By Roy L Hales
It has been a year since the Wilderness Committee drew our attention to the planned logging of old growth trees in the central Walbran Valley. So far, the controversial heli-block 4424 has remained untouched. Since last November, Teal Jones has been logging 6 or 7 cutblocks in the more easily accessible areas south of the river. They are already clearcutting the Walbran’s thousand-year-old trees.
Continue reading Clearcutting The Walbran’s Thousand-Year-Old TreesBy Roy L Hales
On June 1, 2016, the Governors of Washington, Oregon and California joined British Columbia’s Environment Minister and representatives from six West Coast cities, in the Borgia Room of San Francisco’s Westin St. Francis Hotel, to sign what history may show was a key milestone in the struggle to mount a concerted defence against the ravages of global temperature rise. The 2016 Pacific Coast Climate Leadership Action Plan has a strong emphasis on issues like ocean acidification; the integration of clean energy into the power grid; “support for efforts by the insurance industry and regulatory system to highlight the economic costs of climate change; and so-called “super pollutants” (also known as short-lived climate pollutants).” This sounds good, but do the Pacific Coast’s “Climate Leaders” mean business?
Continue reading Do The Pacific Coast’s Climate Leaders Mean Business?By Roy L Hales
British Columbia’s Ministry of Forests said the first cutback the in the Walbran Valley is only 3.2 hectares large. It is to be heli-logged, not clearcut. The province is protecting over 30,300 hectares in old growth management areas in the South Island Natural Resource District. The map on the top of this page shows what they did not say, why the Walbran is important.
Continue reading Why The Walbran Is Important
The next act in what some are already calling a struggle to Save the Salish Sea began on December 16, 2013, when Kinder Morgan filed an application to build and extend the 1,150-mile-long Trans Mountain pipeline that brings oil from Alberta to BC’s Lower Mainland. The impending hearings on BC’s Kinder Morgan Pipeline project could shape the province’s environmental prospects for decades.
While most of us are attempting to do away with fossil fuels, British Columbia is trying to ramp up production. Some plan to make this most beautiful of Canadian provinces a major exporter of American coal and tar sands bitumen. One of the most promising natural gas fields in the world is in the north eastern corner of our province. Some aspects of this have been well publicized in the Canadian media, as every level of government – from our Prime Minister, to the Premier of BC, to individual municipalities – are involved. The Wilderness Committee have provided the best overview, a must-see Climate Change video: “Save the Salish Sea.”
Continue reading A MUST SEE Climate Change video: “Save the Salish Sea”
