Stopping old growth logging unrealistic
The recent “Our View” as put forth in the Citizen regarding old growth harvesting and “balance” was thought provoking to say the least.
Leaving aside the editor’s assertions regarding intertree communication and other issues, I would like to offer my view on the issue of old growth harvesting.
No amount of civil discourse regarding the facts of protected old growth areas and changing harvesting profiles will moderate the rhetoric or goals of the Fairy Creek protestors.
They are completely uninterested in the economic implications of their agenda for the harvesting based communities located north of the urban bubble that is south Vancouver Island.
Likewise the assertion by the editor that old growth harvesting should cease and only second growth logging proceed completely ignores the reality that the transition to a predominantly second growth harvesting profile will not happen overnight. It is analogous to the electrification of our transportation industry in that it will take time to make the transition, regardless of the protestations of some people to the contrary.
It is highly unlikely that the activists, media, or the politicians who support them will have the courage to travel to the rural forestry based communities and press their “no old growth logging” agenda in civil and lawful discourse. Far easier to snipe, virtue signal and protest illegally from afar it seems.
In closing, the editor might, in the interest of journalistic integrity, consider doing some factual research and thereby provide some much needed “balance” to this topic.
Steve Luney
Duncan