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PNG
RAINFOREST CAMPAIGN NEWS
RAN
Action Alert--Spirt Bear Habitat Under the Ax
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Forest
Networking a Project of Ecological Enterprises
October
11, 1995
OVERVIEW
& SOURCE
Here is
Rainforest Action Network's update on the plight of the
spirit
bears, a rare white strain of the American black bear, that
"are
about to be clearcut out of existence."
The spirit bear
habitat
lies in British Columbia, Canada; and a wide coalition of
environmental
groups are lobbying to protect this critical area.
Please
take the time to respond to this action alert, posted in
econet's
rainfor.general conference.
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RELAYED
TEXT STARTS HERE:
/*
Written 8:26 PM Oct 10, 1995 by rainforest@ran.org in
igc:rainfor.genera
*/
/*
---------- "Action Alert: Spirit Bear Habitat U" ---------- */
Action
Alert #113 - Spirit Bear Habitat Under the Ax
At the
beginning of time the whole world was white with ice and
snow. Then the raven came from heaven and made the
world green
as it
is now. But he also wanted to make
something to remind
himself
of the beginning and its whiteness. The
raven went
among
the bears, the black bears, and made every tenth one
white.
That way he could look at them and remember the world as
it
was. And the raven issued a
decree: The white bears will
live
here forever in peace.
-
Kitasoo Legend
The
spirit bears, a rare white strain of the American black
bear,
live in a natural habitat that is rich with salmon, deer,
free-running
streams, and ancient Sitka spruce. The
spirit
bears
are sacred to the Kitasoo people who live in what is now
called
British Columbia. The spirit bears are
rainforest
creatures
of awesome beauty. The spirit bears are
about to be
clearcut
out of existence.
Conservationists
from around the world--led by B.C.'s Valhalla
Society
and the Great Bear Foundation--are working with the
Kitasoo
to protect the habitat of the spirit bears, and have
asked
the B.C. Government to demarcate the land as a provincial
park. The area comprises about 1,000 square miles
of temperate
rainforest
midway up the British Columbia coast, including
two-thirds
of Princess Royal Island, all of Swindle and Campania
Islands,
as well as Carter Inlet, Green Inlet, and the Khutze
River
estuary on the mainland coast. The
Kitasoo will co-manage
the
park and maintain access to the land for traditional
hunting,
fishing, and gathering of food.
A
secret report obtained by Canadian conservationists, however,
indicates
that the B.C. government intends to create only a very
small
protected area and open up everything else to logging.
The
report, prepared by an inter-agency government team,
recommends
a 96.5 square mile park on Princess Royal, nothing on
Swindle
Island and nothing on the mainland. The
only large
protected
regions designated in the report are coastal bogs and
alpine-boreal
mountains, places with virtually no trees, and
therefore
of no interest to the timber industry.
Western
Forest Products, a major B.C. logging company, is
stepping
up plans to clear-cut areas within the proposed
sanctuary. They have already cut a logging road through
Princess
Royal's ancient rainforest and the ancestral Kitasoo
deer-hunting
grounds.
Logging
in the temperate rainforest is not sustainable. The
ground
is too rocky and the soil too shallow to allow
replanting. The old growth trees hold the soil in place
and
regulate
the flow of water through the ground.
With no trees,
the
huge amount of rain that falls during the wet season will
wash
away the land. Additionally, the destruction of watershed
will
endanger the five species of salmon that live in the
mainland
inlets and estuaries. The B.C.
government and Western
Forest
products seem willing to lay waste to centuries of
nature's
work for one-time use.
Clearcut
logging, which makes up 90% of logging in B.C., is
fatal
to the spirit bears and to the Kitasoo way of life.
British
Columbia needs to protect the spirit bears' entire
habitat. The bears will not survive if relegated to
swamps and
stony
mountain tops. The Kitasoo are in
danger of losing their
traditional
economy, of losing any chance at developing a
tourist
trade, and of losing cultural sites - including
ceremonial
houses, burial grounds, fish traps, and modified
trees -
that are on land likely to end up under the chainsaw.
According
to Archie Robinson, a Kitasoo hereditary chief raised
on
Princess Royal Island: "The
quicker we get the whole park
created,
the better we will keep the logging companies from
raping
the land. We now have mining companies
moving in. We
need to
protect all of our land, the white bear, and our herring
and
salmon fisheries. This has all been
part of our people's
survival
for centuries. We do not want to see it
destroyed."
What
can you do? Sand a letter to the B.C. Minister of
Environment,
and to the Minister of Forests.
Here is
a sample:
Hon.
Moe Sihota,
Minister
of Environment
Hon. A.
Petter,
Minister
of Forests
Parliament
Buildings
Victoria,
B.C. V8V 1X4
I urge
the government of British Columbia to create the 265,000
hectare
"Spirit Bear Park" as proposed by the Valhalla Society,
Great
Bear Foundation, and others. I urge you
to include the
southern
portion of Princess Royal Island, all of Swindle
Island,
Campania Island, and the mainland areas of Khutze,
Green,
and Carter Inlets.
We need
a significant protected area to preserve the unique
rainforest
ecosystem that provides sanctuary for the white
"spirit
bear," as well as countless other
life forms. I urge
you
also to preserve the land for the Kitasoo people, and
recommend
that the park be co-managed to allow for their
traditional
uses.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
From
Action Alert 113, October 1995
c 1995
Rainforest Action Network. Commercial reproduction
prohibited.
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Action Network works to protect the Earth's
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and support the rights of their inhabitants through
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grassroots organizing, and non-violent direct action.
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