Western Forest Products Lobbies Government to End Logging Moratorium
CLEAR CUT SO. LYELL HURTS VIEW Photo credit:P.C.G.
Sources in the B.C. Forest Service have revealed that in a behind-the-scene move, Western Forest Products, a Tree Farm License holder in part of the South Moresby Wilderness Area, is in Victoria urging the Ministry of Forests to let them begin clear-cutting blocks on the south end of Lyell Island. The local Forest Service representatives had rejected their request. The area in question has been under a logging moratorium during the South Moresby planning process so as not to prejudice the final land use decision. Conservationists contend that such logging would leave ugly scars visible from Hot Springs Island and the entire Juan Perez Sound, the heart of South Moresby. Western Canada Wilderness Committee spokesperson Paul George claims that there is plenty of Western Forest Products' timber left in the northern part of Lyell Island near. Beljay Inlet, enough for several years of logging at the present high rate. However he thinks that the company wants to log the southern part of Lyell simply to wreck the view, a ploy the company has already used successfully' to ruin the water corridor south of Windy Bay on the east side of Lyell. George said, "It's only a few months until the government decides the ultimate land use in South Moresby and it is inconceivable that the Forest Service will crumble to the company's pressure at this time. But the fact that the company is pushing makes it all the more important for people to let the government how they feel about South Moresby. With this world renown biological treasure- house, an irreplaceable monument to nature's splendor, the chain saw lobby just can't win."
