Friends,
Please sign the petition and share with your networks. The link to the petition is attached to this notice.
Elizabeth May has put forth a bill and petition to STOP OLD GROWTH LOGGING.
The Fairy Creek area and other rare Old Growth habitat are still slated to be logged.
WE MUST SAVE THE REMAINING OLD GROWTH FOREST!
Thank you all for caring,
Gratitude to Elizabeth and Mike for working diligently to uphold Canada’s environment and ecology.
Thank you Vic Brice for initiating this bill to STOP OLD GROWTH LOGGING in BC.
We must continue to try!
Jenica Waymen and Michael Coon
Co -Founders, Friends of Fairy Creek- Saving the Tree Friends,
Click here to sign the petition
Bill e-4028
Petition to the Government of Canada
- Indigenous peoples have rights and title to their traditional territories and have been stewards of these lands since time immemorial;
- The climate crisis requires action by all levels of government and industry;
- Old-growth forests provide immeasurable benefits, including carbon sequestration, biodiversity, culture, recreation, education, food and more;
- Valley-bottom high productivity old-growth ecosystems in British Columbia are endangered;
- Of the remaining 2.7% of original high productivity old-growth forests in British Columbia, 75% are still slated to be logged;
- Only 9% of the original 360,000 hectares of valley-bottom high productivity old-growth on Vancouver Island remain today, and only 2.6% of those forests are protected in parks;
- The last unprotected intact old-growth valley on Southern Vancouver Island, Fairy Creek, is slated for logging, along with the upper Walbran Valley and other remaining pockets of old growth; and
- Most Canadians support sustainable harvesting of second and third growth forests, but do not support logging old-growth trees or destroying their surrounding ecosystems.
—
Jenica Waymen is Co-Founder of Friends of Fairy Creek- Saving the Tree People
Let’s leave the ancient trees to nourish the forests.
There are enough second growth trees in BC to maintain the logging industry.
So little left – do the right thing !!
Old growth forests are the lungs of the earth.
Come together, right now!
I can’t believe I’m signing another petition.
When will this madness stop!
I have been so disappointed in the BC government since returning to my home province with hope for the future. Talking the talk is not enough. Time is short.
The ice caps are melting, folks, the Comox glacier is receding in front of our eyes. Trees & especially old growth trees absorb carbon & cool the atmosphere, create rain, support ecological diversity. We cannot cool the earth, only mitigate some of the heating we have caused. Trees, soil, healthy ecosystems are the frontline
Around the world people are dying every day from being to hot , over 600 people died in BC last year from being to. hot ! Live Trees Save Lives .
Signed
Signed now thanks
assez c`est assez …
How many times do have to make this request? Government for the people by the people. Really? Gloria Lisgo
I agree with this petition.
Thanks Elisabeth et al.
Rightly or wrongly, I’ve lately come to believe there are only two changes to the status quo that can possibly save what little is left of BC’s cathedral forests and, beyond that, human civilization as a whole.
First, a comprehensive set of laws that forbid corporations and the hyperwealthy who own them to buy our votes and control political outcomes, that is, a strictly enforced separation between mammon and the state similar to the existing separation between the church and the state.
And second, a change of collective heart whereby we come to understand the living world – Gaia if you like – as sacred.
Minus these, I’m afraid B.C.’s cathedral forests are toast. And the children of the world likewise.
May the forest be with us all.
Trevor
I would sign the petition but I am a US citizen.
In 2009 Glada McIntyre wrote Dr. Bruce Fraser (Chair, B.C. Forest Practices Board)
a letter as a response to Forest Minister Bell’s assertion that “B.C’.s old growth trees are already sufficiently protected.” (Nelson Daily News, January 13, 2009). Glada sums up the situation then (and today since not much has changed) in the following statement.
“Now, as then, we observe that: aside from an ecologically unsustainable small occurrence of ancient forest in previously designated parks, there is still no legislation, or policy, in this province, that requires, or even allows, the conservation of these globally unique ancient stands. Many promises to protect old growth forest (which is usually defined as Age Class 8 and 9 by MOF, and typically fails to differentiate the older forest ages which may exceed 1000 years) have been made by landuse administrations over the years, but instead of implementation of laboriously negotiated conservation measures to protect and maintain the oldest forest ecosystems we have observed only unaccountable stalling by successive governments.”
Conservation of remaining old growth will probably not be achieved until each if the main interest groups at the planning table (the timber industry, First Nations, and environmental community) agree that the cultural, biodiversity, and spiritual values of the last remaining ancient groves far outweigh their value as lumber.
James Bergdahl
Conservation Biology Center
Spokane, WA, USA
This is completely bizarre. First Nations are ALREADY partnering with government and business to manage and benefit from forest resources. The zealous protesters are arrogant, interfering and colonial. Very irresponsible of Elizabeth May to buy into this ecoterrorist claptrap. https://www.woodbusiness.ca/first-nations-chiefs-ask-protesters-to-remove-illegal-camp-on-vancouver-island/
I respectfully disagree with Henry Adams approach.
As a memorial to her life as a forest ecologist, I recently wrote a one page summary titled: “Glada McIntyre’s (1952-2021) solution to British Columbia’s old-growth forest management controversy simplified in a nut shell (a Venn Diagram).” Some of you may remember Glada from her campaign to protected the West Kootenay’s “Singing Forest” in the early 1990s, an isolated (Purcell Mtns) >1000 yr old red cedar grove was liquidated in 1995, and more recently her focus on saving mountain caribou by saving old growth forest.
I would post the graphic here if I could. It states: “Caveat: if old-growth conservation by either the Province on Crown Lands, or by First Nations’ on lands in their care, is deemed insufficient by the Conservation Community, then we can expect further confrontation. If established conservation organizations drop the ball and “sell out” to the other groups for some reason, then new grassroots conservation organizations will be established to replace the need for effective public activism to protect the last groves of ancient forests in the Pacific Northwest.”
By the way, the evidence is quite clear that all First Nations tribes in the Americas are also “colonists”. There is no reason to believe that many of them are even “First Colonists”. Such a conversation is of course very politcally incorrect today. One part of the solution is a clear recognize that the last remianing ancint old groves do not belong to anyone interest group. Without this understanding, there will be no solution to this ongoing, decades-old, conservation issue.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=og22LyFm1TQ.
James Bergdahl
need to save as much old growth habitat , it’ll benefit all who live on this planet a lot than a few short lived $$$$.
Thanks for supporting this petition.
This country is supposed to be a democracy, but you would not know this the way politicians bow to the rich and powerful. Powerful corporations are only interested greedy profits, in this case the logging companies. Government is supposed to represent the public and inparticular listen to scientists, and curb planet destruction by the greedy. It is also a problem when some politicians in BC owner of logging companies, how in hell can the public be heard here, because now there is a conflct of interest. We kneed trees to help reduce plant warming, also, there are animals, that need old growth forest to survive.
You poiticians out there, for once in a while listen to the poeple who knows what is best for the animals and the planet.
Old growth forests are as important to us as water and air. When we understand that then we will grasp their importance to our survival.
We always thought that when the resource was almost gone, it would be conserved. This would be sensible if there aim of government was to act for betterment of their citizens, but it is obvious that the lumber companies are in charge of government. So it doesn’t matter what political party is ‘in charge’; the only way change will happen is if there is protest everywhere. I wonder how many politicians are accepting bribes from the large lumber companies?
Stop to lead the Planet only trough the monetary profit…
And nobody, nobody,nobody,has that right to destroy,in particular the old growth trees,.This trees belong to the living world that is not only for the human kind…
According to the 24 June 2022 article in the Canadian Forest Industries Journal article that Henry Adams posted a link to, the elected officials and hereditary chiefs of the Ditadaht, Huu-ag-ahy and Pacheedaht bands have concluded that they should be able to determine the fate of the old growth stands within their traditional territories. Presumably this includes clear-cutting if that is what they decide to do with them.
Since they have not specifically defined a legally binding management plan that conserves the last of the unprotected, old-growth stands on southern Vancouver Island, apparently now exclusively in their care, I myself support the continuation of a blockade. Granted, I have very little skin in the game on this ground compared to many others, however I am intimately familiar with this terrain, am indigenous to the Pacific Northwest, and am exercising my right as an old man to voice an opinion on this very important issue.
It is clear what the objectives of the BC Ministry of Forests and the local timber-industrial complex are regarding Fairy Creek and similar ancient unprotected groves in BC. The “First Colonists” may claim special souverntity to a “traditional territory”, but does that give them exclusive rights to determine the fate of the plants and animals that have lived on this geographic space for many thousands of years before they (the Ditadaht, Huu-ag-ahy and Pacheedaht etc) arrived?—e.g the orcas, salmon, spotted owls, beetles, berries, and ancient cedar groves with indivualuals trees >1500 yrs old. I do not think so—–and therefore I support these protests and logging blockades until protection is assured of these rare groves in a transparent, written agreement by at least the three main interest groups: the timber industry, First Colonists, and conversation community.
The policy of the BC Ministry of Forests to exclusively consult with, ultimately defer to, First Colonists to decide on the application spiritual and cultural values of old growth stands these days is ethno-centric and basically racist. It reminds me of Europe as recently as 1600s when ones only access to God and salvation was via the Catholic Church. As I mentioned before, these topics are generally considered politically incorrect for an open discussion. However, they must be addressed by all parties at the planning table before the decades long “war in the woods” in BC is resolved.
James Bergdahl
Conservation Biology Center
My days are numbered, with so many of my simple pleasures only memories. But so many of the memories are of natural wonders which can never be replaced. What has happened to the caring people who thought about the future well-being of other citizens and elected to preserve and protect rather than to ravage for a quick profit? In this time of seemingly endless hatred and violence, we need our gentle forest giants to help remind us that all is not evil in the world. But even though the best things in life may still be free, they obviously need our protection.
I always find it inspirational to recall the message Glada McIntyre (1952-2021) received from the West Kootenay’s “Singing Forest” (which was cut down in 1995) while she was treeplanting in MoF clearcuts in a headwater basin in June 1990 on the west side of the Bugaboos. She consistently shared this same interpretation of the message with anyone who would listen over many years:
“There was an impact of sound. It swelled into an incredible crescendoing upwelling symphony of sound coming from this hillside. We knew it was coming from the forest here. And it wasn’t that there were voices but I know intrinsically that this was a great hymn of praise to the Creator and joy in the Creation, and as close as I could put words to it the message went: ‘Oh yea noble and worthy exploiters and conquerors, have mercy, allow us grace, do not end our singing, which allows your own life here’.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=og22LyFm1TQ.
Glada was born, raised, and began her education as a professional forest ecologist in the Castlegar area, and was therefore indigenous to the West Kootenays. Reasonable estimates indicate she planted near 1 million trees in the clearcuts of British Columbia between 1972-1990.
James Bergdahl
When I tried to sign the petition I just got a page which said” Sorry – this page cannot be found.”