News Release

Wilderness Committee calling on BC government to rescind contentious logging permits

VICTORIA – Representatives from the Wilderness Committee and other concerned citizens held a creative demonstration at the BC Legislature today, to draw attention to the situation in the endangered Walbran Valley.

Using art displays on the lawn of the Legislature, activists simulated the controversial old-growth logging that is currently underway in the Walbran.

“BC’s Premier and Minister of Forests aren’t taking the crisis in the Walbran Valley seriously,” said Torrance Coste, Vancouver Island Campaigner for the Wilderness Committee. “So today, we’ve brought this issue to their doorstep to demand that they listen to the thousands of citizens who have called on them to act on this.”

Despite receiving over 7,000 messages from members of the public, the Minister approved logging permits in the Walbran last fall. Logging company Teal Jones began cutting in late October, and is moving closer every day to the Central Walbran Valley, an intact 486-hectare stand north of the Walbran River.

Teal Jones has obtained injunctions to keep protesters out of the area, and a blockader was arrested in the Valley a few weeks ago – the first arrest in the Walbran in more than two decades.

The City of Victoria, the District of Tofino, the District of Metchosin and the Chambers of Commerce of both Port Renfrew and Sooke have all passed motions calling on the provincial government to protect the Central Walbran.

“The groundswell of opposition to logging in the Walbran is unprecedented, and it’s time for the BC government to take responsibility,” Coste said. “There is no ethical rationale for cutting down thousand-year-old trees. Our government has to find a solution.”

After the art demonstration, environmentalists delivered letters to the Premier, Minister of Forests and other key BC decision-makers, restating their request to protect the Central Walbran Valley.

The Walbran Valley is in the unceded territory of the Pacheedaht First Nation.

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For more information, please contact:

Torrance Coste | Vancouver Island Campaigner, Wilderness Committee
250-516-9900, torrance@wildernesscommittee.org

Additional resources:

Photos of the Walbran Valley
https://www.wildernesscommittee.org/walbran_valley_photos

Photos of the creative action at the BC Legislature
https://www.wildernesscommittee.org/bc_legislature_save_the_walbran_event_photos