| Alberni Environmental Coalition | On-Line Library |
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ACT to protect Wildlife on The Ministry of Forests has recently directed two logging companies, TimberWest and Weyerhaeuser, to eliminate nearly 20,000 ha of wildlife corridors on Southern Vancouver Island to open them up for logging instead. These corridors, called "Forest Ecosystem Networks", were created as a result of public concern for wildlife habitat in the 1980s. They have been showcased to the public over the past ten years as the solution that would allow biodiversity and industrial logging to be sustained side by side. Now, with no public knowledge, the MoF is trying to allow logging even in these areas! This is a HUGE STEP BACKWARDS for forest practices in BC. Please speak up NOW and tell your government that this is NOT OK!!!! The History: In the last 1980's, public alarm over the state of forest degradation on southern Vancouver Island was justifiably high. One of the specific concerns was that Fletcher Challenge (holder of TFL 46 at the time) and MacMillan Bloedel (holder of adjacent TFL 44) were proposing logging plans for public forests that were considered by many to be "liquidation plans," with nothing to protect the already battered fish and wildlife habitat of the region. MoF's Chief Forester at the time, John Cuthbert, agreed that the citizens had a point, and in 1991 he required the two companies to create "Forest Ecosystems Networks" as part of a larger initiative to "ensure that all life processes and native organisms within the management units are recognized and maintained." (MoF and MELP, Guidelines to Maintain Biological Diversity in TFL #44 and TFL #46, December 1991). Although the "Forest Ecosystem Networks" that were created were widely recognized to be insufficient to meet the needs of wildlife that evolved on an island completely swathed in old growth forests, they did create a linked network of forest habitat that was generally considered "better than nothing". In some cases FENs now provide the only remaining network of food and/or shelter for old-growth dependent species. For comparison, consider your transportation routes from your home to work to the grocery store to the nearest hospital. These are what FENs currently provide for several island species. Doesn't the Forest Practices Code protect Wildlife? The short answer is "not anymore". In 1995, the Forest Practices Code became BC's forestry law and promised FENs and other wildlife features not only for Vancouver Island but for the whole province. Specifically, FENs were considered "connectivity" measures as recommended in the Code's Biodiversity Guidebook. In the past 5 years however, the Code's original biodiversity recommendations have been very poorly implemented, and sometimes entirely erased, in order to keep BC's logging rates up at unsustainable levels. Last year, the Landscape Unit Planning Guide replaced the Biodiversity Guidebook as the Code's main commitment to biodiversity protection. It is much weaker than the original recommendations, and there are no longer any provisions for connectivity. The FENs in TFL 44 and 46 should be exempt from this change since they were already in place before the Code was created, but using some creative mathematics, the MoF is even trying to get out of that commitment. What is at stake? Currently ther5e are 6,295 hectares of wildlife corridors (Forest Ecosystem Networks or "FENs") in Tree Farm License 46 and 20,000 hectares in Tree Farm License 44. Of this, about 25,000 hectares of forest habitat in total, and the value of "connectivity" or a linked network of forest habitat across the landscape is at stake. The BC Government is spending millions of dollars to do public relations around the world to convince the world that we sustainable forest practices, yet here at home they continually dismantle the concrete improvements that have been made. Please write the Minister of Forests to let him know what you think of this situation. Please mail or fax a letter today to the Forest Misister. Honourable Michael de Jong
Questions?? Call Jill Thompson at the Sierra Club 250-386-5255 |
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