Editor:

I will look back on 2012 as a year in which the wishes of politicians and logging interests took precedence over the interests of the people.

In a letter to Coast Reporter, Dec. 21, Tony Greenfield seems to draw a connection between supporting the preservation of our biodiversity and supporting the decision to log the Wilson Creek Forest. In my mind, the two positions are completely incompatible.

At one point he speaks about support for biodiversity being a “value judgement,” and he cites the preservation of species like the mountain bluebird as a theoretical justification for the cutting down of old forests. If he is serious about that, then I would simply refer him to his own statement about “letters [that] contain disinformation”. (Really, who would seriously accept such an argument?) If he is being facetious, then I would point out that there is a large number of people on the Sunshine Coast for whom the importance of preserving the Wilson Creek Forest was not a joke.

I want to emphasize that the campaign to preserve it was not a campaign against logging in general. It was a campaign to preserve a tiny but precious patch of uncut forest. In my judgement there’s no doubt that the value of preserving that part of our natural history was far greater than the profit to be gained from cutting it down.

Robert O’Neill, Roberts Creek