Editor:
In response to last week’s article about giving licences to logging companies, I would like to say that such practices make no sense, either environmentally or economically.
Whenever I walk through one of our magnificent forests, with the light filtering through the tall trees and the little brooks babbling in the ravines, I can’t help but realize how connected we are to this natural world: how much it nurtures, sustains, enchants and heals us. And whenever my forest trail spills out into a clear-cut area, with the sun burning down on the parched debris and with the crisp brush crunching beneath my feet, so different from the cool, moist forest floor behind me, I suddenly realize something else as well: I realize that these clear-cut areas are like giant tinderboxes: potential wildfires waiting to ignite.
We’re told that logging is good because it creates jobs. But that, too, is illogical. The short-term jobs and revenue that come from logging are minuscule compared to the long-term jobs and revenue that could be generated by promoting our forests as wilderness recreation areas, outdoor education sites, nature reserves and parks.
The Sunshine Coast’s forests are its greatest untapped resource – as great as any of B.C.’s many forest reserves and wilderness parks. In those places, the government tells us to tread lightly, stay on the trail and refrain from throwing anything, even an apple stalk, into the woods. And yet, the same government says that our own magnificent forests, so close to where we live, are not worth protecting; that they can be chopped down!
I urge our new NDP government and our MLA Nicholas Simons to stand up for the expressed interests of the people and finally put an end to the destruction of our local forests.
Robert O’Neill, Roberts Creek
