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Forest reserve status quo a win-win

My family and I have lived bordering North Cowichan’s forest reserve for 23 years.
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Forest reserve status quo a win-win

My family and I have lived bordering North Cowichan’s forest reserve for 23 years. We have always felt we were incredibly fortunate as this working forest provided us recreation and the assurance this municipal asset would never become another subdivision for land developers.

We have witnessed the incredible sensitivity of North Cowichan’s forestry department to maintain small harvested areas and top notch silviculture practices to replant the next generation of forests, place high emphasis on wildlife values, and provide areas of recreation. The naysayers of forest harvesting continually downplay the entire cycle of forestry and only focus on what they perceive. The forest practices of today are built on ecological sensitivity and science, they are not the clear cutting machine the naysayers would like us all to believe.

I encourage people to look at the Malahat as an example of forestry land that succumbed to public pressure on harvesting of timber, with much of the land being pulled out of managed forest designation with the associated long term focus on sustainability and rezoned to residential and industrial.

North Cowichan’s forest reserve is an asset secured by our past councils with long term thought. I hope our current mayor and council will have the same will and continue with the status quo in our forest reserve, it is a win-win!

Marie Martin

Duncan