Dear Mayor and Council:
North Cowichan tragically continues to lose trees in our forest reserve due to illegal poaching, an activity council is elected and paid to stop.
I suggest council hire a team of watchdog wardens now to constantly patrol our precious Six Mountains to help end this disgraceful, preventable criminal activity.
Moreover, I suggest council quickly increase fines for illegal poaching and trespassing vehicles to $10,000, for starters.
Also, boost rewards to that same amount for folks who accurately report such timber thefts and trespassing to police or to municipal staff.
While municipal logging in our reserve is stalled — pending long-overdue public consultations about future reserve uses — it seems despicable chain-saw criminals are hard at work.
These valuable trees are our property. Our eco-legacy is being cut under our noses, making our lame municipal-bylaw enforcement a sad joke.
Wake up and smell your environmental priorities council, before more of our priceless trees are lost to criminals.
Yours truly,
Peter W. Rusland,
North Cowichan