Douglas fir in Seymour Watershed, Hydraulic Creek.
Stop logging Now...before it's too late!
Save the ancient temperate rainforest... nature's unbeatable water purification system
Vancouver is surrounded by water. From the deep blue ocean to sparkling pure mountain streams to the powerful Fraser River, water has shaped the development of Greater Vancouver's Lower Mainland.
But, as local supermarkets prove, Vancouver's fabled pure drinking water, drawn from three reservoirs in the North Shore mountains, is not what it once was. Shelves full of bottled spring water bear witness to the fact that many Lower Mainland residents no longer trust, nor drink, tap water.
Watershed logging causes landslides...and dirty drinking water
Landslide in Jamieson Creek, November 1990.
Western Canada Wilderness Committee believes that logging and roadbuilding in the three Lower Mainland drinking watersheds-the Capilano, Seymour and Coquitlam-have degraded our water quality. Logging has accelerated erosion and disturbed the natural forest ecosystems that once provided clean, clear, safe drinking water.
Striking stands of towering Douglas firs and massive western red cedars are still found in Greater Vancouver's watersheds. They harbour many of the largest oldgrowth trees in B.C. The oldgrowth trees play a vital role in protecting our drinking water. Their roots secure stream banks and steep slopes, preventing landslides from contaminating the reservoirs.
By Greater Vancouver Water District Commissioner, Ernest Cleveland, November 30, 1936
Since the mid 1950's Greater Vancouver politicians, taking advice from certain forestry consultants, have permitted logging in our three drinking watersheds. The jobs of some watershed management bureaucrats now depend on continued logging. It's no wonder this bureaucracy flatly denies that logging has anything to do with silty water. But the truth is evident in the increasing frequency of muddy tap water. Watershed roadways built to allow logging and clearcuts themselves have caused increased erosion and landslides. The silt in our reservoir waters (measured as "turbidity") ends up in our drinking glasses, especially after heavy rains, and threatens public health with parasitic and bacterial pathogens.
Increased chlorination and half-billion-dollar filtration plants are not the answer to our water quality problems. We must outlaw all commercial logging and other industrial activity in Greater Vancouver's three watersheds-the Capilano, Seymour and Coquitlam. We must preserve their remaining ancient forest, decommission the current roads and allow the areas that have been clearcut to grow back and resume the ancient forest functions of land stabilization and water purification.
