About 500 people in a diverse crowd of conservationists, forestry workers, First Nations, business owners, and union members showed up today in the heavy rain in Victoria for a rally organized by the Ancient Forest Alliance. Despite the morning downpour, spirits were high, and the clouds parted as the protesters marched their way towards the BC Legislative buildings from Centennial Square.
About 500 people protested in front of the BC Legislature on Saturday afternoon to bring awareness to the loss of B.C. endangered old-growth forests. Organized by the Ancient Forest Alliance, the group wants the BC Liberal government and the NDP to commit to an plan that will protect B.C.'s old-growth forests, and ensure sustainable, second-growth forestry jobs.
British Columbia is the last place in Canada where you can still find ancient, monumental trees standing outside parks. We are not talking here just about big, old trees, but about trees 250 to 1,000 years old, that tower 70 metres in height. If one grew on the steps of Parliament, its tip would block out the clock face on the Peace Tower. And set down in Vancouver, they would be as tall as many office towers.
https://bcove.me/la6w1bkg – link to CHEK TV news clip on the battle to stop Island Timberlands from logging the mountainside above Cathedral Grove!
The BC Liberals wanted to give a ‘parting gift’ to the major logging companies before they leave office, but in this politically sensitive pre-election period that’s not going to happen now — thanks to thousands of people who spoke up and the great work of Bob Simpson.
The provincial government has backed away from a plan that critics claim would have radically reduced public control of forest land. Conservationists, who were girding for a full-fledged fight over proposed changes to the Forest Act, reacted with delight Tuesday after Forests Minister Steve Thomson said he was withdrawing plans to allow a rollover of volume-based forest licences to area-based tree farm licences.The backdown appears to be sparked by a massive public uproar
"It’s heart-wrenching,' Ralph Keller, a spokesman for the Discovery Islands Marine Tourism Group, said Tuesday. 'The Discovery Islands are probably the most geographically spectacular islands in the world … [but] in some places we have gone from beautifully forested shorelines to industrial logging … these channels have just been nuked."
"It would have made it harder to establish new protected areas, to protect scenery, and tourism opportunities. It would have made it more lengthy and difficult and complex to settle First Nations treaties, and it would have also taken away a lot of lands that communities would have wanted for community forestry."
"They are totally wrong to do this,' he said. 'Habitat means it is the animals’ home. If someone takes your house away and you have to live on the streets, you won’t die right away, but your life will be short and your reproductive chances are going to be slim."
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.
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