For immediate release

Active logging operation spoiling one of BC’s last spotted owl sanctuaries says Wilderness Committee

Lillooet Valley, British Columbia, Canada Wilderness Committee staff and volunteers joined environmental activists from France, Belgium, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and New Zealand this past weekend to protest BC government-sponsored logging in habitat critically important to endangered spotted owls. The old-growth logging operation is within the Fire Mountain spotted owl territory located 75 km southeast of Pemberton, BC.

At the Fire Mountain site, one of only 17 places where spotted owls have been located since 2005, logging trucks continued to roll past protesters. “The trucks carried Douglas fir trees hundreds of years old which, according to truck drivers, were destined for the raw log export market,” said Andy Miller, Wilderness Committee staff scientist. “Not only is this logging operation a disaster for the endangered spotted owl, it’s a disaster for the endangered BC mill worker”.

Meanwhile St’at’imc and In-SHUCK-ch Nation members gathered by the hundreds at Samahquam Indian Reserve, 3km from the protest site, for their annual gathering. Band members welcomed Wilderness Committee protesters to their territory and invited them to participate in the sacred St’at’imc Gathering. Hundreds of non-First Nation recreation enthusiasts also drove past the protest camp and some stopped in to learn about the logging.

Thanks to the presence of the international activists, no language save St’at’imcets and Polish proved too challenging at the protest camp. Among the protesters, 13 languages were spoken. Luckily, the group of Polish visitors also spoke several other languages spoken by protesters. As a result, they learned of excellent fishing locations known by protesters and visited the St’at’imc Gathering for a unique cultural experience.

The protest camp was erected in the Lillooet Valley, just north of Harrison Lake, from May 1-4, and May 9-11 to call attention to BC government-sponsored logging at one of the last active spotted owl sites in BC. The Wilderness Committee is calling for an end to all logging of old growth forests within the range of the spotted owl in BC.

In 1990 100 pairs of spotted owls were thought to live in the old-growth forests of southwest BC. Their population has been on a steep decline since that time due to the continued logging of their old-growth forest habitat. Today there are just 17 active sites for spotted owls making the species one of the most endangered in Canada. “The BC government should be ashamed of this extinction operation. We will continue to protest this logging until it stops,” said Miller.

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For more information please contact: Joe Foy at 604-880-2580 or Andy Miller at 604-992-3099.