Vote for old growth!
Yay! It’s election day! And while you’re thinking about who to vote for (because you are voting, right?) and whether to support BC-STV, I urge you to consider BC’s old-growth forest and forestry jobs. The Western Canada Wilderness Committee has put together a petition calling on all political parties to commit to the protection of the remaining old-growth forests and forestry jobs on Vancouver Island and the Southwest Mainland of BC. So far, 41,102 people have signed to protect trees like this one:
And prevent stumps like this one:
Here’s there appeal:
A Green Economy, or Big Stumps and Raw Log Exports? YOU decide!
Have you ever visited Cathedral Grove? Clayoquot Sound (around Tofino)? Meares Island? Carmanah Valley? Walbran Valley? Cape Scott? The West Coast Trail? The Juan de Fuca Trail? Sombrio Beach? Goldstream? Cheakamus Lake? Elaho Valley? Chilliwack Lake?
If you’re one of the millions of people who have, you’ll know that BC has some of the Earth’s most magnificent forests.
Old-growth trees here can grow trunks as wide as living rooms and can live to be 1800 years old.They are vitally important for endangered species, salmon,
tourism, the climate, clean drinking water, and for many First
Nations cultures.Already three-fourths of the original, productive old-growth
forests on BC’s South Coast (Vancouver Island and Southwest
Mainland) have been logged, including 90% of the valley bottoms where the largest trees grow. Only 6 to 8% of the region’s original ancient forests are in parks.We can protect our old-growth forests and forestry jobs on BC’s
South Coast if the BC government:
– Quickly phased-out old-growth logging.
– Ensured sustainable second-growth logging.
– Ended the export of raw logs to foreign mills.
– Assisted in retooling mills and developing value-added
wood processing facilities to handle second-growth logs.
Follow this link to a documentary on the issue.
