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BC Government Deregulates Forests on Vancouver Island
Western Canada Wilderness Committee Victoria
Thursday, February 01, 2007
Feb.1, 2007
Another Corporate Giveaway: Wilderness Committee condemns BC government's Deregulation of Western Forest Product's Private Lands by Removing them from their Tree Farm Licenses
Yesterday, the Minister of Forests and Range Rich Coleman approved the removal of 28 283 hectares (about 4 times bigger than the 7000 hectare Carmanah Valley) from Western Forest
Product's Tree Farm Licenses (TFL's) #6 west of Port McNeill, #19 near Gold River, and #25 near Sooke and Jordan River, all on Vancouver Island.
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The decision essentially deregulates the private lands of Western Forest Products so that environmental laws (the Forest and Range Practices Act), raw log export restrictions, regulations on the rate of cut, and prohibitions against real estate subdivisions no longer apply. These lands also include some of Vancouver Island's most significant stands of ancient Douglas firs in the south in TFL 25, and western red cedars and hemlocks in the north in TFL's 6 and 19. According to a recent satellite image analysis, 73% of Vancouver Island's ancient forests have already been logged, including 90% of the valley bottoms. The WCWC is currently campaigning to end the logging of Vancouver Island's remaining old-growth forests. Visit www.viforest.org for maps and more info.
and second-growth forests more quickly, closer to streams, and on steeper slopes. In the Sooke and Jordan River areas just west of Victoria, I can especially see the company looking to mow down the trees and sell off the real estate for suburban developments," states Ken Wu, Campaign Director of the Western Canada Wilderness Committee in Victoria.
"In short, it means more big stumps instead of old-growth trees, overcutting of our forests, dirty water, destroyed salmon streams, raw log exports, fewer milling jobs, and suburban subdivisions sprawling over where the forest once was."
Previously, in 2004, the BC Liberals also allowed Weyerhaeuser, now Island Timberlands, to remove 90 000 hectares of their private lands from their TFL's, primarily on Vancouver Island. In total, then, the BC government has eliminated the regulations on almost 120 000 hectares (more than 15 times the size of the Carmanah Valley) by removing them from their TFL's.
Government and company officials will likely argue that because the lands are privately owned, they shouldn't be regulated within TFL's. However, it's important to note that when the TFL's were first granted in the 1940's and '50's for FREE on Crown lands, it was on condition that the companies would provide local employment by running sawmills - a provision scrapped by Campbell under the Forestry Revitalization Act in 2004 - and that their private lands were to be included within TFL's so that the lands could be regulated for the public good (ie. jobs and the
environment). That is, the original contracts stipulated that the logging rights on Crown lands were tied to the companies having to run sawmills and include their private lands within the TFL's.
"Despite these companies not having to uphold their end of the deal anymore, they are still being allowed to keep their logging rights on Crown lands, without providing the BC public with any
compensation!" states Wu.
The WCWC is calling on the BC government to return these lands within the TFL's, and to strengthen the laws on Crown lands and private forestlands within TFL's to protect the remaining old-growth forests, ensure a slower, more sustainable rate of cut, enact more stringent forest practices regulations to protect streams and wildlife habitat, and to ban raw log exports.
For Immediate Release
For more info contact:
Ken Wu, Campaign Director,
Western Canada Wilderness Committee - Victoria chapter
250-514-9910 (cell)
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