South Moresby-A Special Report

Wilderness Committee Educational Report Vol.03 - No.01, Summer 1984


PARK OPPONENTS


  • Although South Moresby is a special area, it is not unique. Logging and mining activities have gone on here for over 80 years. There are many places on B.C.'s coast which are unindustrialized wildernesses.
  • If decadent forests aren't soon logged, their industrial values will be lost to rot.
  • Logging would occur on only 20% of South Moresby; 80% of the region would be left in its natural state. With multiple or integrated use, society benefits from both industrial and recreational development at the same time.
  • One mine occupies little land. After its short life span, the land is reclaimed.
  • Logging disturbs only a small area at a time and modern logging techniques allow environmental protection and minimal environmental damage. People don't mind, temporary logging scars because they know that the industry is the bread and butter of B.C. Once a logged area "greens up" people can't tell the difference between it and wilderness.
  • Society today cannot afford wilderness preservation. More and more people are content to live in cities their whole lives. Only the very rich or a few wilderness enthusiasts would benefit from a South Moresby wilderness recreation park. Mineral exploration must be allowed to find out whether or not valuable deposits exist. If economic deposits are found they must be mined because the wealth they contribute to society far outweighs any damage mining might cause to other resource values. The timber is potentially worth over a billion dollars. Government revenues on this timber can range up to three million dollars annually. A great number of loggers jobs may be lost if the whole of South Moresby is designated a Class "A" park.




    • South Moresby Baby Eagle Photo credit:From the collection donated to Islands On The Edge


    PARK SUPPORTERS


  • South Moresby is the Canadian Galapagos. Parks Canada, after an extensive survey of B.C.'s coast, found South Moresby to be of national significance; a possible UNESCO World Heritage Site. South Moresby sustains one third of Pacific Canada's nesting seabirds and the world's highest concentration of rare Peale's peregrine falcons, and its marine and forest ecosystems are among the most productive in the world.
  • In the virgin forest, an endless procession of young trees replace the old monarchs. All provide niches for the huge variety of interdependent living things. In nature, nothing is "wasted".
  • The selective logging which took place in the past in South Moresby cannot be compared to the proposed industrialization which will be intensive and on a large scale. Further, it will occur in the very regions which have the greatest wildlife, recreational and historical values - the abandoned Haida villages, the huge spruce and cedar trees, the most prolific seabird nesting sites and salmon watersheds. Eighty percent of the old growth forest occurs in the twenty percent of South Moresby that is scheduled for logging. Resource extraction would claim the richest sites and render the rest of the area unattractive for wilderness recreation. Resource extraction is in fact a "single use".
  • A modern strip mine leaves scars and waste dumps, the effects of which can never be erased. During its life span it would bring in thousands of people and would pollute air and water far beyond its actual site.
  • Roads, steep slopes, high winds and heavy rainfall make logging activities notoriously destructive, despite modern techniques. A "greened-up post-logging forest is ecologically impoverished and almost impossible to use for recreation. Harvested again in 70 years, the forest never regains the mossy carpet and rich diversity of species and productivity of an old growth forest.
  • South Moresby has less than 0.2% of B.C.'s productive forest land. Further, every year more wood is wasted by the B.C. forest industry than is found in the entire South Moresby area. When you consider the extraordinary high recreation values found here, a park is the best land use. Capital that would be used to log or mine here would not disappear but would go elsewhere in B.C. to produce jobs and government revenue. Within five to ten years a large wilderness park in South Moresby will provide more sustainable jobs than logging does today. (Over the past decade tourism has produced the new jobs in "Supernatural B.C." while mining and forestry jobs have declined.) Yet surely we don't judge everything in terms of money. If such was the case, Vancouver's Stanley Park and Victoria's Beacon Hill Park would now be developed for offices and apartments. Just as cities need parks, society needs wilderness for renewal.


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