Editor:
To understand the logging protest of the lower slopes on Mount Elphinstone, one needs to use eagle vision that looks at things from altitude with a bigger perspective.
A map indicating age class of forest (how old different stands of trees are) from Howe Sound to Sechelt clearly shows that there is almost no old growth left.
To understand the forest itself, you need to walk through it like the bears that have their dens nearby. First Nations people learned what plants were medicines by watching the bears. Old growth forest abounds in medicine. There is wild valerian for nerves, rattlesnake plantain for cuts and wounds, devil's club for arthritis and yew for cancerous tumours. There is even more to discover in this biodiversity.
The 1,000-year-old yellow cedar that stands so majestically in the moss that holds pools of precious water is valued in China and Japan for making temples.
Come out walking with Elphinstone Logging Focus (ELF) on Sundays and you will experience the living temple of the forest, creating all the air that you breathe. It is the life force of the planet in you.
And what is the monetary value of this piece of old growth forest? Upset price by BCTS was put at less than $4 per cubic metre in 2010, in other words, $40,000. There is something seriously wrong with an economic system and government that would trade ancient rainforest for the price of one new truck.
We are all getting ripped off, especially our children and grandchildren.
Denise Lagassé, Halfmoon Bay
