Editor:
BC Timber Sales (BCTS) is presently carrying out an enhanced public engagement consultation, based on a directive from Minister of Forests Doug Donaldson. In a first step, they have contacted landowners who will be affected by their logging plans of Reed Road Forest. However, BCTS decided to contact only a few property owners and to exclude many others who also would be affected. Of seven directly adjacent landowners that BCTS said they contacted, only five were actually contacted and nobody living further downslope was approached. Furthermore, a section of the proposed clear-cut is drained by Walker Creek that has been diverted along Reed Road in an eastern direction. Thus, anyone living downslope of the Walker Creek diversion should have been included in an objectively carried out engagement process. As a result, any conclusion BCTS forwards to our government is worthless.
Reed Road Forest is as big a gem as Clack Creek Forest used to be. This forest is located in an extremely close urban interface and must be immediately removed from BCTS management.
Hermann Ziltener, Gibsons
