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Logging

Fairy Creek Got An Old-Growth Deferral

August 15, 2021 Zoe Yunker, The Tyee. , , ,
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. , , ,
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.

Threats And Fear As Loggers Clash With Blockaders At Fairy Creek

July 4, 2021 Ora Cogan and Angelo Scaia, Ricochet. , , ,
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.

Stopping The Logging Of Redwoods In Jackson State Forest

June 30, 2021 Cal Winslow, Counter Punch. , , ,
Logging has begun in Jackson State Demonstration Forest, 48,000 acres of state owned redwood forestland in Mendocino County in Northern California. The forest consists mostly of heavily cut over land – probably logged several times since logging in the County began in the 1860s. This continued when the state acquired the land in 1947 – the hypothesis then was to acquire forestland to apply science to commerce with goal of demonstrating best practices. Today, seventy five years later, it’s not easy to find much that’s “best” in this highly disturbed forest land. Still there are numerous groves of second-growth redwood to be found – remnants of what was once one of the wonders of the natural world.

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

June 25, 2021 Jesse Winter, The Guardian. , , ,
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. , , ,
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.

At Fairy Creek, Indigenous-settler Allyships Are Complicated

June 14, 2021 Brandi Morin, Ricochet Media. , , ,
Roots of collaboration grown at battle for old growth could strengthen fight against colonization. As the sun rises over the mountains where the soaring trees grow in the ancient Fairy Creek forest, Sage Jackson, 23, quietly tends to a sacred fire lit two weeks earlier. She travelled from her home in Chilliwack, B.C., in late May with the aim of staying for three days. But that changed when she saw the beauty and depth of the last-of-their-kind forests near the shores of Port Renfrew on the southwest coast of Vancouver Island. “I want true reconciliation. Money and reparations don’t mean much to us when we’ve lost so much of our languages, our culture, our Elders, our healers and our children.” The threat of logging and damage to irreplaceable ecosystems has been a call to action for thousands, who have set up camps to stop forestry company Teal-Jones from building a logging road and harvesting old-growth trees.

The Battle For Old-Growth Forests In British Columbia

May 30, 2021 Ethan Cox, Jerome Turner, Kyle Darling, and Michael Simkin, Ricochet. , , ,
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.

Police arrest seven protesters at logging blockade

May 19, 2021 Dirk Meissner, CBC , , ,
Police have arrested seven people at a logging blockade on southern Vancouver Island as they enforced an injunction Tuesday. The RCMP promised "police action'' earlier this week after announcing it is temporarily controlling access to an area around the Caycuse River south of Cowichan Lake, enforcing the April 1 injunction that allows Teal-Cedar Products to start logging activities.

The New Faces Of BC’s Old-Growth Activism

September 21, 2020 Serena Renner, The Tyee. , , ,
Torrance Coste’s dusty Nissan XTerra disappears in a cloud of grey dirt. He’s checking out recent logging activity around Carmanah Walbran Provincial Park on southern Vancouver Island for the Wilderness Committee. I’m trailing behind, trying not to blow a tire, lose his taillights, or get run off the road. Another logging truck smokes past — the eighth so far this morning. It’s stacked with old-growth hemlock and a red cedar at least a metre thick. A few minutes later, we’re stopped by a pile of tree carcasses blocking the road. Active logging. No entry.

Clear-Cuts: Cause Hot Catastrophic Wildfires

September 12, 2020 Chuck Burr, Culture Quake. , , ,
Pack billions of the same-age trees close together, wait for dry-lightning or another ignition source, and you have an unnatural firebomb. The cause of thousands of annual catastrophic hot fires around the world are tree farms created by timber industry clear-cutting and fire suppression to prevent timber inventory loss. I have seen it happen. About five years ago, driving home on Interstate 5 North of Lake Shasta, a dry-lightning storm began. It looked like the finger of God came down as lightning struck a conifer and it burst into smoke.

BC: Preserving Biodiversity Now Guides Logging Policies

September 12, 2020 By Serena Renner and Amanda Follett Hosgood, The Tyee. , , ,
British Columbia - B.C. Forests Minister Doug Donaldson today announced the deferral of old-growth logging within more than 350,000 hectares as well as the protection of up to 1,500 giant trees. The move came in response to a highly anticipated report also released today on the management of old-growth forests in the province. Environmentalists, workers and First Nations representatives applauded the steps but say they leave out some of the most at-risk ancient forests as well as funding for implementation.

Protesters Block Logging Road Near Port Renfrew

August 15, 2020 Darron Kloster, Times Colonist. , , ,
About 20 protesters have blocked a logging road near Port Renfrew, vowing they will stay until old-growth forests in a critical watershed area of the San Juan River are protected. The protesters say they want the provincial government to prevent Teal Jones from building a road into the Fairy Creek headwaters. They say the logging company has already cut trees and blasted and bulldozed rock for the road, and are cresting a ridge into an area that contains old-growth yellow cedar, hemlock, Douglas fir and cedar. The area is part of Tree Farm Licence 46, which is held by Surrey-based Teal Jones.

Video: Fighting The Amazon’s Illegal Loggers

April 20, 2015 VICE, www.news.vice.com , ,
On the Alto Rio Guamá reserve in Brazil, the Tembe tribe has been battling for decades to save its land from illegal loggers and settlers. As tension escalates, the Tembe people have now been forced to take up arms and confront the loggers, sparking violent clashes deep within the jungle. With the odds stacked against the tribe, VICE News traveled to the northern Brazilian state of Para to meet the Tembe and witness the tribe's struggle to protect its land.

Journalist Killed While Documenting Illegal Logging

October 20, 2014 Southeast Asian Press Alliance, www.ifex.org , , , , ,
Journalist Taing Tri, 48, of the local Vealntri newspaper in Kratie province, Cambodia, was shot dead around 1 a.m. on 12 October 2014 as he attempted to document the transportation of illegal luxury wood near Pum Ksem Kang Krow village. The Cambodian Center for Independent Media (CCIM) and the Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA) condemn this murder in the strongest terms possible and call on local authorities to take immediate action to investigate the case and bring the murderers to justice in order to end the cycle of impunity for those who perpetuate violence against journalists in Cambodia. “Mr. Tri's murder is tragic and cannot go unpunished,” said CCIM Executive Director Pa Nguon Teang. “We must bring an end to impunity for those who commit violence against journalists, and we must do it now, starting with Mr. Tri.”
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