Conservation most important thing for forest reserve
Dear North Cowichan mayor and councillors:
Membership in the Forest Stewardship Council might make sense only if it furthers conservation methods, and helps earn carbon credits from wisely preserving our precious municipal forest reserve.
Details are seen in the Sept. 7, 2023 Citizen.
Council listened when surveyed residents strongly signalled (40 per cent) preference for active conservation in our reserve, allowing some clearing only to help repair and heal logging damage to our coveted ecosystem.
Other aware folks (30 per cent) prefer no reserve logging whatsoever.
To wit: NO commercial logging in our 5,000-hectare, publicly owned forest reserve. It is priceless as ecological, cultural and recreational land. Council must now decide if FSC membership would further those uses.
But some misguided councillors sadly disagree with logical, democratic reserve preservation. They wish council to continue logging our rare ecosystem for paltry annual timber profits.
Those days are thankfully past as North Cowichan council has stopped reserve logging, while awaiting UBC’s conservation advice. We have finally entered a sane era of smart, green growth, not more terrible environmental destruction for chump change.
Yours in forest ecology,
Peter W. Rusland
North Cowichan