Editor:
In the Nov. 26 article “Appeal denied on HM50 cutblock approval” a reference was made to “new information” that ELF asked the Sunshine Coast Forest District Manager to consider which would have triggered a deferral of the cutting permit. The new information we brought to his attention wasn’t mentioned in the article, which would have brought the dialogue into context. It had to do with a report commissioned by Sunshine Coast Community Forest (SCCF) in which the consulting firm (Madrone Environmental Services) did not provide the science showing that the area that SCCF’s Blk HM50 is located is suffering from a severe lack of old forest conditions.
A Sunshine Coast Natural Resource chart shows that within the Sechelt Landscape Unit area (where HM50 block is located), there is less than 1 per cent (0.59 per cent) of old forest remaining. Our recommendation to the District Manager was to have SCCF recruit, or protect fair to good examples of intact forests, like HM50, to make up for this old growth deficient.
The SCCF Operations Manager is quoted that SCCF “does not log Old-Growth.” The reason that SCCF doesn’t log old growth is because there isn’t any old-growth left to log. The percentages clearly show that. There are single old-growth trees left behind from the 1860s wildfire across this landscape, but these are found in younger age stands. ELF is asking that SCCF not log any forests in self-generating stands (like HM50 and a proposed HM70) and restrict “harvesting” to tree farms that they have actually “managed.” The forest conditions in HM50 provided a suite of environmental services, including water absorption, storage, soil stability – the very conditions that the Sunshine Coast needs right now during these heavy rain events. These types of forests are our infrastructure now and for the future.
Ross Muirhead, ELF
