Continued cutting ecologically suicidal
Mr. Robert Beard’s letter to the Citizen (Dec. 19, 2022) is so misdirected and ecologically suicidal that I just had to respond.
In short, tragic clear-cutting of our forests, before and after North Cowichan taxpayers took ownership, has been, to candy-coat this, devastating to our flora and fauna. They are crucial to our valley’s rich-but-threatened ecological web.
Proof is easily seen in some 141 species at risk — including our Coastal Douglas fir ecosystem — in North Cowichan’s forest-reserve lands.
These are facts Mr. Beard may not know about, nor care to know about.
If he did, perhaps Mr. Beard could not, as a logical, compassionate nature lover, ever recommend status-quo logging of our Six Mountains for paltry profits and a handful of logging jobs.
We own our Six Mountains. They are priceless, no matter what revenue numbers say. They must be saved from commercial logging.
Sorry Mr. Beard; the smart, civilized option in North Cowichan’s vital municipal forest review survey is indeed number three: Active Conservation. It can foster carbon-credit cash dwarfing timber profits, forestry jobs, educational, recreational and cultural values, plus precious, life-giving biodiversity we must now heal and protect.
North Cowichan’s survey deadline to help save our publicly-owned forests from further destruction is Dec. 31, 2022.
Please visit ConnectNorthCowichan.ca/mfr.
Yours in ecological sanity,
Peter W. Rusland
North Cowichan