Help Protect Our British Columbia Forests from Clear Cutting

  • by: Care 2 Action
  • recipient: Logging of pristine BC island forest by Brookfield Asset Management

Coming this January 2012,Island Timberlands intend to begin logging of yet another pristine wilderness in the B.C. area of islands, namely Cortes Island.

To date, Cortes Island is both a habitat for wildlife such as wolves, rare and endangered species mixed with limited settlement and tourism. 

The island’s best forests are privately managed by a company called Island Timberlands (IT). IT's parcels encompass swaths of woods that bisect the island from east to west. They hold the healthiest forests, the biggest trees and the island’s central water recharge area.

The eastern IT parcels abut the Klahoose First Nation reserve and contain significant old growth remnants that are slated as the first area of The IT parcels at the center of the island hold the Blue Jay Lake watershed, where water flows slowly past ancient trees into a giant swamp at the island’s epicenter.

IT has announced plans to clear a two hectare swathe directly through this area to “build a road.” The western parcel edges Carrington Lagoon.

Cortes Island in the witness box

“It’s Cortes Island’s turn in the witness box,” biologist and resident Sabina Leader Mense told the Vancouver Observer during a recent interview. “Industrial logging of private managed forest lands in the face of community opposition has occurred all over Vancouver Island and neighbouring Islands. Now it’s our turn to provide testimony to the true corporate ownership of these lands and the inadequate forest practices for environmental protection."

Three factors have contributed to the threat to Cortes Island forests and the transformation of other treasured forests into exported logs and ravaged landscapes targeted for residential development. First, huge multinational corporations use BC’s privately managed forest lands for premium shareholder return. Second, the BC Liberals have left private forest lands virtually unregulated. Third, raw log (and job) export are radically increasing.

BC forest and Brookfield Asset Management

BAM has corporate offices all over the world and a board of directors that includes Jim Pattison and a tar sands CEO. Local residents have seen the poor environmental record of this company and its rapid decimation and destruction for quick profit with little sustainable result on the land.  The end result is to quickly parcel up the shorelines for real estate development and profit.

 If you care about the retaining the integrity of B.C. coast lands, sign this petition and help reverse the trend of nature destruction for careless profit.

We the undersigned are very concerned about the clear cutting on Cortes Island which will lead to the natural habitat being sacrificed for quick resale to real estate agents.  This area is of prime concern because it is on an island, remote from incursions of destructive volumes of people who would destroy its beauty.

 Cortes Island has had minimal sustained damage as of yet from deforestation, but there are plans to step up logging at a faster pace than what was intended when the company first entered into the project. 

We respectfully submit that cutting of these lands be halted and minimized so that little or no impact can result on a destroyed landscape.  We aim to see these magnificent stands of trees to continue to renew for future generations.

Sincerely,
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