VANCOUVER – The Wilderness Committee is wildly celebrating an announcement from Victoria this morning that proposed changes to the BC Forest Act have been dropped from a controversial bill.

The proposed legislative changes, contained in the BC government’s far-reaching Bill 8, would have allowed private logging companies to “roll over” forest tenures into Tree Farm Licences (TFLs), shifting more control over public forest lands into private hands.

“People all over BC have spoken up against these proposed changes, which would have meant the mass privatization of the province’s public forests,” said Joe Foy, National Campaign Director with the Wilderness Committee.

"It really goes to show how much people value our public forests and don't want to see them fall into corporate hands," he said.

Over the past few weeks, the proposed Forest Act changes have sparked a flurry of unified opposition amongst First Nations, environmentalists, unions, elected officials and many individuals.