If your parents planted one tree when you were born and this tree grew until you were 80-years-old, it would release enough oxygen to keep you alive for 80 years.
This tree would also absorb approximately 3-5 tonnes of carbon from the air in 80 years.
The world has lost 25 per cent of its forests in the last 100 years. Scientists are telling the world that we need to plant one trillion trees to help turn global warming around. Doug Ford – the premier of Ontario – promised to plant 50 million trees if he were elected. He was elected and changed his mind. He will not plant 50 million trees. Over the years, the B.C. government has given the major portion of our timber to large mills and logging companies for a fraction of their value. This was supposed to stock their sawmills with an adequate log supply. These companies are shutting down their mills and buying sawmills in Washington and elsewhere in the U.S. – exporting our logs all over the world. They are clearcutting the forests and, in some cases, over half of these healthy trees are between five and 30 years old and are wasted.
The forests on Crown land in B.C. belong to the citizens of B.C. and our elected government is supposed to manage these forests to the benefit of the citizens of B.C. Now, we are not even allowed to harvest the dead and down timber the companies leave behind. The B.C. Forest Service gave the timber on Nootka Island to the Gold River and Tahsis Indian bands to create employment for more First Nations people. The chiefs contracted this timber out and few, if any, First Nations people were hired.
The Great Bear Rainforest received a lot of publicity but loggers are still cutting these forests. Why?
Seventy per cent of loggers on Vancouver Island have lost their jobs and contracts in the last 30 years. It is time to say we have had enough. Maybe a class-action lawsuit of a few billion dollars would wake the government up! What do you think?
Walter Crombie,
Campbell River