Human shield stalls Cortes logging for third day
[Campbell River Mirror article no longer available]
A Cortes Island blockade of Island Timberlands went into its third day Thursday as swelling ranks of environmentalists, residents and their children maintained a human shield against the logging company’s crews and equipment.
Zoe Miles, a member of Wildstands, says, “For more than four years, community members have attempted to work with the company to develop an ecosystem-based approach to forestry. As road-building equipment moves in, the community is now left with no choice but to stand in its path to defend these ecologically significant forests.”
On Tuesday Island Timberlands trucks were stopped at a logging road gate at Basil Creek by two protesters lying on the ground. Company personnel filmed the protesters, likely in preparation for an application for a civil injunction, Miles told the Mirror. On Wednesday, a number of children joined the cause waving placards.
Protester Leah Seltzer says the ranks of the blockaders are swelling daily with the arrival of off-islanders and offers of financial and legal support are coming in.
“People are here because they want to make it known that the industrial forestry model doesn’t work for local communities and it doesn’t work for the province. Island Timberlands will destroy ecologically-sensitive ecosystems and leave nothing beneficial in its wake. We will be left with devastated ecosystems, a contaminated water supply and no long-term jobs. All the benefit is going to people who live far away and who aren’t aware of the cost of their profits to our community and our province.”
Island Timberlands’ Director of Human Resources Mark Leitao says access to “our private property” has been blocked and the company is reviewing its options. He will not say whether those options include seeking an injunction.
“As a result of community feedback we have made significant changes to our logging plans,” Leitao says. “We will log outside the tourist season. We’ve reduced the size of the blocks and changed the configuration of the openings. We plan to retain the veteran old growth trees – which are by government definition 250 year old trees – where it is safe and operationally feasible to do so.”
Activist and Cortes Island land-owner Tzeporah Berman says, “The majority of their logging is traditional clear-cut logging with devastating ecological implications that result in either a change of land use or a dramatically weakened and simplified ecosystem. Cortes resident and Greenpeace co-founder Rex Weyler agrees: “There’s no excuse for industrial-scale logging in these times. Forward looking and economically viable alternatives exist that are based on community health and ecosystem health. Residents have sought Island Timberland’s participation in this kind of forestry model but have been met with disregard.”
Miles says the community protesters hope the blockade does not escalate.
Echo Lake Ancient Forest – Follow-Up Letters Needed! Please WRITE!
Recently, over a thousand of you wrote letters to the BC government asking for the full protection of the Echo Lake Ancient Forest near Mission (see www.ProtectEchoLake.com), an extremely rare, lowland old-growth rainforest that is also the world’s largest night-roosting site for bald eagles. The BC government is proposing to protect about 45 hectares, or about half, of the old-growth forests around Echo Lake as an Old-Growth Management Area (OGMA). Unfortunately, the government’s proposal excludes spectacular stands of old-growth redcedars and Douglas firs on the west and north sides of the lake.
These unprotected forests are within a Woodlot License, a smaller logging tenure on Crown lands, which the BC government states is not subject to the creation of new Old-Growth Management Areas. However, it is within the government’s power to shift the Woodlot License boundaries to another second-growth forest area among the thousands of hectares of Crown lands in the region.
PLEASE write a follow-up letter asking the BC Liberal government to:
- Please work to make a solution that will legally protect all of the old-growth forests around Echo Lake, including the 30 hectares or so of old-growth and mature forests on the north and west sides of the lake that are excluded from the proposed Old-Growth Management Area (OGMA). Voluntary measures on the part of the logging licensee will not suffice.
- Such a solution could entail shifting the Woodlot License boundaries on the north side of the lake into second-growth forests elsewhere, among the thousand hectares of second-growth Crown lands available for harvesting in the Chilliwack District.
- Enact a provincial Old-Growth Strategy to protect endangered old-growth forests across BC, such as in the Lower Mainland, Vancouver Island, and southern Interior.
- Ensure a sustainable, value-added second-growth forest industry and end the export of raw, unprocessed logs to foreign mills.
*** Be sure to include your home mailing address so they know you are a real person.
Write to:
Steve Thomson, BC Minister of Forests, Lands, and Natural Resource Operations
FLNR.Minister@gov.bc.ca
And CC your letter to:
Enrique Sanchez, Chilliwack District Old-Growth Management Areas (OGMA’s) – Public Review Coordinator
Enrique.Sanchez@gov.bc.ca
Terry Lake, BC Minister of the Environment
ENV.Minister@gov.bc.ca
Christy Clark, Premier of BC
Premier@gov.bc.ca
Norm MacDonald, BC Opposition Forests Critic
Norm.MacDonald.mla@leg.bc.ca
Will logging of ancient forest be halted before it can begin?
Residents of Cortes Island have formed a blockade to stop the BC based timber company, Island Timberlands (I.T.), from beginning logging operations in one of BC’s last stands of old growth coastal Douglas-fir forest. For over four years, community members have attempted to work with the company to develop an ecosystem-based approach to forestry. As road-building equipment moves in, the community is now left with no choice but to stand in it’s path to defend these ecologically significant forests.
Yesterday, Island Timberlands trucks were stopped at a logging road gate by two protesters lying on the ground. Company personnel filmed the protesters, likely in preparation for an application for a civil injunction. The protesters did not respond to their questions and community members remained on the site until the end of the day.
Adjacent landowners were among the community members present. One couple explained that they have a water license on Basil Creek which runs through Island Timberlands’ property. I.T. plans to log in the riparian area and within 30 feet of the wetland that feeds the salmon-bearing creek. They wrote to Morgan Kennah, Island Timberland’s Manager for Community Affairs, stating their concerns about water supply and contamination. “I thought I would get a letter from Morgan assuring me that my water supply would be safe,” the landowner stated, “but that never happened. I got no response.” Another community member showed up with Christmas decorations and a Christmas tree to lighten the protesters’ spirits.
Leah Seltzer explained the situation in this way, “People are here because they want to make it known that the industrial forestry model doesn’t work for local communities and it doesn’t work for the province. Island Timberlands will destroy ecologically sensitive ecosystems and leave nothing beneficial in its wake. We will be left with devastated ecosystems, a contaminated water supply and no long-term jobs. All the benefit is going to people who live far away and who aren’t aware of the cost of their profits to our community and our province.”
The threatened lands contain some of the last 1% of old-growth Coastal Douglas-fir forests, and, according to Ken Wu of the Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA), are some of the most extensive stands remaining in the endangered “Dry Maritime” forests along BC’s southern coast. The forests also contain a number of documented threatened species and sensitive ecosystems.
At this time, I.T. has contracted several local workers but these jobs will only provide short-term employment. More than 60% of I.T.’s raw logs are shipped out of the province to be processed overseas. Standing exclusively to profit are I.T.’s corporate shareholders, which include Brookfield Asset Management and the BC Investment Management Corporation, the pension fund for provincial employees.
While I.T. claims to use sustainable forestry practices, long-time forest activist and Cortes Island land-owner, Tzeporah Berman, warns us not to be fooled: “The majority of their logging is traditional clearcut logging with devastating ecological implications that result in either a change of land use or a dramatically weakened and simplified ecosystem. The Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) that Island Timberlands touts does not ensure strong environmental standards and has little support from First Nations or environmental organizations.”
Cortes resident and Greenpeace co-founder Rex Weyler agrees. “There’s no excuse for industrial-scale logging in these times,” he says. “Forward-looking and economically-viable alternatives exist that are based on community health and ecosystem health. Island Timberlands’ plans are a step backwards. Cortes Island is moving forward.” Residents have sought Island Timberland’s participation in this kind of forestry model but have been met with disregard.
Community members hope that the situation will not escalate, and that I.T. will recognize that Cortes holds a rare opportunity to work with a willing community to create a forestry model that benefits everyone. Until then, islanders will be standing in the way of the equipment, and keeping a close eye on any further signs of I.T. activity on the island.
Read more: https://wildstands.wordpress.com/
Wildstands – A Cortes Community Alliance
As Island Timberlands’ incursions on to Cortes Island heats up the battle to protect its old-growth forests heat up, please follow their campaign by going to their website:
https://wildstands.wordpress.
Island Timberlands road crews were on the island today (Nov 27), with security and police presence. Cortes community members have begun to block the road. Peaceful protest is underway. Please stay tuned for more info, and hold off on making travel plans – we will let you know when your presence is needed.
Elphinstone Logging Focus – Wilson Creek forest under threat
Citizens on the Sunshine Coast in Roberts Creek are fighting against
imminent logging in the Wilson Creek Forest – please visit the website
of Elphinstone Logging Focus for more details at: https://www.loggingfocus.org/
The Wilson Creek Forest is a key forest area providing connectivity across the lower slopes of the Mt. Elphinstone area. This never-before-logged area is just a 10 minute drive from Roberts Creek and has a wonderful community trail that winds down to the pristine and untouched forest edges of Wilson Creek. It is the key western forest within the Elphinstone Park Expansion boundaries – NOW SCCA supported. Among its many important features, are a number of groves of the threatened Coastal Douglas-fir ecosystem which the government states are threatened province wide. THIS FOREST IS IN IMMINENT DANGER OF BEING LOGGED- WE NEED YOUR HELP.
Cortes Island citizens prepare for logging protests
Lanky, clean cut Cec Robinson is pretty sure the RCMP has been following him on Cortes Island. What danger does this quiet oyster farmer and family man pose? He intends to defend his island from industrial logging by Island Timberlands because he thinks it is the right thing to do for his community and for the planet.
Here are his words:
I am 62 years old, and for the last 23 years, a full time resident of Cortes Island, where my wife and I raised our daughter and son. This truly rare place is still a tapestry of diverse, healthy ecosystems, and I will peacefully block any industrial style logging on Cortes.
As a self-employed shellfish grower, I appreciate free enterprise. I say yes to modest sustainable timber harvest that protects sensitive areas and keeps most of the economic benefit within our community.
I also know that we must all be subject to reasonable constraints in order to protect society from carelessness and greed. In the case of corporately owned forest lands in BC, there are no such constraints. Our government ignores its responsibility, and instead allows these multi-national corporations, such as ‘Brookfield Asset Management’, to self-regulate.
Brookfieldwants to take our environment and convert it into cash for their distant shareholders. They want only to take! To take far too much and far too fast, and when will they give back? Back to the living earth that provided their excessive wealth, and back to my home, Cortes Island. With the last truckload of raw logs exported to China, what would Cortes Islanders be left with? A divided community with a degraded environment, reduced natural resources, tourism dollars lost. All this when climate change is bringing our children a greater need than ever for their environment to be as healthy, productive and abundant as possible.
It may be legal, but it is highly unjust for a corporation to do this to our community and environment. We’ve written the letters and we’ve had the meetings. The corporation responded poorly, and the government, even less so. That leaves only you and me, until we have new legislation which determines that logging be more sustainable.
I love this earth, and I love our children, and I will fight to defend what I love. I will stand in the way, peacefully, 100 per cent, arrest or not. I will not be alone, and we will be there until we have achieved something wonderful.
Who is this sincere, upstanding citizen pitting himself against? Island Timberlands, which plans to industrial log Cortes Island is owned by Brookfield Asset Management with $110 billion in managed assets and bcIMC with $92 billion in managed assets. Most recently, China Investment Corporation, a sovereign wealth fund which manages China’s foreign exchange reserves and has $410 billion in assets, has negotiated for a 12.5 per cent stake in Island timberlands.
These institutional owners first extract profits from forest liquidation and then from conversion of forests to residential development, known in corporate vernacular as a “higher and better use.” At its current rate of logging, Island Timberlands will destroy all its Douglas fir forest holdings within 25 years.
Cec is not the only islander to think that Cortes is caught up in a larger trend of destruction that serves no one who depends on the Earth for healthy existence. More immediately, dozens of island business owners have made it clear that Island Timberland’s industrial logging will occur at the expense of their livelihoods.
Cortes Islanders have historically advocated truly sustainable forest management for high end wood working markets. In contrast, Island Timberlands uses the discredited “Sustainable Forestry Initiative” certification, an industry scheme that bears no relation to the more stringent and credible “Forest Stewardship Certification.”
Nearly 7,000 people have signed a petition asking Island Timberlands to stand down from industrial logging on Cortes Island. That petition resulted in a delay of Island Timberlands’ logging plans for 10 months of negotiations and a temporary commitment to not cut some of the old growth. But IT ultimately refused to meet the substance of the petition which sought permanent protection for old growth, water sheds, listed species and sustainable selective logging.
Please send an email for the forests of Cortes:
IT CEO Dashan Sihota: dsihota@islandtimberlands.com
IT Operations Planner Wayne French: wfrench@islandtimberlands.com
IT Director of Forest Operations Bill Waugh: BillWaugh@islandtimberlands.com
IT Public Relations Morgan Kennah: MKennah@islandtimberlands.com
bcIMC contact:
CEO/CIO, bcIMC: doug.pearce@bcimc.com
Brookfield Asset Management contact:
BAM CEO Bruce Flatt: bflatt@brookfield.com and kvyse@brookfield.com
Read more: https://www.vancouverobserver.com/blogs/earthmatters/cortes-island-citizens-prepare-logging-protests
Alberni groups protest McLaughlin logging
More than 80 people gathered at Echo Centre Monday for a meeting hosted by the Watershed-Forest Alliance in its quest to protect an old-growth forest at McLaughlin Ridge and in the China Creek Watershed.
Alberni-Pacific Rim MLA Scott Fraser and retired government scientist Doug Janz were guest speakers at the event.
The pair were resolute: that the forest range needs to be protected with enhanced regulations.
“McLaughlin Ridge is critical winter range for deer and elk. Weyerhaeuser and Mac Blo saw this and left it untouched,” Fraser said. “The area is a unique system for many different species.”
Fraser retraced the history of the issue.
McLaughlin Ridge was removed from a tree farm licence in 2004 by then-owners Weyerhaeuser and is now considered privately managed forest land.
Provincial officials wanted critical winter habitat protected for two years and a committee would subsequently decide the form of protection.
The province and Island Timberlands disagreed on critical issues and the company ceased meeting in 2009. Harvesting plans were not science-based, government biologists said. “We asked Island Timberlands not to go into McLaughlin but at the end of the day it was their land,” Fraser said.
Groups have a bit of breathing room as logging has thus far occurred only in the lower areas and not on the upper ridge. And logging isn’t expected to start again until next spring, Watershed-Forest Alliance chair Jane Morden said.
The group will continue talks with Island Timberlands about stalling logging in the area.
The group doesn’t have a beef with the company, Morden said. “Island Timberlands has the legal right to do what it’s doing,” Morden said. “But the government erred in not following through with its intent to pursue winter ungulate ranges.”
Original article no longer available: https://www.albernivalleynews.com/news/180526621.html
VICTORIA: Monday, Nov.26th – EAGLES, ANCIENT FORESTS, and ELECTIONS!
Date: Monday, Nov. 26th, 2012
Time: 7:00-9:00 pm
Location: Ambrosia Centre, 638 Fisgard St., VICTORIA.
*By donation (suggested $5 to $20)
Snacks, drinks, hob-nobbing, silent auction fundraiser!
Hi friends, for those of you in Victoria, please out come to tonight’s awesome Ancient Forest Alliance year end event – that will also include a SPECIAL, GOOD NEWS ANNOUNCEMENT! (you’ll have to come to find out 😉
ALSO, please SIGN and FORWARD our petition ancientforestalliance.org/ways-to-take-action-for-forests/petition/ and help us reach 20,000 signatures soon! (currently at 18,700 signatures)
Presentations include:
– “The World’s Largest Eagle Congregating Area: The Harrison-Chehalis Rivers, and a Natural History of BC’s Bald Eagles” with David Hancock (Hancock Wildlife Foundation executive director, Hancock House publisher, Fraser Valley Bald Eagle Festival director, American Bald Eagle Foundation trustee)
– “BC’s Endangered Ancient Forests, Echo Lake, and the Pre-Election Campaign to Protect Them! An Ancient Forest Alliance Campaign Overview,” with Ken Wu, TJ Watt, Joan Varley, and Hannah Carpendale of the Ancient Forest Alliance
Also words from the renowned Victoria conservationist Vicky Husband!
*** And a Special, Good News Announcement!!
**By donation (suggested $5 to $20)**
Snacks, drinks, hobnobbing, silent auction fundraiser!
Friends of the forest, join the Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA) for our Fall 2012 special event in Victoria featuring a fascinating presentation by BC’s eagle expert David Hancock; a presentation by the AFA featuring NEW PHOTOS of Echo Lake, the world’s greatest bald eagle gathering area and the Castle Grove of the Walbran Valley, Cortes Island, Mossy Maple Grove, Christy Clark Grove, McLaughlin Ridge, Stillwater Bluffs, Cameron Firebreak, Day Road Forest, and Wilson Creek Forest; an AFA year in review; the launch of our major pre-election campaign; and a SILENT AUCTION! Socialize with other friendly folks while enjoying some appetizers and drinks as well.
The silent auction will feature fantastic local art, green goods and services, and AFA merchandise such as our NEW beautiful 2013 CALENDARS, cards, posters and more! Perfect for fulfilling those holiday gifts for family and friends!
Art work, local artisan handcrafts, local businesses including:
Business and Individual Donations by:
Kermode Wild Berry Wines – Red Huckleberry Wine and Orange Salmonberry Wines from the wilds of BC! https://www.kermodewildberry.com/
Coastline Surf Shop https://www.coastlinesurf.com/
David Hancock Publishing https://www.hancockhouse.com/
Frances Litman Photography www.franceslitman.com
GreenCuisine https://www.greencuisine.com/
Sea Flora www.sea-flora.com
Sitka https://sitka.ca/
Caitlyn Vernon Book: Nowhere Else on Earth: Standing Tall for the Great Bear Rainforest
Art Work by:
Alicia La Rue www.greenstylegallery.com
Anne Hansen https://oystercatchergirl.blogspot.ca/
Barbara Bickel www.barbarabickel.ca
Ingrid Koivukangas www.ingrid-koivukangas.com/
Jemzo
Jill Louise Campbell www.jlcgallery.com
Kathleen Drumheller www.kathleendrumheller.com
Lauren Campbell
Margaret Jones Callahan
Mary Vasey – Slightly Ajar
Robert Held
Tamara Lovegrove
TJ Watt https://www.utopiaphoto.ca/
Troy Moth https://troymoth.com/
James Gordaneer https://www.gordaneer.com/
Join and invite others on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/events/476398232404260/?fref=ts
We hope to see you there!
********************************
Please Support the Ancient Forest Alliance!
We are a new organization that greatly needs your support.
Please DONATE securely online at: https://www.ancientforestalliance.org/donations.php
Visit the Ancient Forest Alliance online at:
Email: info@16.52.162.165
Facebook: www.facebook.com/ancientforestalliance
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ancientforestbc
YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/BCAncientForest
Sing Tao Daily
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Read more: https://news.singtao.ca/toronto/realtimenews/details.php?IndexID=2853014
