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FYI. So much for the Roosevelt elk that live/pass through this "park." CATHEDRAL GROVE NEWS - October 8, 2001 On Thursday October 4, 2001 Fallers and their Supervisors from Weyerhaeuser arrived at 7am to start cutting ancient trees to make way for a 574 meter long logging road just past (1.5 km) MacMillan Park. Plans to create a helicopter log dump (2 acre clearing) at the end of this new road in order to access the ancient trees along a steep ridge that contains the last of the giant Douglas Fir trees in the Valley known as Cathedral Grove. This latest logging stage ties in with the 2 km logging road up in by Weyerhaeuser last spring which runs parallel to the highway and ends just short of the MacMillan Park boundary. Two additional helicopter log dumps (2 acre clearings) are part of this stage of logging and are located at the junction between the old and new logging roads as well as higher up on the ridge where a spur road was cut into the forest in the Spring of 2000. Next spring these log dumps would be used to log the entire ridge, leaving the trees in MacMillan Park open to the Qualicum Hurricane force winds along the last protected defense buffer where giant trees still stand today. Weyerhaeuser claims to be in negotiations with Environmental groups and the Provincial Government about a land swap which would expand the boundaries of the 156 Hectare Park. However, no warning of the logging activities on October 4, 2001 was given although some of the trees to be fallen are within their proposed land for swap deal. In other words, Weyerhaeuser is acting in bad faith. While dealing for a land swap adjacent to our national treasure, know through-out the world as Cathedral Grove where 800,000 visitors stop annually, Weyerhaeuser planned to make off with the biggest trees before anyone noticed and they pass off the ravaged land to the public in exchange for forested land somewhere else. They are logging the last of an ancient forest before a proposal can be worked out between concerned citizens, the government, and their company. That they would have done this and left the area to be traded with 3 km of road (80 meter wide strip cut through the forest pointing as wind tunnel toward the Park) and 3 clearing cut along a steep ridge was to much for some concerned citizens. When Weyerhaeuser's fallers showed up at 7:30 am on Thursday October 4, 2001 and cruised the logging sites before stopping to unload their chain saws where the new road was to be cut into the forest, a concerned citizen in the woods made his presence known so that they would have to delay logging in the interest of public safety. A fire-cracker went off high up on the ridge. The loggers reacted by leaving the area at a run and calling the RCMP. The RCMP were told that a gun had be discharged and they called in the K-9 squad and prepared for a search. The fallers were sent home and later the Weyerhaeuser supervisors left the scene leaving the matter to the RCMP. The man who had made the loud noise then came out of the forest and explained his part in the situation to the RCMP officers who quickly called off the search, wrote a report, and went back to Port Alberni satisfied that the incident had been resolved and the cause for alarm had been a fire-cracker. No trees had been cut down, and Weyerhaeuser's plans had been revealed. They were planning to cut the trees down before anyone noticed. All of Thanksgiving week-end concerned citizens passed out information at the parking lot in MacMillan Park's Cathedral Grove and petition to expand the park to include the proposed logging area. Two weeks earlier this same petition was signed by 500 people in the Park. Tuesday October 9, 2001 will reveal whether Weyerhaeuser listens to the public or falls trees in Cathedral Grove. They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. Benjamin Franklin We, as citizens, need to remember what our governments are there for, and protecting us from threats against our growing democracies and freedoms is a big part of that. It has been said that the worst threat to democracy is a mistaken belief that it has been achieved, but it is also true that the greatest threat to our freedoms is our willingness in a state of fear or apathy to "give them up" to someone else claiming to act in our best interests. From weblog.flora.org/ website. |
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