Editor:
I am compelled to respond to the letters regarding forest block A87124 by Mike Bowering and Ken Sneddon (Coast Reporter, Feb. 24).
To start, both Bowering and Sneddon work in the logging business - not in wood processing or value added and certainly not in the environmental field. They make their money when forests are logged and shipped off the Coast. By definition, they are in a conflict of interest when commenting and attempting to influence decisions, as the community considers the long-term highest and best use of a publicly-owned resource such as the natural forest in block A87124.
Attacking the editor of the paper for accurately reflecting what is happening is nothing less than an attempt to intimidate and bully the community.
Bowering starts his letter with the claim that logging A87124 will result in $1.2 million for schools and hospitals. The fact is, as financial statements show, that BC Timber Sales, the government agency selling A87124 to logging interests, has lost money almost every year over the last while. It is unlikely our students and patients will receive one red cent from the clearcut logging of this forest.
Leave forest use planning to forest professionals whose job is more complicated than "rocket science," Bowering suggests. We can see what these rocket scientists have done to our natural forests when we drive up the B& Road or look at the vast clearcuts on the way to Dakota Ridge. Yes, a professional forester planned the "spatial orientation and harvest timing" of these cutblocks.
Ken Sneddon has it backwards in his closing line - the truth is that "puerile pulp" is what they want to turn our forests into and tough reporting of the truth is what vested interests try to prevent at all costs.
Hans Penner
Roberts Creek
