The Great British Columbia Give-Away
6/30/99
*******************************
RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Title: The Great British Columbia Give-Away
Source: Raincoast Conservation Society
Status: Distribute freely with credit given to source
Date: June 30, 1999
Byline: Christopher Genovali,
For almost a year, the Raincoast Conservation Society has listened to
Tom Stephens' public statements regarding MacMillan Bloedel's intent
to end the ongoing forest destruction that has plagued the coastal
rainforests of British Columbia for so long, but we have yet to see
any solid commitment by his company on the ground. At the same time,
and not coincidentally in Raincoast's view, Mr. Stephens and
MacMillan Bloedel have led the charge to privatize the public's
forests.
Now that Raincoast has had a chance to audit many of MacMillan
Bloedel's recent logging operations in the Great Bear Rainforest we
are unconvinced that this timber company deserves the lack of public
scrutiny that it has enjoyed over the last number of years. Some
brief examples:
In 1998 MacMillan Bloedel completely ignored the concerns of the
conservation community and First Nations and built four kilometres of
logging road into Namu Lakes. This area has over ten thousand years
of documented cultural heritage values with the oldest documented
village site on the entire mainland coast, as well as high salmon, old
growth and grizzly bear values.
In 1998 MacMillan Bloedel continued to clearcut log the surrounding
forests of the Ahta River estuary at the head of Bond Sound. This was
after the Ministry of Environment designated the Ahta River and
surrounding watersheds in the Ahnuahti Complex as a top priority for
the conservation of grizzly-salmon ecosystems
In 1998 MacMillan Bloedel helicopter logged right to the tide line one
of the largest clearcuts ever to be seen from the ocean in Rivers
Inlet. This cutblock is in clear view of the Owekeeno First Nation's
village on the Wannock River and is situated next to a salmon
producing river. This cutblock contained cultural heritage values
including Culturally Modified Trees that were subsequently fallen and
then dumped on the reserve of the Owekeeno First Nation. How can
MacMillan Bloedel possibly tell the public that logging on private
land will be better managed than on the public's land when this type
of logging has recently occurred in an area that is considered to have
very high ecological, cultural and terrain sensitive concerns and
values?
MacMillan Bloedel says it is introducing a "new harvesting regime
known as variable retention." MacMillan Bloedel claims variable
retention "protects biodiversity by retaining portions of the original
forest in various size stands and clusters." There is no scientific
proof that variable retention protects biodiversity - it is an
experimental treatment that many forest activists in the U.S. have
likened to "designer clearcutting."
Professional forester Roy Keene, who has scrutinized variable
retention logging in the U.S., states that "industrial variable
retention cutting can end up high grading or disturbing larger intact
areas to produce the same unsustainable harvesting volumes as simple
clearcutting." Variable retention or selection logging without a
corresponding and dramatic reduction in Annual Allowable Cut (AAC)
will mean more road construction and more entry into intact ancient
forest, and in turn more fragmentation of rainforest ecosystems.
Under its "new" plan, MacMillan Bloedel plans to increase its AAC by
300,000 cubic metres per year over its 1997 cut level in order to log
approximately 5.7 million cubic metres per year for the next ten
years, while simultaneously pledging to "protect biodiversity."
A year after its "we're ending clearcutting" announcement , it appears
that MacMillan Bloedel's so-called variable retention initiative is
simply a public relations ploy designed to dupe the public into
believing that privatizing crown forest land will now be acceptable
because of MacMillan Bloedel's new age clearcutting. But this is an
old story with a new twist.
The push to privatize crown forest land is simply another case of
bloated multinational timber companies bellying up to the public
trough, except this time they not only want to stuff their faces, they
want to own the trough as well.
It is obscene that multinational timber companies such as MacMillan
Bloedel are demanding compensation given the decades of ecosystem
obliteration they have engaged in at taxpayer expense, and given the
untold millions of dollars these companies owe in "deferred" taxes.
This corporate welfare has a steep price however, as environmental
protection, education and health care in BC suffer as a result.
The compensation issue is also raising its ugly head at the flawed and
highly dysfunctional Central Coast Land and Resource Management Plan
process. The Land Use Coordination Office is already sending subtle
but ominous signals that looming timber company compensation demands
will present a major obstacle to establishing protected areas in the
Great Bear Rainforest.
As far as the province is concerned, the alleged public process the
Clark government has set up to deal with the impending privatization
of the public's forests has all the makings of a major sham. Isn't it
bad enough that Premier Clark has handed out hundreds of millions of
taxpayer dollars to bail out failing pulp mills and to prop up what
even conservative economists are calling a sunset industry? Now the
premier is about to start the Great British Columbia Give-Away, as he
desperately tries to rectify his government's economic and ecological
mismanagement on the backs of B.C.'s rainforests and wildlife.
Chris Genovali
Raincoast Conservation Society
P.O. Box 8663
Victoria, British Columbia
Canada V8W 3S2
E-Mail: chrisg@raincoast.org
Web Site: http://www.raincoast.org
Tel: (250) 655-1229
Fax: (250) 655-1339