News Release

Wilderness Committee claimed wrongful accusation when it was first named last year. 

VICTORIA - The Wilderness Committee and its staff have successfully had a lawsuit against them dismissed. The lawsuit was the basis for Teal Jones’ Walbran Valley injunctions, first obtained in December 2015.

Teal Jones filed a civil suit and sought an injunction late last year to prohibit blockades impacting its logging operations in the Central Walbran Valley. The Wilderness Committee campaigns against Teal Jones’ destruction of irreplaceable old-growth rainforest in the Walbran, but doesn’t participate in or organize blockades.

The injunction specifically prohibits blocking logging activity, but could be interpreted as discouraging public access to the valley.

“Court injunctions often have the effect of chilling public engagement on an environmental issue,” said Torrance Coste, Vancouver Island Campaigner with the Wilderness Committee. “But in this case, public engagement has only increased and every day we hear from new people who want to protect this irreplaceable ecosystem.”

Since early 2015, the Wilderness Committee has hosted rallies, demonstrations and public meetings and mobilized more than seven thousand citizens to write to the BC government in opposition to logging in the Walbran Valley.

After activists not connected to the Wilderness Committee set up blockades last November, Teal Jones obtained an injunction naming the blockaders as well as the Wilderness Committee and Coste. The injunction has since been extended twice. The Wilderness Committee continues to visit the Walbran frequently, documenting old-growth and building trails to highlight these endangered ecosystems.

Teal Jones has been in talks with the Wilderness Committee and other organizations to end the conflict, but has refused to stay out of the most intact part of the Walbran Valley, north of the Walbran River. Meanwhile, the company is actively cutting sensitive old-growth south of the river.

The Wilderness Committee is calling on the BC government to listen to citizens and local governments, and withdraw logging permits in the Central Walbran Valley.

“Teal Jones has no problem destroying old-growth against the will of the public, but we deserve better from the Premier and the Minister of Forests,” Coste said. “There is no social license to cut down some of the last 1000-year old trees on Vancouver Island and we need our government to stop dodging this issue.”

The current injunction still stands, and expires at the end of May.

The Wilderness Committee has been represented in court by lawyers from Ecojustice.

The Walbran Valley is located in unceded Nuu-chah-nulth territories, about one hour west of Port Renfrew.

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For more information, please contact:

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