I am writing to alert you to an alarming situation in the wild forests near Chilliwack Lake.
Right now, big, 140 year-old trees are being chopped down to build logging roads into forests that were supposed to have been set aside to protect essential habitat for the critically endangered northern spotted owl.
There are thought to be less than a dozen spotted owls left in southern BC. And now more of their disappearing habitat is being cut down for a quick buck.
How have our public officials let it come to this?
Back in 2006, the BC government set aside a number of forest areas, known as Wildlife Habitat Areas, for the protection of the northern spotted owl, which needs old-growth forest to survive. At the time we celebrated wildly!
Then, in early 2011, the BC government announced it was expanding the size and amount of the Wildlife Habitat Areas to help make it possible for the owls to increase from their current population of less than a dozen to a more stable population of at least 250. That all sounded like great news! Finally, after decades of pushing to get the BC government to protect spotted owl habitat, our work seemed to be paying off.
However, before the ink was really even dry on the maps for the new Wildlife Habitat Areas, the BC government opened several of these new Wildlife Habitat Areas to logging. We (and the spotted owl) had been double-crossed!
One of the hardest hit Wildlife Habitat Areas is in the Chilliwack River Valley near Chilliwack Lake. Over a dozen cutblocks have been approved for this area of forest critical to the recovery of Canada's northern spotted owl population. Local residents have reported that road building started on Saturday, with access to at least four cutblocks being cleared.
Although roads are being built, the logging permits themselves have not yet been issued. And that’s where you come in. I am writing to ask you to help today by joining with me to call on government to halt this logging road building and to put a stop to the logging of this important spotted owl habitat. There should be no chainsaws at all allowed in this Wildlife Habitat Area.
Derrick O'Keefe | Communications Assistant
Wilderness Committee
This organization is admirable in its committment to protection of these sacred wild spaces and in its effective and respectful collaboration with Native people and other environmental groups. I would highly encourage others to get involved with this amazing organization !