Citizens groups organize rallies, protests, petition drives at BC MLA offices, university campuses, city streets

The groundswell of citizens opposition to the BC Liberal governments forest policies will be evident over the next 2 weeks as activist groups in coastal communities organize numerous rallies, events, and petition drives in a campaign spearheaded by the Wilderness Committee.
The various organizations will be calling on the BC Liberal government to quickly phase-out old-growth logging from BCs south coast (Vancouver Island and Lower Mainland), to ensure the sustainable logging of second-growth forests which now constitute most of the landbase, to end raw log exports to protect BCs forestry jobs, and to assist in the retooling and development of value-added wood processing facilities for second-growth logs.

Rallies will include:

Feb.28 – Rally at MLA Ron Cantelons (also Minister of Agriculture and Lands) new Qualicum Beach office, 742 Memorial Ave. (by Fern), 1:30 to 3:00 pm, organized by the Wilderness Committees Mid-Island chapter and the Arrowsmith Parks and Landuse Committee
March 5 – Rally at Camosun College, organized by the Camosun Action FoR Old-Growth or AFROG (more details TBA)
March 7 – Rally in Oak Bay near MLA Ida Chongs office, organized by the Wilderness Committees Victoria office (more details TBA)
March 9 – Info picket/petition drive in Sidney by MLA Murray Coells office, organized by the Wilderness Committees Victoria office (more details TBA)
March 10 – Rally at UBC, organized by the UBC Ancient Forest Committee and Student Environment Centre, and Big Trees Extravaganza at UVic (silkscreening, letter-writing table, street theatre, making paper-mache tree mascot, etc.), organized by the UVic WCWC Club (more details TBA)
March 14 – Rally at Premier Gordon Campbells constituency office in Point Grey, organized by the Point Grey Ancient Forest Committee (more details TBA)

"The BC Liberal government says that protecting our ancient forests will cost forestry jobs. Well, all I know is not a single park has been created on Vancouver Island by the BC Liberal government over the past 8 years, yet in that time theyve overseen and facilitated the largest loss of forestry jobs in BCs history – 20,000 BC forestry jobs lost over 2 years," states Ken Wu, Wilderness Committee campaign director in Victoria. "The BC government goes so far as to state that old-growth forests on Vancouver Island are not even endangered, despite the fact that 75% have already been logged, including 90% of the valley bottoms where the largest trees grow, according to Landsat satellite photos. At this point whos still arguing that its fine to finish off the last of the unprotected old-growth forests here, except for a radical minority and, unfortunately, the BC Liberal government?"

The movement to protect the ancient forests and to end raw log exports on BCs south coast is one of Canadas largest grassroots movements. Over the past 2 years, more than 30,000 signatures have been collected by over 800 volunteers on a Wilderness Committee petition to end old-growth logging and ban raw log exports on Vancouver Island (see www.viforest.org ). On October 25, almost 3,000 people showed up at a Wilderness Committee protest (see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRmXjq7ZSCI ) at the Legislative Buildings to protect Vancouver Islands old-growth forests and forestry jobs, making it about the largest environmental protest in BCs history. Recent logging of ancient trees on an island in the Englishman River has also sparked off a storm of protests from mid-Island residents in the Qualicum Beach-Parksville area.

Old-growth forests are important for many reasons: they support many species at risk that cant flourish in younger forests; they store 2 to 3 times more carbon per hectare than the second-growth tree plantations that they are being replaced with; they are fundamental pillars of BCs multi-billion dollar coastal tourism industry; they are important parts of many First Nations cultures; and they provide clean water for spawning salmon and trout.

Landsat satellite photos reveal that about 75% of Vancouver Islands original, productive old-growth forests have already been logged, including 90% of the valley bottoms where the largest trees grow and 99% of old-growth Douglas firs. Only 6% of the original, productive old-growth forests on Vancouver Island are protected in parks. The situation is similar in the Lower Mainland, where little old-growth forests remain, particularly at lower elevations.

In hectares on Vancouver Island:

-Vancouver Island is 3.2 million hectares in total size.
-2.3 million hectares were originally covered in productive old-growth forests.
-700,000 hectares were and still are covered in low-productivity old-growth forests (bogs, stunted trees on rocky sites, and high altitude snow forests where most trees cant be profitably logged).
-Only 600,000 hectares of productive old-growth forests remain (ie. 1.7 million hectares have been logged).
-140,000 hectares of productive old-growth forests are protected in parks.

"Without investing in facilities to process second-growth stands as the old-growth forests are logged-off and the old-growth sawmills shut down, BCs forestry jobs will simply be exported as raw logs because there wont be any facilities to handle the second-growth logs – a process which is already well underway under this government," states Wu. "Virtually the whole world is logging second, third or fourth growth forests now, but the BC Liberal government still takes the anti-environmental stance that its fine to finish off the last unprotected old-growth forests on Vancouver Island despite the alternatives. By defending the destruction of our finest old-growth forests, Forest Minister Pat Bell and the BC Liberal government are acting as the despoilers of the Best Place on Earth."

For maps and statistics visit: www.viforest.org and www.wcwcvictoria.org