A new economic study shows ancient trees in the contentious Fairy Creek region on southern Vancouver Island are worth considerably more standing to nearby communities than if they were cut down.
And it confirms investments and efforts by the former forestry hub of Port Renfrew to rebrand itself as an ecotourism hot spot are right on track, business leaders say.
An ongoing protest against old-growth logging in Port Renfrew has moved into its fourth week and now boast three blockades. A group of “forest defenders” launched action on Aug. 10, to prevent Teal Jones Group’s construction crews from building a road to the Fairy Creek Watershed, which the call the last intact unlogged old-growth of Southern Vancouver Island’s San Juan River system. On Aug. 16 the second blockade was established east of the Fairy Creek watershed. The following week, on Aug. 23, a third blockade was set up on a logging road on Edinburgh mountain – home to the famed old-growth Douglas-fir tree, ‘Big Lonely Doug.’