Editor:
In your edition of April 17, the Sunshine Coast Community Forest is still repeating their mantra that clear-cutting benefits biodiversity. I would like to present a few facts and invite a reply from the Community Forest.
The suggestion that a clear-cut emulates a forest fire is nonsense. No natural disturbance, whether forest fire or insect attack, ever carries off the trees to a mill. Fires kill trees, but rarely all of them, and leaves the bodies and/or nutrients on the ground to provide nourishment for future growth and habitat for many species. The main reason that the forests of Mount Elphinstone have grown so well and provided such fine habitat is because this forest was burned about 140 years ago but never clear-cut.
To compare the total clear-cutting of our last natural forests to creating “openings in a forest” is absurd.
Our last natural forests are providing habitat for at least eight species of amphibians, five species of woodpeckers, five species of owls, six species of forest plants, many small and large mammals, many other birds and insects, many mosses, lichens, fungi — the list goes on. None of these will nest or feed in a clear-cut for at least 50 years.
Clear-cutting has no place in the 21st century. Our remaining natural forests are treasures, which should be preserved and protected for future generations.
Rick O’Neill, Roberts Creek
