Editor:
Recently the research of Suzanne Simard has come to my attention through her live webinars on the importance of forests and preserving intact ecosystems. She has done extensive research on the interconnectedness of the forest including the importance of what she calls a “mother tree.” Just as a mother nurtures a child, mother trees nurture the forest sustaining a vast interconnection of the ecosystems above and below ground.
It’s becoming clear that the health of our natural world, including the forests, has a huge impact on the health of our human species by providing untold environmental services, such as carbon sequestering. Right in our back yards here on the Sunshine Coast, we have the privilege and opportunity to preserve some of life’s greatest resources, our local intact forest. It’s evident that we are passionate as human beings about saving our forests as seen in the Fairy Creek demonstrations where hundreds of people are willing to be arrested to save a small intact watershed that supports old-growth red and yellow cedars, some up to 800 years old.
On the lower Sunshine Coast, we are very fortunate to have the tireless efforts of Elphinstone Logging Focus bringing to our awareness the logging plans of BC Timber Sales and Sunshine Coast Community Forest. Our forests are threatened. Their work is crucial to preserving the mother trees across these lands and the biodiversity in our precious forests here. Find them on Facebook and at www.loggingfocus.org. I feel it’s vital that we support their efforts, and I hope you’ll join me, in whatever way you can, in supporting them too.
Angela Skene, Roberts Creek
