Editor:
I attended the Sunshine Coast Community Forest's (SCCF) annual general meeting on May 6 - a logging company owned by the District of Sechelt.
Some of the suggestions our group put forward included: harvesting in second growth tree farms only, retaining all older forests (age class 6 to 9) to protected bio-diversity, invest in a small-scale sawmill scaled to the volume of wood it harvests to add value and jobs, a public committee to advise Sechelt council as they decide on what community projects are to be funded by SCCF profits and to have all board of directors meetings open to the public.
Our recommendations, which we think are progressive ones for a community forest to implement, were not and probably never will be accepted by this SCCF.
We, and many others, are forced to conclude that this current community forest structure needs a fresh start. We request of a new provincial government to review Sechelt's current community forest model and the process in which they obtained the licence in the first place which was surrounded in controversy. They are not meeting higher-level sustainable forestry practices, and certainly are not open to public input. The public, in fact, may be better served if this current community forest is re-built from the ground up to reflect progressive eco-forestry options and new structures of public governance.
Ross Muirhead, ELF
