The following letter was sent to BC Timber Sales and copied to Coast Reporter.
It was noted June 6 by a first aid attendant working at the Watermark complex in Sechelt that 15 logging trucks drove through Sechelt on June 6.
In half a day, I counted eight, with two trucks following each other roaring past the Roberts Creek Road intersection.
This level of log transport off the Sunshine Coast forests is unprecedented in the last five to eight years. All this logging, of course, is from previously intact, older forests - none from trees that were planted by the Ministry of Forests.
We're kissing goodbye to important forest habitat and associated biodiversity from a shrinking intact land base. The provincial government has completed no biodiversity studies, so no restrictions are being placed on BCTS logging operations in these sensitive forested landscapes.
We hope that BCTS will step back from any further logging on the Lower Sunshine Coast for this year, after logging above Pender Harbour and Halfmoon Bay is completed. Stress levels are rising among the community, who see this kind of traffic every day and realize the growing level of log export from our communities.
Ross Muirhead
Elphinstone Logging Focus
