The first meeting of what Environment Minister Catherine McKenna calls our “pan-Canadian team on Climate Change” is now over. She has been closeted with environmental ministers from the provinces and territories, McKenna called it “the most positive meeting that has taken place in a very long time. Though short on details, the Minister said “We all know we have to act together”and alluded to “real opportunities” in the clean tech sector. To distill her message down to the three words which she did not actually use, McKenna asks Canadians to trust the Government
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.
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.
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.
The BC legislature is debating Bill 30, the Liquefied Natural Gas Project Agreements Act, today. Premier Christy Clark claims this legislation will “give business certainty and keep British Columbia competitive; to ensure British Columbians see the benefits of the resource they own; and to ensure we build the cleanest LNG facilities in the world.” Critics have another name for Bill 30: a deal born of Desperation.
