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Don’t ‘greenwash’ logging

Editor: Tony Greenfield wrote in the 2015 Community Forest Annual Report that logging enhances biodiversity. He argued that open systems (i.e., freshly logged sites) possess greater biodiversity than closed canopy systems.

Editor:

Tony Greenfield wrote in the 2015 Community Forest Annual Report that logging enhances biodiversity. He argued that open systems (i.e., freshly logged sites) possess greater biodiversity than closed canopy systems. He further equated wildfires and/or fire regimes with logging, concluding that logging provides the same benefits to forest ecosystems as fire.

Logging is not “a proxy for forest fire.” Fires remove weak and unhealthy trees; logging removes both the unhealthy and the healthy trees. When a moderate fire crosses the land, many trees survive and only the shrubs and undergrowth are affected. Thus, the forest still maintains trees of various ages, each performing vital functions for animal species dependent on mature trees. In contrast, trees that reoccupy a logged area will all be of the same age, creating an artificial environment that does not support rich biodiversity, and certainly not specialist species prized for their uniqueness. Moreover, logged areas are frequently replanted with a single-tree species.

Clear-cut zones are not better or richer than a forest affected by fire; they are areas essentially transformed from heterogeneous forest to monocultures. Additionally, pesticide use is common to ensure greater survival of replacement saplings. These products leach into the soil and run off into nearby waterways, a process which hardly benefits species dependent on those rivers and streams.

A certain level of logging is obviously necessary. However, the industry should not “greenwash” the practice by suggesting that logging is as beneficial as wildfires. Nor should they use the Anthropocene as a carte blanche to strip the Sunshine Coast of some of the world’s most magnificent temperate rainforest. Instead of making quasi-scientific claims to promote logging practices, the industry should focus more on researching best practices to ensure minimal disturbance to our forest ecosystems.

Carol Dyck, MA, MSc, LLM, Sackinaw Lake