Forests

What Is Ecocide, And Why Does It Matter?

October 8, 2021 Morgan Sharp, National Observer. Resist! Canada, Fairy Creek, Forests, Logging

Jamie Hunter has just returned from defying a court injunction to protect old-growth forest in Fairy Creek and is going to Glasgow next month to push for a major change to international law that would provide another tool against environmental degradation. The 21-year-old from Nelson, B.C., sees the actions as two fronts of the same battle to confront forces otherwise damaging the planet and imperiling its inhabitants. “To me, Stop Ecocide is a really tangible solution,” said the co-founder of its Canadian chapter. “Obviously, it’s not the only solution, but it’s a big piece of the puzzle because it really says that causing this damage to the environment is not OK.” Stop Ecocide is a global movement involving international criminal lawyers, Indigenous advisers, researchers, and diplomats working to add ecocide as a crime considered by the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Horgan’s Fairy Creek Excuses Betray Citizens

October 4, 2021 Paul Willcocks, The Tyee. Resist! Canada, Forests, Logging, Police abuse

The NDP government can’t keep dodging responsibility for the debacle at Fairy Creek — or the much bigger questions about the RCMP’s role in the province. Especially as increasing RCMP resources — with provincial government approval — are devoted to shutting down protests, frequently by Indigenous people. Last week, the BC Supreme Court refused to extend an injunction against protesters blocking logging, citing RCMP civil rights’ abuses — facilitated by the provincial government — in enforcing the court order. The dispute is about old-growth forests on southern Vancouver Island. Protesters blocked licence-holder Teal-Jones from logging in late 2020. On April 1, BC Supreme Justice Frits Verhoeven granted the company an injunction preventing the protesters from blocking roads or interfering with company operations.

Judge Refuses To Extend Court Injunction At Fairy Creek

September 29, 2021 Lisa Cordasco, Vancouver Sun. Educate! Canada, Fairy Creek, Forests, Logging

A B.C. Supreme Court judge has refused to extend an injunction that was granted to prevent protesters from impeding logging operations at Fairy Creek on Vancouver Island. Justice Douglas Thompson ruled the reputation of the court outweighed the economic interests of the logging company, Teal Jones. Thompson pointed to the RCMP’s enforcement of the court injunction as the main reason for the court’s tarnished reputation. “The methods of enforcement of the court’s order have led to serious and substantial infringement of civil liberties, including impairment of the freedom of the press to a marked degree,” wrote the judge. One of the lawyers who argued against extending the injunction, Patrick Canning, said the ruling puts pressure on the province to resolve the ongoing dispute at Fairy Creek.

RCMP At Fairy Creek Blockade Ignore The Real Emergency

September 1, 2021 Rita Wong, Rabble.ca. Resist! climate crisis, Fairy Creek, Forests, Logging

On Aug. 9, the one-year anniversary of the Fairy Creek protection efforts, the RCMP raided Fairy Creek's headquarter camp. Twenty-five police vehicles, a helicopter and an emergency tactical unit were deployed against peaceful ancient forest protectors that day, and almost every day since. What is the emergency that the police are responding to with such a massively expensive show of force? Since the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issued a code red warning on Aug. 9, is it the climate emergency that is so clear to us this summer with deadly heat waves and extreme forest fires? No, the science tells us that RCMP are actually making this climate emergency worse by enforcing the clear cutting of some of the last remaining old-growth forests on the West Coast.

Fairy Creek Got An Old-Growth Deferral

August 15, 2021 Zoe Yunker, The Tyee. Resist! Canada, Forests, Indigenous Rights, Logging

Splatsin First Nation Kukpi7 Wayne Christian knows the migration patterns of the last remaining southern mountain caribou in his territory in southeast B.C. — they spend their winters up in the mountains. He knows the way that water travels from glaciers to the region’s streams and back again. He knows what the region’s forests look like when they’re healthy. Last month, he saw something he’d never seen before. The shiny green leaves of the cottonwood trees that make up part of the forest’s understory had turned a dull, parched grey — almost dead. “I was thinking, what’s going on here? There is a signal here. Pay attention to this.” Christian was on his way to lead a ceremony beneath a cluster of ancient cedar trees, marking the Splatsin Nation’s support for the blockades led by a group called Old Growth Revylution that opposes old-growth logging in the region.

Police Raid The Hub For Fairy Creek Blockaders

August 10, 2021 Zoe Yunker, The Tyee. Resist! Canada, Fairy Creek, Forests, Logging

In a major advancement of police activity in the old growth blockades around Fairy Creek on Southern Vancouver Island, RCMP raided the gate to the blockaders’ headquarters on Monday. It was the first time police had carried out arrests at the site identified as a communal hub for the movement. It also signals the likelihood of more confrontation ahead in the biggest direct action fight to protect B.C.’s old growth forests in decades. “The frontline has been brought to us,” Willow, a forest defender who is stationed at blockade headquarters, told The Tyee. The escalation occurred as blockaders were preparing to mark their one-year anniversary occupying the forests in Pacheedaht Territories surrounding Port Renfrew.

Fairy Creek Provides Opportunities For Conservation

August 9, 2021 Trevor Greene, The Georgia Straight. Create! Canada, climate crisis, Conservation, Forests

Ever since protesters started chaining themselves to logging roads in the Teal-Jones Fairy Creek cut block on southern Vancouver Island, dozens of articles on old-growth logging have declared that the ancient trees are worth far more standing than cut down for lumber. Usually, they go on to say that the trees' value is incalculable. The old-growth forests of British Columbia took 8,000 years to develop into amazing mini-ecosystems of biodiversity that store carbon, filter water, and provide habitat for endangered plant and animal species. It’s a fool’s game to measure their value in dollars and cents, because we'll never come to grips with the fact that the forests are priceless. But logging companies have no trouble putting a price on the giant trees by calculating the value of the lumber that can be produced.

Threats And Fear As Loggers Clash With Blockaders At Fairy Creek

July 4, 2021 Ora Cogan and Angelo Scaia, Ricochet. Resist! Fairy Creek, Forests, Indigenous Rights, Logging

Over 320 arrests have been made at the Fairy Creek blockades since police began removing forest defenders in mid-May. As enforcement of an injunction obtained by logging company Teal-Jones enters its seventh week, aggression from police and logging industry workers has been ramping up. Each day the RCMP try to clear logging roads, encountering blockaders in what are known as “dragons” — a device that secures a person’s arm in a tube buried in the ground — or surreal-looking wooden tripods dangling up to 30 feet in the air. Land defenders have adopted these tactics in an effort to halt the logging of old-growth forests in Pacheedaht and Ditidaht territories. Evidently frustrated with the slow pace of removals, the RCMP have begun using heavy machinery like chainsaws, excavators and jackhammers in close proximity to the bodies of blockaders.

‘War In The woods’: Hundreds Of Anti-Logging Protesters Arrested

June 25, 2021 Jesse Winter, The Guardian. Resist! Canada, Environment, Forests, Logging

Police in western Canada have arrested more than 270 people as a conflict over old growth logging in British Columbia’s ancient rainforests continues to grow. At the protest blockades in the remote woodland, hundreds of activists have been chaining themselves to giant tripods made from the trunks of felled trees, suspending themselves in trees for days or more at a time, and even securing their arms inside devices called “sleeping dragons” cemented into the roadway. The movement is an attempt to pressure the British Columbia government to halt the cutting of what activists and experts say is the last 3% of ancient trees left standing in the province.

Old-Growth Logging Protesters On Day Seven Of Hunger Strike

June 20, 2021 Tiffany Crawford, Vancouver Sun. Resist! Canada, Forests, Hunger Strike, Logging

Old-growth logging protesters on day seven of a hunger strike are calling for an urgent meeting with B.C. Premier John Horgan and Forests Minister Katrine Conroy. Brent Eichler, president of Unifor local 950, Zain Haq, a 20-year-old student at SFU, and Evie Mandel, 65, haven’t eaten food in a week but are continuing their strike at 401 Burrard Street in Vancouver. Reached by phone Saturday, Eichler said they were doing OK but very tired from only consuming water, lemon juice, and salt. He said he wasn’t sure how much longer they could continue without suffering adverse health effects. Eichler said they have received a lot of support from young people and those who want a moratorium on logging old-growth forests.

‘Monumental Steps’ On Protecting Old Growth Forests

June 12, 2021 Andrew MacLeod, The Tyee. Resist! Canada, climate crisis, Forests, Timber Industry

The British Columbia cabinet has agreed to defer the logging of 2,000 hectares of old-growth forest in the Fairy Creek watershed and the Central Walbran Valley, Premier John Horgan announced Wednesday. The two-year deferrals fulfil a request made by the Pacheedaht, Ditidaht and Huu-ay-aht First Nations, but are unlikely to satisfy people who have been blocking logging activity in the area between Port Renfrew and Lake Cowichan on southern Vancouver Island. “These are monumental steps,” Horgan said. “I know it appears at the moment to be just another announcement by another premier, but these announcements are transformative for an industry that has been foundational to British Columbia’s success and will be foundational to our future success, but it has to be done in a different way.”

Old Growth Protected In Fairy Creek

June 9, 2021 Andrew MacLeod, The Tyee. Resist! Canada, climate crisis, Forests, Indigenous Rights

Three First Nations on southern Vancouver Island released a statement today saying they are taking back decision-making responsibilities for their traditional territories. They have also formally given the British Columbia government notice they want to defer old-growth logging in the Fairy Creek watershed and Central Walbran Valley for two years and have repeated a request for everyone to respect their authority, including people who have been blocking logging and related activity. “Since time immemorial, Huu-ay-aht Ditidaht and Pacheedaht First Nations have been stewards of the forest, fisheries and all resources within their ḥahahuułi (traditional territories),” said the statement. “For more than 150 years they have watched as others decided what was best for their lands, water and people. This declaration brings this practice to an immediate end.”

We’re Going To Have Fairy Creeks Happen All The Time

June 1, 2021 Sarah Cox, The Narwhal. Resist! British Columbia, Climate Change, Environment, Forests, Indigenous Rights

As tensions escalate and arrest tallies grow at logging blockades on Vancouver Island, The Narwhal spoke with one of the foresters tapped to help the province navigate its old-growth woes

The Battle For Old-Growth Forests In British Columbia

May 30, 2021 Ethan Cox, Jerome Turner, Kyle Darling, and Michael Simkin, Ricochet. Resist! British Columbia, Environment, Forests, Logging

Over the last two weeks around 120 people have been arrested and charged, most with violating an injunction obtained by a logging company. But with more people streaming in by the day and the RCMP trying to secure an area the size of a small country, there’s no end in sight. This is the latest from southwest Vancouver Island, which has become an international hotspot in the fight to save old-growth forests. Last August, a group of environmental activists set up a series of blockades of logging roads deep in the bush surrounding Port Renfrew, B.C. Their goal was to preserve stands of old-growth in the Fairy Creek watershed, one of the largest and most significant ancient forests remaining in North America.

Echoes Of B.C.’s War In The Woods As Fairy Creek Blockade Builds

April 11, 2021 Jesse Winter, The Narwhal. Resist! Canada, Fairy Creek, Forests, Timber Industry

British Columbia - Hundreds of activists are digging in at logging road blockades across a swath of southern Vancouver Island, vowing to stay as long as it takes to pressure the provincial government to immediately halt cutting of what they say is the last 3 per cent of giant old-growth trees left in the province. The situation echoes the 1993 “war in the woods” in nearby Clayoquot Sound, which saw nearly 1,000 people arrested at similar logging blockades in the largest act of civil disobedience in Canadian history. Tensions are rising. Just this weekend, the activists stopped a team of old-growth tree cutters — called fallers — from entering a logging area in the Caycuse watershed.

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