Editor:
Well, here we are, just as the Ministry of Forests and Lands (MOF) had hoped - private logging companies have walked away from contentious areas, leaving Coastcommunity members to duke it out.
The community forest tenureis an effort to get that wood cut and sold.It came as no surprise when thelogging areasgranted were in the most divisive and threatened watersheds. At presentitis not a "gift" to the local area economy to better us all - it's a poison pill.
ManyCoast residents have been unfairly labelled as "against logging"- not so at all. It's what the Sunshine Coast community forest (SCCF) wants to log, not logging itself, that people are speaking up about.This small patch of forest has never been cut. It is a fractured portion of the three per cent of lower elevation forest to claim this status, and what makes it precious also makes it profitable.
I ask the SCCF to work harder at achieving their stated mandate. Resist the temptation of easy money for old wood. Give thiscut blockback to the MOF and help heal this divisive issue.
Gordon Bell,
Halfmoon Bay
