You see it that black and white, eh - all or nothing, no shades of grey, much less green.
The timber grows back fast on this coast. There is a place I take friends to where I fell timber in the 60s, it was a whole-valley clearcut, there were no rules then beyond the new close-utilisation standards that were legislated not to aid forestry, but to aid the pulp mill companies. There will be commercial thinning done in it shortly, you could even log it again at a profit right now, but it will likely get about a 60-year rotation on the valley bottom and 70-90 yrs on the hillsides, that will split the difference between ROI in dollars/acre and maximisation of fiber/acre. Last time we were there I couldn't find the stump on which for a few days I sat eating lunch with a panoramic 30-mile view. Probable rotten now, and covered in huckleberries and salal. No view now anyway, the trees grew up and blocked it.
And yes, i've seen abuses, lots of them, they expand logarithmically with the size of the company. Spoken out against them as well, am a bit famous for it among friends, in fact. You don't know me, Lorne.
Mines can be done well, safely, and then reclaimed. The Windy Craggy decision was stupid. Too much lost, too little 'gained'.
You know what is far and away the biggest pestilential stinking smoking abused clearcut in this province? - Greater Vancouver. The second biggest? - Greater Victoria.
Anyway, if you stop all logging, what would they print the Forest Practises Code and all the environmental impact statements on? .. and what would you wipe your ass with? |
