'War in the woods': activists blockade Vancouver Island in bid to save ancient trees

[mysteryowl]

Source: The Guardian/US

Hundreds of activists are digging in at logging road blockades across a swath of southern Vancouver Island, vowing to stay as long as it takes to pressure the provincial government to immediately halt cutting of what they say is the last 3% of giant old growth trees left in the province.

The situation echoes the 1993 “war in the woods” in nearby Clayoquot Sound, which saw nearly 1,000 people arrested at similar logging blockades in the largest act of civil disobedience in Canadian history.
[snip]
A blockader named Owen, one of about two dozen on the scene, told the loggers through the window of their pickup truck: “The fact is, if we want our planet to be sustainable, we have to protect these ecosystems.”

[snip]

The blockaders refused to let Simpson’s team pass, and eventually the frustrated crew left. They returned on Tuesday to hand-deliver a court injunction ordering the blockades taken down and setting the stage for arrests. Similar scenes are playing out at strategic blockades across the area.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/apr/09/canada-logging-old-growth-trees-vancouver-island

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I recommend going to the link to see the pictures.

[ancianita]

1. Excellent photos, thanks.

I can't believe these deforesting corporations think they're more important than trees that existed before the nation was even founded.

[pandr32]

16. + a gazillion

Breaks my heart and it makes no sense to take something just because it is there. Then it isn't anymore.

[Mysterian]

2. I hope they succeed in stopping the destruction of this special forest

Mankind will pay a heavy price for its wanton destruction of the biosphere.

[al bupp]

3. About 30 years ago, I was part of a similar blockade in Ontario

The ultimate success of that action depended on cooperation w/ native peoples in the area.

http://www.ottertooth.com/Temagami/env/temagamiwildernesssociety-blockade89.htm

[spike jones]

4. If A Tree falls.

[link:

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[maxsolomon]

5. Always the same logic

Short term needs of the few outweigh the long term needs of the many.

“You know this is illegal?” said Trevor Simpson, a logger, who told the Guardian he’s been a faller contractor for 29 years and relies on cutting old-growth trees. “This is my livelihood at stake."

What will you cut when there are no more old-growth forests? Will your work be done then?

[ffr]

9. +1

Puts every ecosystem on the planet on the auction block. The most desirable is usually fetches the most $$$. I'm surprised old growth forests aren't marked national parks. Vancouver can forget my tourist $$$ if they don't stop cutting down these forests.

[maxsolomon]

10. Canada is a Forest-Products exporting nation.

Logging will continue; that's inevitable.

But they don't have to cut old-growth. They've said so themselves.

It's really instructive to look at this area on Google Earth. North of Port Renfrew, Fairy Creek's watershed is the only large chunk of dark green left. The loggers have cut up to the ridges around in on both sides; this parcel is at the head of the creek over the pass.

Vancouver Island itself is a moth-eaten mess of clearcuts. Just like WA's Olympic Peninsula, where the same goddamn fight over Old-Growth is still playing out.

[BobTheSubgenius]

12. The old growth is the low-hanging fruit, though.

Many more board feet to be harvested than in second growth. And what seems to be a little-known fact about the subject - second growth cedar is next to useless as a roofing material, as compared with first growth. It hasn't developed all the natural oils that make old growth so remarkably long-lasting and weather-resistant. Modern shake roofing needs to go away.

[maxsolomon]

19. I did not know that, Bob.

I've got Cedar Shakes on my roof, UNDER an asphalt roof the previous owner laid on top.

Belt and suspenders!

[PatrickforB]

6. You can see this type of clear cutting on the coast highway through OR.

It is evil in those places, with the ghosts of the trees crying out.

Instead of cutting more trees down, seems like we ought to be planting about a billion new ones.

[MurrayDelph]

8. The signs say they do

As in
Harvested
Replanted
It's the Law


(I live on the northern Oregon Coast)

[PatrickforB]

13. Well, to be fair, the last time I drove this way was around the turn

of this century, so things could have changed. Let's hope so!

Because I saw many, many clear cut hills - it was like the earth itself had been violated.

[BobTheSubgenius]

15. One of the big problems is, it is not "forests" that they replant.

They are tree farms, and are usually a monoculture, or very close to it. Forests left entirely to Nature will eventually become a Douglas Fir forest, given enough time. They are vigourous, growing tall enough to shade smaller species, and extraordinarily adapted to surviving a fire - thick bark, and in the case of an old tree, its lowest branch may be 50 feet off the ground.

And, of course, no matter what, it might be that our grandchildren's grandchildren won't live to see even a reasonably mature specimen.

[PatrickforB]

17. Yeah, that's kind of what I thought...n/t

[Coventina]

7. I support these blockaders 100%

EARTH FIRST!

[LiberalLovinLug]

11. As soon as I can get vaccinated I am heading there, if its not too late.

This is my home Province. Another sucky thing about this virus. Its like logging companies are taking advantage of COViD, knowing the protesters will be thinned down.

[pandr32]

14. Why not leave these ancient giants alone?

They are few. Someone may get very rich with them, but then they're gone forever. We should leave them be, study them, protect them, and marvel at how wondrous they are.
I have spent much time on Vancouver Island and have family there.

[Farther]

18. on trees

I have a new neighbor across the street who has purchased 10 wooded acres with the apparent purpose of turning it into Jellystone park. He has 17 grandchildren who he has organized into a burn party. They have been cutting down all dead trees and picking up all dead wood on the forest floor (raking the woods?) and burning it in piles which they leave smoldering at days end.

Meanwhile, I stay on my 12 wooded acres which I have never logged for somewhat the same reason I don't eat my neighbors, yet. Instead I ponder this sort of thing and grow sad: https://e360.yale.edu/features/exploring_how_and_why_trees_talk_to_each_other

I'm a caretaker here for the woods and my one grandson. Against the odds it would seem.

[maxsolomon]

20. My sister has done the same on 50 acres in SE Indiana.

Let the woods go, don't allow hunting, convert hay fields back to prairie. Her neighbors think she's insane, but the Bobcat and Raptors and Deer and every other creature seeking a place to live in that area don't.

She does eat the truffles though!

[Farther]

21. Give her my affirmation

I'm in NW Michigan in an oh too popular spot as of recent years. Bobcats and like mammals have a spot to hide while I'm still extant. For the first time in 35 years a beautiful, young bear stopped by last summer to eat my bird feeder. The sight was fair trade.

I do notice that the crows seem to have joined the pileated woodpeckers on my side of the road. Good company.

I may indeed be insane, but I believe the trees speak to each other while concrete is stone dead silent.

[Bayard]

22. I hear you

When we bought our little 10 acre farm, there was 300 acres of woods and wildlife on our north side, owned by a retired pharmacist. Never wanted to sell just a piece of it. Last year, he sold all of it to an Amish logging outfit. They immediately started bulldozing trees. I cried my eyes out, and am still just horrified.

On the other hand, we buy all our cedar posts, boards, and mulch from an Amish sawmill. I'm sure that somewhere, someone is crying for those cedars being cut down.