To: Jennifer Peschke RPF, TimberWest Forest Corp
Cc: Lesley Fettes RPF, Campbell River District Manager
The Surge Narrows Forest Advisory Committee (SNFAC) is a committee of the Surge Narrows Community Association, which represents residents off the outer Discovery Islands. We are privileged to live in a naturally diverse and beautiful landscape. Many of us have witnessed 40+ years of TFL and other so-called forest stewardship on Quadra, Sonora and more-northern gulf islands. The amount of clearcut logging in recent years (confirmed by Google Earth and other data) is simply beyond-alarming.
Not so long ago, the lands now known as TFL 47 were forested habitats that supported abundant biodiversity and species now listed as rare and threatened. Logging of the area’s old forests has exceeded the critical 10% threshold identified by BC’s Old Growth Review and Technical Advisory Panel for ecosystems function and stability. Islands are especially vulnerable because plant and animal populations cannot migrate away from disturbances. Timber West’s current clearcut “management” continues to destroy habitats and even blue- and red-listed species are not protected.
Forest “Stewardship” Plans are legal requirements designed to serve the Forest Industry, and (well-funded) organized Industry Influence drives government’s regulatory system and complex bafflegab that almost no one fully understands. TimberWest has had a long “go” at clearcutting all the best forests of TFL 47, including the Discovery Islands and nearby mainland. We assert that this should end.
Forests of the Discovery Islands once provided globally significant carbon sequestration and storage. Industrial logging has destroyed this biological feature—and yet, with climate change actively impacting every day and everyone, TimberWest’s FSP barely mentions climate impacts or possibilities for mitigation—including wildfire which is high in mind for every local resident.
The logging industry provides almost no jobs, locally or regionally. Logging critically impacts the well-being of wildlife and natural spaces and limits important opportunities for human communities.
History proves that it’s highly unlikely that anything written in this letter will influence TimberWest’s next plans or actions. We want to say that our community values and supports the research and (wrt this subject) concerns expressed via comment from the Discovery Islands Forest Conservation Project. We are grateful for the volunteer time and energy that organization devotes to investigation of Forest Management Issues that Need to Be Exposed.
Sincerely,
Lannie Keller, secretary, Surge Narrows Forest Advisory Committee
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