Big Stumps and Tree-Plantations are not the Solution
Until 1999 when it was logged, the Klaskish Valley was one of 7 remaining intact, primary valleys on Vancouver Island out of an original 89 such valleys. The adjacent East Creek was the sixth intact valley until 2003, when logging commenced there, too. Today there are only five intact, primary valleys on the Island.
Second-growth tree plantations lack the old-growth dependent species, water conservation qualities, recreational attributes, and effectiveness at sequestering carbon dioxide to combat global warming.
Since 2001, almost 25 million cubic meters of raw logs have left BC for foreign mills – and with them, thousands of BC timber industry jobs. Conservationists and timber workers, such as those with the Save Our Valley Alliance in Port Alberni, are working together to ban raw log exports.
Photo by Joe Foy.
