B.C.’s forestry minister made clear a moratorium on old-growth logging is off the table as she responded to critics of the government’s progress on a promise to overhaul its approach to forestry.
BC Green Party Leader Sonia Furstenau pressed Minister Katrine Conroy during question period last week to outline what meaningful actions government was taking to immediately protect critical old-growth forests, suggesting instead that the NDP was employing the “old strategy of talk and log.”
The provincial government said that it will consider the findings and recommendations of the study published by Sierra Club BC on Monday, that linked climate disaster risks to current forestry practices.
A record demand and reduced supplies have pushed the price of 2x4s to historic highs but the B.C. forest industry is only just beginning to fully take advantage.
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.’
I’ve been reading books, documents and articles relative to forests for decades. Every once in awhile, I get caught up in some new forest jargon. The most recent comes from the Ministry of Forests and their new concept “Legacy Tree” Any guesses? …..
