Tag Archives: qathet logging protests

Environment

A place worth fighting for

Logging and real estate development threaten Stillwater Bluffs. A growing number of the bluffs’ “friends” are committed to preserving it.

By David Harris, Originally published on qathet Living

Moving across town can be stressful. Moving to a completely new town can be even more stressful. Add in that the new town is two ferries away from anywhere, and that you picked it because of its natural beauty and access to wilderness rather than because you actually knew anyone there, and the potential stress can reach Guinness-Book-of-Records levels.

But sometimes Fortune smiles on the foolish as well as on the brave. In my case, Fortune’s smile was the opening of a climbing gym in Powell River on almost the same winter day I parked the U-Haul truck in my new driveway, and my wife and I were soon welcomed into the local climbing community.

And not long after winter turned to spring, one of my new friends said “Hey, let’s go to the Bluffs tomorrow!”

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Arts, Forests

Powell River vs Island Timberlands

Originally published on Heartwood, Field Notes

Powell River has been fighting for its urban forests, which are slated to be logged by Island Timberlands. I.T. has been at the forefront of many forestry conflicts on the west coast of British Columbia, from Cortes Island to Port Alberni to Powell River. Communities are uniting to oppose the logging practices of Island Timberlands, which is the second largest landowner in BC, with over 235,000 Ha. of private managed forestland on Vancouver Island, the Gulf Islands, and the Sunshine Coast. I.T. is majority owned by the BCIMC, the arms-length investment firm of the BC government, which invests all the public sector pension funds. The BC Teachers’ Federation, whose pensions are invested in I.T., recently filed a motion to oppose I.T,’s more controversial logging practices in the Alberni Valley.

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