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2,700 warm sunny faces welcomed Up-Island communities to Ancient Forests and BC Jobs Rally
by WCWC Media •
Monday October 27, 2008 at 02:14 PM
Qualicum Beach, British Columbia – A confirmed 2,700 concerned citizens from all over Vancouver Island, the mainland and Washington State rallied from City Hall to the BC Legislature in Victoria this weekend to share their enthusiasm and support for a call to end oldgrowth logging in the last of Vancouver Island’s Ancient Forests...
Press Release
Monday, October 27, 2008 - for immediate release –
2,700 Warm Sunny Faces Welcomed Up-Island Communities to Ancient Forests and BC Jobs Rally in Victoria this Weekend.
Qualicum Beach, British Columbia – A confirmed 2,700 concerned citizens from all over Vancouver Island, the mainland and Washington State rallied from City Hall to the BC Legislature in Victoria this weekend to share their enthusiasm and support for a call to end oldgrowth logging in the last of Vancouver Island’s Ancient Forests.
Speeches from Dr. Judith Sayers, Chief Councillor, Hupacasath First Nations Band (Port Alberni); Eli Enns, Tla-o-qui-aht Tribal Park project leader; Gisele Martin, Tla-o-qui-aht cultural and environmental educator and tourism operator; Bob Simpson, BC NDP forestry critic; Scott Fraser, Alberni-Qualicum MLA; Dr. Jane Sterk, BC Green Party leader; Valerie Langer, Friends of Clayoquot Sound, ForestEthics; Arnie Bercov, Pulp, Paper, and Woodworkers of Canada union; forestry officers; Sierra Club of BC; Youbou TimberLess Society; Annette Tanner, WCWC Mid-Island; and Ken Wu, WCWC Victoria campaign director brought many cheers of support and encouragement from the crowd.
"It was overwhelming to see the happiness, hopefulness and unity that beamed from the many smiles on that beautifully sunlit legislature lawn that day," comments Annette Tanner, Wilderness Committee, Mid Island spokesperson. "I was so happy to have been given the opportunity to thank the people of Victoria and Up Island, as well as the many hundreds of international visitors to Vancouver Island, that I have spoken to, who have told me that the time to save Cathedral Grove is now."
"Island Timberlands announced several weeks ago that they were going in to log the oldgrowth trees in Cathedral Grove at the border of the park in an area identified in the BC Parks Masterplan, as critical in preventing the type of blowdown event seen in 1997," explains Tanner. "The public must act immediately to prevent further blowdown of the famous giants in the park, by asking the BC Government to step in and preserve the adjacent ancient forest in World Famous Cathedral Grove, next to one of BC’s most visited provincial park."
The Wilderness Committee is requesting the Government to:
- Enact legislated timelines to quickly end old-growth logging: on Vancouver Island and the Lower Mainland where old-growth forests are now scarce.
- Ensure the sustainable logging of second-growth forests which now constitute 75% of our productive forest lands.
- Ban raw log exports to ensure a steady log supply for BCs mlls.
- Assist in the retooling and development of second-growth mills and value-added wood processing facilities.
Recent satellite photos show that about 75% of Vancouver Islands original, productive old-growth forests have already been logged, including 90% of the valley bottoms where the largest trees grow and 99% of the old-growth coastal Douglas fir forests on eastern Vancouver Island and the Sunshine Coast. While 13% of Vancouver Islands land base is protected in parks, this only includes 6% of its original, productive old-growth forests. This is because much of the land in parks include treeless alpine terrain, stunted bog forests along the west coast of the Island, and high altitude snow forests with scrubby trees (ie. marginal or low-productivity old-growth forests with small trees that generally cant be profitably logged). For maps, photos, and stats visit www.viforest.org
Old-growth forests are important for many reasons: they provide habitat for many species at risk like spotted owls and marbled murrelets that need older forests; they sequester two to three times more atmospheric carbon per hectare than second-growth forests do; they are important parts of many First Nations cultures; and they are fundamental pillars of BCs multi-billion dollar coastal tourism industry, as millions of tourists visit old-growth forests each year in such places as Cathedral Grove, Clayoquot Sound by Tofino, the West Coast Trail, the Carmanah and Walbran Valleys, Goldstream, Cape Scott, Juan de Fuca Trail, Chilliwack Lake, and the Nootka Trail.
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For more information, contact Annette Tanner 250 752-6585 - cell 240-7470 -
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