LETTER: Challenging current regime's old-growth-forest policy
By Letters to the editor
Open letter to Katrine Conroy, Minister of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development
I am deeply distressed with the decisions your government has made and is continuing to make on old growth logging in BC. Fairy Creek is currently the contentious area, but other areas have and will follow.
Your government made a promise to British Columbians to protect these ancient gentle giants. But instead, you are doing the opposite. You cannot both cut them down and say you are protecting old growth trees.
Your government has been a gigantic disappointment. In a time when we should be looking to the future health of BC and its peoples, indeed of the planet and all its occupants, you are still entrenched in century old thinking, of cut it down, dig it up, ship it out.
I ask you, as do thousands of others, to stop the falling of our old growth trees. They are our cathedrals, and they are worth far more alive than dead. A good place to start would be to follow your own recommendations, A New Future for Old Forests.
Finally, if it was really just about jobs, consider these words from Ben Parfitt of CCPA. ‘Some unions and environmental organizations have also argued that by logging less and processing more, BC could generate both more jobs overall and increased forest conservation, particularly of ancient forests that once logged will never again be seen.’
Ann Remnant
Nelson, BC
