Editor:
Let’s really “save” Mt. Elphinstone like Ross Muirhead and ELF have been campaigning to do for decades. Fighting the logging cutblocks proposed for Mt. Elphinstone year after year (see letter to the editor in last week’s paper “What’s happening with EW 24”) has slowed logging down but will never achieve the full protection this fabulous place deserves. Let’s listen to scientists like E.O. Wilson who say that at least 50 percent representative samples of the Earth’s terrestrial ecosystems must be protected to save our planet’s remaining biodiversity and provide climate stability.
It’s time for all players to get together and make a world-class protected area on Mt. Elphinstone that can provide the cedar for First Nations’ perpetual needs; full habitat protection for the Roosevelt elk, marbled murrelets and other wildlife; old-growth carbon sequestration to absorb GHG emissions, protect our drinking watersheds and provide the trails to meet the recreational needs of the growing Sunshine Coast population including hiking, mushroom hunting and mountain biking.
The other 50 percent of Mt. Elphinstone could be sensitively planned to support some wise, eco-sensitive selective logging.
This is the time to do it, before the next provincial election.
Cheers,
Paul George, Gibsons
