Log Watch launches, and starts counting
–Log Watch press release
Five Sooke residents gathered this past week for the first meeting of Juan de Fuca Forest Watch. They shared in common concerns regarding the unprecedented rate and volume of deforestation in their backyard forests. Other residents of the Juan de Fuca area (from Metchosin/Sooke through Port Renfrew) are invited to join. Here is the group’s description as posted on their Facebook group page:
We are gravely troubled by the staggering rate and volume of deforestation in our region. We believe that our forests are being grossly mismanaged, and that these lands which should represent our commons have been unjustly expropriated in the name of fast profit for industry shareholders, at the expense of ecological sustainability and what is literally the birthright ground for future generations.
Our vision is two-fold: 1. An outright moratorium on old-growth logging. 2. A consistent practice of sustainable forestry that is accountable (in plain language) to elected, regional representatives and that fosters increased related employment.
To achieve these visions we will grow an active community of participation dedicated to reclaiming the intrinsic value of our forests. In so doing we might also redirect our attitudes and imaginations to a more just and viable economy.
“A tremendous amount of corruption and fraud has historically undermined the efforts of citizens to manage our forests with ecological and economical integrity,” says Darren Alexander, one of the group’s founding members. “Remember that the very first BC Forest Minister was jailed for accepting a $10,000 bribe from Western Forest Products, in exchange for the very first Tree Farm License.”
Tuesday, March 29 thru Friday, April 1 — Log Watch Witness Station
Volunteers will attend the witness station (find us near the Roundabout) in shifts throughout the day, from 6 AM through 6 PM, in order to document and photograph the scale, rate, and volume of timber that is shipped out of our region by so many truckloads every day. We hope that by documenting and sharing our findings we might begin to call question to this all-too-common scene.
Resources
- BC Chamber of Commerce Passes Resolution Calling on the Province to Expand Old-Growth Forest Protections
- Group seeks to share information on forestry corruption, collusion
- Log Watch launches, and starts counting
- NDP critical of increasing carbon emissions under Clark’s leadership
- Local business owner launches website and billboard, calling for a stop to old growth logging
- BC Liberals and NDP agree on the success of the Great Bear Rainforest agreement
- Sooke entrepreneur seeks to raise funds for Walbran awareness billboard on Pat Bay Highway
- Supreme court rules in favour of logging company Teal-Jones
- LETTER: Update on clear-cut logging of old growth at Carmanah/Walbran
Isn’t Sooke a logging town?
Lol
British Columbians need to know what is going on with the public resources on crown land. Actions like this one are meant to get conversations started around dinner tables in this region and to provide facts for those conversations. To be clear and to be fair, initiatives like this are not anti-logging, rather they are pro-sustainable resource extraction. BC owes a huge debt to resource-extractive industries and many people are coming to believe that the industries owe a debt of responsible management to those resources: manage them properly for longevity.
Here is something else with a Sooke base:
http://WWW.stopoldgrowthlogging.ca
Yes, this is a BC election year and also our Softwood Lumber agreement has expired and is being negotiated with the US. Our TFL.. tree farm licences used to be tied to the local mills but have been given to foreign companies to harvest. There are no jobs, no mills and no profit to communities near the harvest sites. We need to find a politician to get behind that will reverse what is happening in our forests.
Some people need hobbies … We live in a logging community plus loggers replant trees after they are cut down making it sustainable.
No doubt eh!
6 am is good but you might want to start at 530. I’ve seen then go by that early fully loaded – in fact saw one at 545 this morning
I work nights I’ve seen them at 3 am must be new to town lol
Particularly loved the quote “Remember that the very first BC Forest Minister was jailed for accepting a $10,000 bribe from Western Forest Products, in exchange for the very first Tree Farm License.” – did some googling because I couldn’t remember when this happened… in 1955-1957… Kind of an obscure reference IMO. But yeah, everyone has something that they’re passionate about so I’ll wish them luck.
Replanting trees isn’t the same as restoring a forested ecosystem. It just creates monoculture tree farms. Biodiversity is needed for a forest to be healthy, resilient, and provide a wide range of habitats for wildlife. Tree farms do not provide this.
This is ridiculous Sooke has and will always be know for its logging and fishing, unfortunately the fishing has died down over the years and we have lost our mills but these people need to find something to do. Have a look around!!! Go for a drive!!! There is a lot of lumber out there and hopefully for every tree that is being loaded onto a logging truck a tree planter is planting two new trees in its place.
Seems to me, there must have been some trees removed to build your house….but thats ok?
Or to wipe your ass!!!! People think that removing a tree is such a crime but they have no idea of how many different products that they use every day that are made from wood. I can’t wait to see these people counting logging trucks it will take everything in my power not to walk up and say something to them!!!!
Should go count the number of potato trucks. It’s the same thing as a logging truck leaving a tree farm.
People should count the pot holes made by the logging trucks
It’s your choice to drive a car that scrapes the pavement. Drive a real vehicle and potholes created by the vehicles that bring the necessary products to build the house you live in wouldn’t be such an issue. Lol. No I’m kidding, I totally hear ya. They cause some major damage – it’d be nice if Highways would spend a little more time patching (or maybe resurfacing?) the roads that actually get used.
The take the back road threw shawnigan or contribute to fixing sooke road.
Almost forgot, hope they count the log booms going by Secretary Island…. Don’t want to miss any.
I don’t get it.
You are an idiot Peter GM
Trees make oxygen and that provides life to any creature with lungs. They are one of the key mechanisms for the sequestering of Co2 from our troubled atmosphere.There is hope for our ever warming planet by maintaining sustainable forest practices.
Todays log truck count stood at 21 loads from 6am.to 1pm. That is a lot of wood fiber leaving the Jaun de Fuca.
People should really get a life are you kidding! They have been going through Sooke longer than you have!
Go loggers !!!!!! Bring our small town back to life , now let’s get the fishing industry back, !!!!!!! I support the logging industry 100%
I thought this was a traffic issue, how do they count the booms that go by the harbour?
I am slightly amused to read this story. You don’t have to be a genius to realize the twigs these trucks are hauling are “old growth” planted in the 1970s.
Do these people counting logging trucks not have anything else to do during their day. These guys are working and earning a living. Maybe they should a go for a walk and enjoy life. Just saying.
The beautiful natural trees are being clear cut. To whose advantage?
It is a necessary evil. Also, a lot of logging is now in the replanted areas…..
Sooke is STILL a logging town. I have family there that is STILL in the industry.
Sooke was always a logging and fishing town. I don’t like clearcuts but most of the old houses and new sub-division houses in Sooke are bulit with wood.
Our first Log Watch Witness Station was a great success. It’s actually great fun to spend time outside on a gorgeous spring day by the Roundabout! We counted 24 (!) full truckloads passing out of Sooke. They carried harvest ranging in age from spindly (30 yrs?) to thick and gnarly (100+ yrs). We are finding that this volume and rate of extraction is perhaps unprecedented, given the lack of accountable oversight by both government and industry. Our Watch continues today through Friday. To be clear–we are not AGAINST forestry and logging. We believe in fact that there can and should be MORE JOBS in the sector, if our forests are managed wisely. Please try to visit our Witness Station by the Roundabout. And be sure to visit our facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/groups/688088801293691/) for more information. Thanks.
My family made their living from logging, but Dad always did selective logging. What they are taking out now are not logs but tooth picks. They destroy everything to get them. It is sad but will continue.
There needs to be a lot more conversation around innovation and value-add to the fibre, and the uses of fibre for high-value exports, instead of the simple shipping off of raw logs to Asia. But you have heard this before of course. But this is where some government investment is needed. Wood innovation. Why are there no wood innovation centres or incubators on the Island? What a shame. What an opportunity.
Let’s ask why Sooke is no longer what it used to be in terms of traditional jobs. Only the stupid would deny that overkill of resources has had no effect here. Obviously the log watch people are on to something. Sustainability is not just a buzzword – it is most urgent.
Sorry, second sentence should read ‘only the stupid would claim that overkill of resources has had no effect here’.