This isn’t the first time that there has been disputes over logging in the Chapman Creek Watershed. In response to complaints from the Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD), in 2014 the ‘Managed Forest Council hired Madrone Environmental Services to ascertain the cause of “increased turbidity” in the water supply (which services up to 30,000 households). Geoscientist Gordon Butt pointed to logging after the “onset of the fall rains” and concluded, “Although there has been no clear contravention of the regulations, it is clear to me that industry standards for protecting water quality have not been met in CH1. The short-comings are substantially more serious given the fact that this logging has been carried out in a highly sensitive watershed supplying a large population.” [1] When AJB Investments resumed logging operations in late January of this year, Elphinstone Logging Focus (ELF) responded with a blockade. The latest attempt at negotiation has just broken down and the month long siege of Chapman Creek continues.
Tag Archives: Logging
War On The Woods Returns To the Walbran
By Roy L Hales
The struggle to save the Walbran valley’s ancient trees, in a intact Old Forest ecosystem, started in the 1980s. This led to the logging blockades and the provincial government setting a portion of this area in the Carmanah Walbran Provincial Park. A Surrey based logging company recently applied to harvest eight cutblocks of the unprotected area and on last month the Ministry of Forests gave them permission to start in cutback 4424. Friends of Carmanah/Walbran responded by setting up a community witness camp. Yesterday, September 9, Teal Jones’ road building crews were turned away. Thus it is that war on the woods returns To the Walbran.
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An Old Growth Forest Grove In Cutblock 4424
By Roy L Hales
British Columbia’s environmental community has been calling upon the provincial government to set aside plans to log in the Walbran Valley for months. The city of Victoria joined the chorus in July, passing a motion against this project. Everyone appears to have believed the Walbran was an old growth forest. Yet on September 18th, BC gave Teal Jones approval to start logging the first cutblock. Now, as the Surrey based logging company prepares to commence operations, the existence of an old growth forest grove in cutblock 4424 has been documented.
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The Ministry’s Answers
By Roy L Hales
One June 8, Sierra Club BC released their report BC forest wake-up call. I responded by requesting an interview with Jens Wieting, of the Sierra Club, and shooting off a list of questions to the Ministry of Forests. As I published my interview with Wieting yesterday, it seems appropriate to publish the Ministry’s answers as a Q&A today.
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BC’s Forests Produced 256 Million Tonnes of CO2
British Columbia could be emissions free. The province’s forest cover is vast enough to absorb more carbon than we actually need to use. Unfortunately, the Ministry of Forests has not been doing a good job since the Liberal Government took power. Instead of storing carbon, BC’s forests now emit carbon. So many trees have been clear cut, infested by Mountain Pine Beetles or burned in forest fires, that BC’s forests produced 256 million tonnes of CO2 in the decade following 2003.
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