Editor:
Paul George’s Aug. 27 letter (“Travesty of democracy”) talks about Premier Horgan and the NDP’s wilful-blindness when it comes to intervening in the logging protests on Vancouver Island. The letter states: “Natural forests are the key to turning the tide on global warming, sequestering carbon to slow catastrophic climate change.”
Reading Mr. George’s letter made me think of a local forestry issue here on the Sunshine Coast where decision-makers also appear to be asleep at the wheel on the demise of a remnant forest ecosystem that our group, ELF, has raised out of concern for the role that natural forests play in ecosystem health and climate stability. We’re talking about the logging company Sunshine Coast Community Forests (SCCF), owned by the District of Sechelt. In the same edition of the Coast Reporter, SCCF advertised for contractors to put in bids to log 7,500 cubic metres of timber and reopen 1.3 km of road in the Halfmoon Bay/Trout Lake area for a Blk HM 50.
Because SCCF did a poor job of public outreach, ELF organized its own walk-in-the-woods event and about 50 people attended. Halfmoon Bay resident John Dafoe nicknamed the forest “The Halfmoon Bay Mushroom Forest,” reflecting the abundant mix of mushrooms he picks in this area every year, especially some world-quality pines. Science shows that this particular forest ecosystem has less than one per cent remaining in the local landscape due to overlogging and urban development.
ELF has asked both the Sechelt mayor and council and SCCF’s operations manager not to allow this forest to go down at the hand of chainsaws. Did they listen? No – which is another example of the travesty of this so-called Community Forest in knowing when to stop. Did I mention that this HM 50 block is situated in the Trout Lake Watershed? Perhaps, SCCF and the District of Sechelt don’t fully understand the role that forests play in maintaining water quality and quantity.
Cut down the Halfmoon Bay Mushroom Forest and there goes another important link to mitigating runaway climate change, globally and at the micro-climate level here on the Sunshine Coast.
Ross Muirhead, Elphinstone
Logging Focus
