I think people were pretty upset about it,” he said.

The get-together may go ahead as a celebration and Island Timberlands representatives would be welcome, Alemany said.

“It could be a good party.”

Alberni-Pacific Rim NDP MLA Scott Fraser, who had reacted in horror to the potential destruction of the viewscape in a tourist corridor, said public opinion appears to be forcing Island Timberlands into making some community-friendly decisions.

“That’s good news. It’s an important step for the company to take, given the public reaction on this issue,” he said.

“A reprieve is better than nothing.”

Last week Island Timberlands said it is reconsidering logging plans at nearby McLaughlin Ridge because of community concerns about critical habitat for wintering deer and effects on the community watershed.

Link to Times Colonist article: https://www.timescolonist.com/news/local/alberni-s-hump-gets-reprieve-as-island-timberlands-delays-logging-plans-1.53108

Island Timberlands’ logging of Alberni summit could denude the Hump

Jan 18 2013/in News Coverage

The forested drive to Port Alberni and the west coast of Vancouver Island will soon include a close-up view of a clearcut.

On Monday, Island Timberlands starts logging about 40 hectares of privately managed forest land beside a hilly section of Highway 4 known as the Hump. It tops out at the 400-metre-high Alberni summit, about nine kilometres east of Port Alberni.

The forest company says the harvest, stretching about 800 metres along the highway, will not make a significant difference. But others, including Alberni-Pacific Rim NDP MLA Scott Fraser, say it will destroy the views and make a mockery of Port Alberni’s efforts to be an eco-tourism centre.

“It’s like the worst of the old days,” Fraser said. “This is a tourism corridor and part of the economic future of the Alberni Valley.”

Island Timberlands spokeswoman Morgan Kennah said the company is trying to minimize the visual impact. It will leave shrubs and saplings on the side of the highway to act as a buffer and some taller trees will be left farther back from the highway, in an area that has already been cut, to provide texture, she said.

“There will be no visual buffer against the highway due to safety concerns,” Kennah said. “We can’t leave tall trees because the wind could blow them over.”

The cutting is part of Island Timberlands’ normal harvesting, Kennah said. “This just happens to be adjacent to Highway 4.

“If you are focusing on your driving, you shouldn’t be seeing a large opening. It’s not a vast size of area that’s being cleared.”

The B.C. Transportation Ministry will allow Island Timberlands to close the road for up to 15 minutes at a time, from Jan. 21 to Feb. 8, so logging can be conducted safely.

The closings will be from Monday to Thursday, 7 p.m. to 6 a.m.

The closings rub salt in the wound, Fraser said.

“It’s the only road access to the Alberni Valley, Tofino and Clayoquot Sound, and it’s already a bottleneck. To make it worse, it’s being shut down to enable the destruction of the tourism corridor,” he said.

“We are shooting ourselves in both feet. It’s hindering economic development, and all these logs are being exported. It’s to the detriment of the whole of the Alberni Valley.”

The highway clearcut and other controversial Island Timberlands logging plans around the Alberni Valley can be laid squarely at the feet of the Liberal government, which, in 2004, allowed 88,000 hectares of private forest land to be removed from tree farm licences, Fraser said.

“That has completely ringed the Alberni Valley with private lands, so everything is at risk — watersheds, wildlife habitat, wildlife corridors, recreational areas and now tourism.”

Port Alberni Mayor John Douglas said there is sensitivity around the plans.

“I hope it won’t affect the viewscape badly because Port Alberni is not just a logging town any-more, so we are sensitive to these sorts of issues, but it is outside our jurisdiction.”

Douglas said he hopes the harvesting will not affect tourism.

Jane Morden, Watershed Forest Alliance spokeswoman, said Timberlands is going into contentious areas because only remnants of forests with big trees are left.

“It just shows they are not really caring about viewscapes anymore,” she said. “I think this is going to [annoy] a lot of people because they expected them to leave the fringe.”

Link to Times Colonist article: https://www.timescolonist.com/news/local/island-timberlands-logging-of-alberni-summit-could-denude-the-hump-1.50473

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Cortes Island logging dispute moves to the market

Jan 14 2013/in News Coverage

As the dispute between Cortes Island residents and Island Timberlands escalates, activists are moving the debate to where it will hurt: the market.

Earlier this month, local residents’ blockades of Island Timberlands’ logging operations resulted in a withdrawal of the crew, but as Zoe Miles from the WildStands Alliance notes, the company has yet to meet Cortes Island homeowners or make any revision to the logging plans. As a result, residents against IT’s industrial scale logging have tracked the raw logs Island Timberlands are exporting to mills in Washington State and to their retail customers and are sending letters to raise awareness about the dispute.

Below is an excerpt of the letter:

Island Timberlands is presently in conflict with the community of Cortes Island over logging of some of the very last stands of old growth forest in the region.

This is a region with extremely little primary forest remaining. In addition, Island Timberlands is in conflict with the community over logging plans in important watersheds and other issues of great concern.

[..]

Since most of the U.S. industry has already made public commitments not to trade in old growth and conflict wood products, we ask that you enforce this commitment by contacting Simpson Lumber and Island Timberlands at the earliest opportunity to advise them that you will have to stop sourcing their products if they do not resolve the conflicts.

We realize you have most likely been caught up in this conflict unwittingly and very much appreciate your positive involvement in resolving the conflicts.

“People working on this (letter-writing) campaign have had experience with similar campaigns in the past, and we’ve seen an effective way of bringing more people into the conversation an creating awareness about the controversial source of the trees,” Miles said over the phone.

“That’s where we saw that consumers and buyers are interested on knowing where their products came from. We believe that not only do [consumers] want to know, but also that they deserve to know that there is so much controversy around their product.”

Tied in with residents’ concerns about IT’s large-scale logging practices is the Chinese Investment Corporation’s 12.5 per cent buy-in bid for Island Timberlands, Miles said.

“There are more shareholders than China Investment Corporation, but 12.5 per cent is a fairly sizable chunk, and there’s going to be more pressure on Island Timberlands to increase the profit margin,” she said, adding that profit margins would be increased not by working with local communities, but by “harvesting the best wood they can and getting [to market] as quickly as possible.”

“There’s a huge concern about where the profits are going to be go, as well as the pressure to increase those profits.”

She added that because Island Timberlands is also a large landowner on Cortes, the idea of foreign ownership didn’t “sit well” with residents.

Island Timberlands did not provide a comment in time for publication.