STORY BEHIND RESISTANCE TO CLEARCUTTING IN CLAYOQUOT
Carl Martin and Ahousat Hereditary Chief Earl George on right being served injunction notices on Sulphur Passage road.
Last year a United Nations committee of world renowned business and political leaders, the Brundtland Commission, published a report which proposed a new approach to solving the growing social and environmental crises. It warned that our common future on this planet is bleak if humankind does not immediately adopt a different strategy of development; one that does not damage the environment, thus building sustainable economics for the long rather than the short term.
Canada was one of the first countries to endorse the Brundtland report. Both the Canadian and British Columbian Environment Ministries set up task forces to put into practice the Brundtland preachings. This is not easy to do, for what is required is a profound change in social attitudes and industrial activities.
Nowhere is the need for the change to a sustainable method of development than in the Clayoquot Sound area on the west coast of Vancouver Island. There, the forest is clearly not being managed on an ecologically sound basis.
Massive logging scars tell the story
Massive clearcuts, excessive piles of wood waste and landslide scars tell the story. Clearcut logging in the Clayoquot area is proceeding at a liquidation rate. Even the forest companies themselves predict that in a few decades, after the old growth virgin rainforest is gone, the west coast region will suffer a substantial decline in timber harvest.
Aerial photo of Sulphur Passage taken at the beginning of August, 1988. Area within the red rectangle shows land slide causes by road contruction. Photo credit: Adrian Dorst
The rapid deforestation of the west coast is causing an irreparable loss of topsoil and is damaging fisheries through degradation of salmon spawning streams. It is also foreclosing the opportunity to expand the local tourism industry which, banking on the area's naturally stunning scenic beauty, continues to grow, providing more local jobs and revenues every year.
Forestry operations in Clayoquot Sound are controlled by the two largest logging companies in British Columbia, MacMillian Bloedel Limited, based in Ontario, and Fletcher Challenge Canada Limited (formerly BCFP and Crown Forest), based in New Zealand. Their Tree Farm License tenures encompass more than 90 percent of the land area in Clayoquot Sound. Together, in 1987, these two industrial giants extracted over a half-billion in profits from their B.C. forestry operations.
In the midst of the massive industrial logging operations in Clayoquot Sound resides a large native population of the Nuu-chah-nulth tribe, living on tiny "Indian Reservations". Denied economic access to most of their area's resources, they suffer an unemployment rate of over 85 percent.
"My involvement in this issue is native land claims. I have other reasons dealing with the area of Sulphur Passage. I lived there as a growing boy.
I came back from serving with the federal government for 26 years, to see at my back door...bald mountains, just like the face of the moon.
It wouldn't be too bad if they were telling the truth when they go and plant those trees in that rocky side hills. They'll never turn that (mountain side) into a greenery again. Never!
I feel together with the environmentalists: they (the logging companies) are ruining the face of the earth."
- Ahousat Chief Earl George
Logging is not the only economic activity
Although logging now dominates the scene, it is not the only economic activity in Clayoquot Sound. With the establishment of Pacific Rim National Park in the early 1970s, the hospitality industry has rapidly grown to service the almost-a-million visitors a year, including sight-seers, kayakers and hikers.
Fishing has always been important in the Clayoquot Sound area, traditionally employing more of the permanent residents than logging and, as well, providing a self-sufficient food supply. The recent development of the mariculture industry (rearing shellfish and salmon) is providing a growing number of stable jobs.
It is possible for all of these industries, including logging, to develop in harmony with each other and the environment in Clayoquot Sound. But it is not possible under current forestry practices.
Many residents of the area, including members of the local environment group, the Friends of Clayoquot Sound, have long expressed their concern over the bad local logging practices and the need to preserve a greater percentage of the area as wilderness. They are not opposed to all logging operations as has been portrayed by the logging industry. Their concerns and attempts to cooperate with industry in searching for solutions–particularly on the Meares Island Planning Team–have been ignored by both the government and the logging companies. Residents have finally drawn the line at Sulphur Passage.
When, early this year, the Friends of Clayoquot Sound found out about the pending road construction into Sulphur Passage, the largest block of undisturbed wilderness left in Clayoquot Sound they were extremely concerned. The area includes Shelter Inlet and the Megin River. This region of unsurpassed beauty was recently identified by the B.C. Ministry of Tourism as a high priority area for wilderness tourism development.
Sustainable development for stable and healthy communities - Tofino - Opitsaht - Ahousaht - Hot Springs Cove - Hesquiat
A reasonable request – a sustainable plan
The Friends put forward what they thought was a reasonable request. They asked for a six month moratorium on road construction and logging in the area so that a sustainable development plan for that region could be drawn up. Their request was endorsed by the main local business group, the Tofino/Long Beach Chamber of Commerce.
The general concern is that the road through Sulphur Pass is only the tip of the iceberg. In less than two years time, MacMillan Bloedel plans to move their logging operations from the Carmanah Valley area back into Clayoquot Sound and use the road to initiate an unprecedented rate of clear cut.
Clearcut logging unsustainable
It is impossible to maintain sustainable logging using clearcut logging methods in the high rainfall and steep slope conditions of Clayoquot Sound. Cutting large areas at a time causes general soil erosion as well as a large number of landslides. Slash burning of the waste wood left behind not only burns the organic material in the soil, further undermining the future growing capacity, but also exposes the residue of nutrients to erosion. The eroded soil and wood residues enter river systems, harming fish spawning habitat as well as damaging marine deltas where rivers empty into the ocean. Clearcutting also encourages unwanted brush and pioneer tree species to grow and herbicide application which poisons the environment is the commonly attempted solution.
Conservationists and enlightened Foresters promote environmentally benign selective logging, where small patches or even individual trees are cut. This kind of logging, while admittedly not as profitable as massive clearcutting in the short run, maintains soil quality and, if properly done, does not require the expense of reforestation and herbicide application. Such careful logging also produces more stable, long term jobs in the forestry harvesting sector.
Although the forest industry claims the goals of conservationists, wilderness preservationists and native peoples threaten logging jobs, a much greater threat comes from automation, which has reduced employment in the industry by over 30 percent during the last twenty years. The biggest threat, however is the forest industry’s own logging practices. These include overcutting (logging too quickly to allow the forest to regenerate for sustainable harvesting), excessive wood waste during logging, soil degradation and lack of adequate replanting. Industry’s mismanagement of the forest resource up to now has created today’s pressure on the last remaining areas of old growth.
The requests by the environmentalists and Chamber of Commerce for a moratorium on further road construction until completion of a sustainable development plan for Clayoquot Sound were rejected by BCFP and the B.C. Ministry of Forest. In June, 1988, a group of local residents initiated a blockade to try to halt road work. They have received the active help of a wide range of people, but have only managed to slow, not stop, road construction.
BCFP has obtained a court injunction to stop the blockade and now police have been called in to remove the protectors, which include Earl George, hereditary chief of the Ahousats, and some local business people. Because some of the blockaders have disregarded the court order, people are beginning to be arrested.
Brighten our common future
Discussion and compromise the way to settle disputes
Rational discussion and compromise are the best and the traditionally Canadian ways to resolve conflict. But with that route closed by industry and government, many believe that the only recourse is confrontation.Although some people undoubtedly feel that the civil disobedience tactics now being used to try to stop the clearcut logging are unacceptable, the call for a sustainable development plan is difficult to fault. If everyone supported the call for this plan by pen and phone there would be no need for the current action – there would be a moratorium on further road construction until a sustainable land use plan was developed and adopted.
