Campaign Recent Developments: Stop Old Growth Logging

For a handful of Wilderness Committee staff and volunteers, 8:00am on a holiday morning is not too early to stand up for Vancouver Island’s old growth forests.

Logging has begun in the publicly owned Nanoose Bay Forest, also known as DL33. See this TV news story, and this TV news story. The rare Coastal Douglas-fir (CDR) forest has been recognized for its endangered forest and wetland ecosystems.

For almost two years the Wilderness Committee has been fighting logging in this threatened ecosystem. And yet, yesterday, the chainsaws started cutting, starting with some of the biggest trees. See this report from the field by Tria Donaldson, Wilderness Committee campaigner.

It was a surprisingly nice day when we left the University of Victoria, considering it was mid-October on the west coast. The UVic Wilderness Committee club was off to spend a day at Bear Beach, and to check out some of the land that was being slated for development by Marine Trail Holdings. Bear beach is located just north of Jordan River and is in the middle of the Juan de Fuca Park, one of the most popular parks on Vancouver Island. 

After two full evenings, 175 speakers and many cups of coffee, the Public Hearing on the changes to the zoning around the Juan de Fuca trail is continuing for another day.

The amount of public interest in the project is staggering. This is the first time in history of the Capital Regional District that a public hearing has been extended to a third day.