The following letter was sent to community forest president Glen Bonderud and Sechelt council and copied to Coast Reporter.
As residents of Sechelt, we urge you to reconsider your logging plans in Wilson Creek.
We realize that the mandate of the Sunshine Coast Community Forest apparently is maximization of profits, but in our view the mandate of a community forest should be much broader; it should not be simply a community run version of a conventional logging operation, as appears to be the case here.
In other jurisdictions where community forests are operating, the mandate encompasses the full range of community-shared values and services provided by the contingent forest lands, including maintaining the balance of the eco-system and the preservation of old growth timber in exceptional areas where the long term values greatly exceed the simple dollar value of a log.
Unfortunately, this has been an ongoing issue, which includes lack of transparency in the operation of the community forest and conflicting views as to the mandate. According to your CV you have exceptional skills to offer in terms of marketing, which value we greatly appreciate. However, as president of the community forest, we would hope you would exercise your obvious leadership abilities to steer your charge in a direction more appropriate to a true "community" forest.
Fern Walker and Michael Siddall, Sechelt
