The following letter was sent to the community forest board and copied to Coast Reporter.
I appreciate the Sechelt community forest board publishing names and profiles of board members. Some letters from directors and the full page "myths" advertising were less useful and, in general, quite misleading.
There seems to be some misunderstanding about the scientific meaning of biodiversity, which refers to the millions of species present in an ecosystem. Many of these organisms are invisible to the average observer. They even may not yet be fully understood or identified by scientists.
An old growth forest supports the largest variety of native species and ecological processes and especially protects the biodiversity that we don't know much about. In our mid to low level forests, the old growth management areas are actually not made up of much old growth at all as there isn't enough left to meet the retention target of eight per cent. Our low to mid level forests are dominated by young biologically simplified ecosystems.
If our communities wish to protect the natural diversity of species, biological communities and ecosystems, we need to oppose the short-sighted plans of the community forest to log EW002 in Wilson Creek. The amount of productive forested land currently protected is not enough to sustain that unique ecology and the ecology of the waters that flow from it. It is misleading to state that logging creates a biodiverse environment. It is like saying that a wheat farmer replacing native grassland is creating biodiversity in the prairie. The farmer is replacing a prehistoric complex natural ecosystem with one that is biologically simplified.
Sheila Page, Sechelt
