Editor:
If clear-cut logging leads to greater biodiversity, as Tony Greenfield asserts in his article in the Community Forest AGM report (Coast Reporter, April 17), then we should be seeing a burgeoning of biodiversity in B.C., which has been very much over-logged.
Sadly, that is not the case and the exact opposite is happening — we’re facing a growing list of threatened and endangered species.
Where exactly is Mr. Greenfield getting his information? What peer-reviewed scientific studies can he name to support his stunning assertion? He equates the regenerative effects of forest fires to logging, but there is a world of difference. In a forest fire, the heat generated will awaken certain dormant species, not to mention many trees left behind and nutrients in the ash. It’s a real stretch to suggest that the giant machines used in logging these days, crushing the forest floor along with all the life beneath — dormant seeds, mycelia, countless organisms — is good for biodiversity.
With most of the low elevation old growth gone on the Sunshine Coast, and clear cuts galore (just go to satellite view in Google and see for yourself) we should, by Greenfield’s reckoning, be experiencing a renaissance of biodiversity. Not! Many species are in precipitous decline, especially amphibians and fish along with certain birds like the marbled murrelet, which requires old growth for nesting. Excessive logging, particularly in watersheds, has led to slope instability and sloughing into waterways, spelling the loss of fish and amphibian habitat. The enormous value of an intact forest, with its water retention and carbon sequestering capabilities, not to mention standing pools and streams that support a huge web of life, counts for naught in this preposterous argument. The community expects and deserves better from the Community Forest in its annual reports.
Gayle Neilson, Gibsons
