Douglas fir & red cedar near Clendenning Creek.
The roads and clearcuts must stop.
Help save Canada's last big Douglas fir forests!
Who's in charge of what happens to the public forests of B.C.? The big timber corporations' P.R. firms and their 'Share' groups want you to believe that the present system works in favour of the ordinary working people in the industry-dependent communities.
Politicians want you to believe that in this free enterprise land a whole lot of companies are competing in a free and open market for 'timber harvesting', with government acting on the sidelines as a sort of referee.
Both views are totally unrealistic, according to TOUCH WOOD: B.C. Forests at the Crossroads (Harbour, 1993). "In reality, the economy is dominated by a very few large corporations which have access unavailable to smaller companies to resources, transportation, and means of marketing goods; and government acts, and has always acted, as a support for these corporations," says contributor Patricia Marchak.
Recent clearcut and slash-burn, Elaho Valley
The new highly touted Forest Practices Code changes none of this. In fact, it further entrenches the control of policy by the few big, foreign-dominated timber corporations, hand in hand with the provincial forests ministry. Corporate propagandists claim on the one hand that everything is just fine in the woods, with plenty of timber in reserve--and, on the other hand, that every valley west of Saskatchewan must be logged as quickly as possible or the industry will collapse.
The simple truth is that the ability of the land to regrow trees has been exceeded for so many years that the industry will indeed collapse--unless it is forced to log on a sustainable basis.
Will the last few remaining untouched valleys with their rare stands of old-growth trees and the animals that depend on them be sacrificed to industrial greed and short-sightedness, abetted by government policies? It is up to you.
People must let the government know that there are more important things to the future of British Columbia than just another shipload of lumber heading for Japan to benefit shareholders who most likely will never even visit B.C.
The Randy Stoltmann Wilderness is one of them.
