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WORLDWIDE FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS

Clearcutting Causes Landslides in Clayoquot Sound

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Forest Networking a Project of Ecological Enterprises

2/10/96

OVERVIEW & SOURCE

The Rainforest Action Network reports on the increase of

landslides in the clearcut areas of Canadian temperate rainforest

at Clayoquat Sound. This item comes from their excellent home

page at:

http://www.ran.org/ran/index.html

g.b.

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Clayoquot Sound Landslides Add to Mountain of Evidence Against

Rainforest Clearcuts.

These landslides support what we have been saying about the utter

senselessness of clearcutting temperate rainforests that have been

millenia in the making. The resulting landslides and soil erosion

are one more aspect of the ecological crime companies are

committing in the name of greed. Clearcutting is a sure-fire way

to make sure that an irreplaceable natural heritage is lost

forever.

Randy Hayes, RAN Executive Director

The rainy season has witnessed 260 landslides around British

Columbia's Clayoquot Sound, site of one of the world's largest

temperate rainforests. This adds support to arguments that

clearcutting is totally inappropriate for the area's delicate

ecosystems. The landslides took place during heavy rains from

January 11-14, and two-thirds occurred directly within Clayoquot

Sound. Significantly, only 13 percent of the slides were in

unlogged, old-growth areas, which establishes the natural rate for

slides within the region.

As of last year, logging in Clayoquot Sound is supposed to adhere

to recommendations by a B.C. government-appointed science panel,

including reductions in the size of clearcuts. Though none of the

landslides were located in areas where the Panel's recent

guidlines had been implemented, the landslides reitereate the

irreparable harm clearcuts inflict on delicate ecosystems, which

can also include general erosion, loss of plant and animal

biodiversity, and the destruction of salmon streams. Moreover,

some slides took place in areas clearcut ten years ago and which

had subsequently supported secondary growth. Such interference

with ecological regeneration is yet one more way in which

clearcutting does permanent damage to the rainforest.

Clayoquot Sound has been at the center of an international

controversy over the past few years, as environmentalists and

other concerned Canadians, joined by supporters worldwide, have

struggled against clearcut logging in Clayoquot Sound. A peaceful

protest at a logging road in 1993 led to the arrest of more than

800 people. The Clayoquot Rainforest Coalition, which includes

Rainforest Action Network, Greenpeace, Natural Resources Defense

Council, Coalition for Forests, Pacific Environment and Resource

Center, and Friends of Clayoquot Sound, have been working towards

this end.

Rainforest Action Network works to protect the Earth's rainforests

and support the rights of their inhabitants through education,

grassroots organizing, and non-violent direct action.

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