Trees being cut down by chainsaws is the type of thing that Elphinstone Logging Focus (ELF) routinely expresses concerns about, but this week, the group's focus has turned to a beloved piece of finished wood: An ELF-installed sign marking "The SongBird Forest." The sign appears to have been cut apart by vandals sometime over the past week.
The sign was located in the Roberts Creek area, near a portion of land identified for a potential expansion of Mount Elphinstone Provincial Park.
In a press release issued June 13, ELF forest campaigner Ross Muirhead said that on June 12, an affiliate organization, The Living Forest Institute, held a concert in the SongBird Forest and that when the lead organizer arrived at the site, she came across the sign cut in two by a chainsaw. Muirhead said that in the days preceding the event, people had visited the forest to conduct a site visit and reported to ELF that the sign was intact at that time. It is Muirhead's opinion that the damage to the sign happened between June 6 and 11.
"The SongBird Forest is a campaign launched by ELF when we found out that the Sunshine Coast Community Forest had plans to log three cutblocks in the park expansion area," Muirhead said in the release
"This was the largest, most expensive sign we had installed to date. Everyone who saw the sign raved about how beautiful it was." The sign was created for ELF by a professional sign company and was valued at about $350. Muirhead confirmed that the incident has been reported to the RCMP.
"We know that ELF has detractors due to our constant efforts to have more endangered forest ecosystems protected from being logged, but this new level of aggression is worrying. We contacted the (Sunshine Coast) Community Forest about the vandalism since the sign was placed where their EW18A cutblock is located along the East Wilson Forest Service Road."
Sunshine Coast Community Forest spokesperson Sara Zieleman told Coast Reporter via email that the organization was not aware that the sign existed. She explained that there are many signs and trails in areas that are jointly managed by the shíshálh Nation and the Province of BC, both inside the Community Forest and outside of it, which have not gone through approval processes.
"It's unfortunate that it was damaged, it looks like it was a very nice wood sign," Zieleman wrote.
