The Strathcona Standard

By Amanda Vaughan

Mr Sean Smyth, CR councillor and general manager of West Coast Helicopters, (a company with strong ties to the logging industry), recently took time to write a letter titled ‘Forestry protestors don’t have all the facts’.

Here are some things he failed to mention.

In 2021, the government appointed Old Growth Strategic Review panel identified 2.6 million hectares of unprotected old-growth forest ecosystems in BC at high risk of irreversible biodiversity loss. In a statement last week the panel expressed concern at continued government approved logging in those same forests.

Editor’s note: The full statement from the panel has not been made available to the public, only portions are available from documents which were leaked to Canadian Press.

They warn: “Purposely causing extinction is not just a moral failure but also a high economic, ecological and social risk.”

Why is logging in these endangered forests still happening? Follow the money. Billionaires and big American companies all invest in logging BC.

Meanwhile people wanting a sustainable forest industry turn to largely crowd-funded organisations like Sierra Club BC and the Wilderness Committee for information. (You can find their accounts online).

The independent report ‘Closer To The Brink’, tells us that following the Old Growth Strategic Review, logging has been four times more likely in the high risk old growth forests recommended for deferral than in other old growth forests. The average old-growth logging rate during this period was 100 soccer fields of old growth per day. Common sense would say stop logging in contentious areas until long term conservation solutions are in place.

Mr Ravi Parmar’s response is business as usual: talk and log. Why should we not be cynical?

Finally, I googled the various environmental foundations Mr Smyth mentions. Some fund long-term forest research. They have never guided or funded our signs in any way. Some of us are artists but most write our valid concerns on signs made from old cardboard boxes.

Sincerely, A. Vaughan