Concerned citizens and grass-roots organizations can make a difference!
It’s happening here in Port Alberni.
At the City Council meeting this past Monday night (hattip: Westcoaster.ca, Keith Wyton, Chair of the Save-Our-Valley-Alliance (SOVA), presented Council with reasons why legal action should be taken against the BC Government for allowing private timberlands to be taken from public Tree Farm Licenses.
TimberWest is the main harvester of timber in TFL 44 around the Alberni Valley, and it is it’s practices and those of Island Timberlands which have caused many protests from residents due to poor maintenance of creek beds, destruction of viewscapes around the Valley, as well as possibly contributing to numerous boil water advisories over the past 2 years.
It is refreshing and encouraging to see the City Council take these facts to heart, and listen to their constituents. While Port Alberni is a logging town, it’s residents do not want to rape and pillage the land. Like a fisherman who knows the limit of his catch, loggers know that trees must be tended in a sustainable matter. Otherwise you only end up with bare hillsides, landslides, and no jobs.
The BC Government appears to not be following it’s own rules. It’s about time someone makes the effort to investigate what’s going on and to put things right.