Tag Archives: forests

Two Nanaimo Men On A Hunger Strike For BC’s Old Growth Forests

Robert Fuller and James Darling are on the second day of a hunger strike. The 61-year-old former BC Forest service employee/ treeplanter/ sawmill worker and 35-year old musician had just returned from their Nanaimo MLA’s constituency office when I phoned them. Around ten people were with them, waving signs. Fuller remarked that if the response from people walking or driving by is any indication, as much as 98% of the public may want to see BC’s old growth forests preserved.

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Forest Or Tree Farm?

10 years ago, I began writing a personal blog, titled Out on a Limb: my life with trees. I have fallen out of a few, climbed many, cut them down as a summer Junior Forest Ranger, burned lots in the wood stove to keep the home warm. The Natural History Interpreter, side of me has catalogued thousands of photos which fit into the large file of Forest Ecosystems: lakes and streams, large and small animals, trees and plants. The Cultural Interpreter side of me, has a small library of logging histories, edible and medicinal plants, political books dealing with Wars in the Woods, corporations bribing government officials, environmentalist perspectives on Forests.

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Tree-planting IN COVID Times

North Island Gazette, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Sweat sticks, clogged with dust. Mosquitoes whine madly. Muscles are knotted, feet burning, a 20-pound sack of tree seedlings rubs a hip with every trudging step, building on a nasty, season-long blister. It’s been nine hours on this mountainside, with every planted tree worth 17 cents.

Step. Dig. Plant. Step. Dig. Plant.

Finally back at the truck, a mask has to be put on a grimy face, and then it’s back with the same three people as yesterday. And the day before. And the 20 days before that. Tomorrow will see it all repeated.

This is tree-planting in the time of COVID-19.

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