I would like to address the statement “old growth forests” and question the writer as to how the forests are protected.
I saw the big signs posted by Mac and Blo in the 50’s, in the stands of beautiful fir trees growing as we drove up the Island Highway. I saw stands of cedar, cut down and made into shake blocks. The fir trees continued to grow.
By my recollection, these stands are now 78-80 years old. They still are not old growth ecosystems. Our forebears worked manually to fell huge stands of timber – a two-man crew using a Swede saw, one pulling, the other pushing, oiling and sweating, to get the saws through the huge stumps of these trees, in order to clear a piece of land to get ready to plant a crop.
Another memory I have is hearing about the huge forest fire that raged down through the same corridor in the 30’s and took out a huge part of the forest ecosystem.
Clearcutting is not the enemy. The sections allowed are now smaller and harder to log than the timber once allowed. Companies were also given the rights to mill what they logged, and then all the sawmills were closed.
Next came the pulp mills. I am devastated to read everything I do is criticized because it involves cutting down trees. Trees grow. Plant more. People need jobs, put them to work. Quit sending out money to keep the homeless comfortable. How about keeping the families in mind that built this district of Campbell River on the backs of the loggers?
Logging is not the cause of the loss of these systems. Logging supplies jobs, paycheques, and hope. Who is going to cover these items when the trees are all protected? What are we going to build our homes with, if no lumber? Where will this protectionism end?
First it was the fishery, now the threat on the logging industry, and now the city of Campbell River is so busy pandering to the homeless that most of us who have raised our kids here, watched them proud of being a logger or a fisher.
Is all that is left to aspire to being, a politician?
Patricia Armstrong Marshall
Campbell River