Cathedral Grove: Wilderness Defenders Called Up

from RICHARD DEAN

We forest defenders are needed again! The tree cutting is likely to
start Tuesday, March 25th. Will keep you informed.
Richard Dean


To: letters@tc.canwest.com

Editor Times Colonist:
Please publish the following letter:

BC Parks' managers continue to amaze me. After costly studies and years of public outcry, the plan to build a new parking lot in Cathedral Grove was eventually shelved by the Environment Minister.

Now the highly paid mandarins in the Parks' department want to cut and limb trees during the nesting season in Cathedral Grove to meet WCB safety standards for workers involved in upgrading trails and footbridges. It's an issue of public safety announce the Ministry of Environment. But hasn't walking or driving through this ancient old
growth forest during a windstorm always been a public safety issue where the risks are widely known and accepted?

The Park's Big Loop trail by the Cameron River has been damaged by extreme winter flooding. Deep flood channels appear to penetrate further every year into the forest, washing out footbridges and vegetation, exposing tree roots, and leaving behind ugly gravel beds and trees vulnerable to blowdown. Observers familiar with the area's
hydrology suggest that the increased flood levels are caused by the nearby ongoing unsustainable logging practices.

It's likely that rebuilding the trails and footbridges will become an almost annual event if the flooding and blowdowns continue to occur with ever increasing intensity.

Parks' staff should abandon their cutting plans and focus instead on looking at the root causes of the flood damage. Allowing this part of the ancient forest to be left in its natural state would certainly be in the public interest for future generations.

Richard Dean 530 Meadow Drive,
Qualicum Beach, BC, V9K 2T1
Phone 250 752 0872