Editor:
The Feb. 10 editorial is presumptuous, assuming those who wish to see BCTS' cutblock A87124 preserved represent the "community."
Block A87124 will return approximately $1.2 million to the Crown through stumpage payments that help pay for schools, hospitals, roads and transfer payments, not to mention direct and indirect employment opportunities on the Coast. The preservationist mandate of ELF, the RCCA, our elected MLA and select members of the SCRD board do not represent the interests of the real community, as the forest sector is the economic backbone for many families on the Coast.
Harvesting within interface areas must be sensitive to other integrated resource users. Good land management considers natural resources at the stand (cutblock) and forest (landscape) level. There are many tools in the forest manager's box to minimize harvesting effects and ensure important non-timber values are incorporated into the stand and forest level design.
For example, cutblocks are designed to leave standing timber around fish and community watershed streams, retain wildlife tree patches and orient and feather boundary edges for visual quality and to reduce windthrow.
At the forest level, planning the spatial orientation and harvest timing of cutblocks helps meet the social, environmental and economic landscape level objectives like old seral retention or mimicking the natural range of disturbance. As renowned landscape biologist Dr. Fred Bunnell once said, "Forestry isn't rocket science - it's much more complicated than that."
BCTS employs registered forest professionals to plan forestry activities that by their own admission spend 40 per cent of their time on the select vocal few who wish to cease harvesting activities on Elphinstone. BCTS planning foresters would probably agree this time could be put to better use practising good land management in the interests of the real community on the Coast.
Mike Bowering
Gibsons
