Powell River-Sunshine Coast MLA Nicholas Simons accepted a petition this week with more than 1,200 youth signatures asking the provincial government for a moratorium on logging on Mount Elphinstone until a land and resource management plan (LRMP) is in place.
Olivia Kingsbury, a Grade 12 student at Elphinstone Secondary School, presented the petition to Simons in his constituency office Tuesday. She collected more signatures at Roberts Creek Elementary School on Thursday for a total of 1,275 signatures.
After legislature resumes mid-February, Simons plans to bring the petition up in the house, as well as present it to Minister of Agriculture and Lands Pat Bell.
"This is evidence that people are asking me for an LRMP," Simons told Kingsbury while thanking her for her work. "They have to take this seriously. This is a petition of over a thousand young people on the Sunshine Coast."
Kingsbury initiated the petition in November and recruited other youth to help her get the signatures. Her fellow petitioners were Courtney Smith, Emily Hambleton, Nathan Yim, Jessie Lund, Amy Burow, Abi Kellett, Hannah Kellett, Kylee Mayers, Juleah Gabriel, Laura Johnson, Sammie Broomhall, Sam Reisco, Megan McGuire, Emily Graydon, Brittany Cooke, Sukey Hanson and Giselle Hood.
She spent lunch hours petitioning at Elphi and Chatelech Secondary School, presented her cause to individual classes, and made announcements over the school PA. She emphasized the youth are not against logging and appreciate the need for it, but want to see sustainable logging. As well, they are concerned with companies coming from off-Coast. She said some youth whose parents are loggers on the Coast signed the petition.
Kingsbury, a member of the Sunshine Coast Con-servation Association, researched Mount Elphin-stone through discussions with local conservationists and guided tours of the forest. She has sent letters to Simons, Premier Gordon Campbell, the Ministry of Forests and B.C. Timber Sales and has heard back only from Simons.
Next, Kingsbury will present the petition at the Feb. 9 Sunshine Coast Regional District board meeting to ask for a letter of support.
The petition reads, "We, the undersigned youth of the Sunshine Coast, petition the Government of British Columbia that there be absolutely no logging on Mt. Elphinstone until a Land and Resource Management Plan (LRMP) has been completed and approved. The LRMP must have consideration for our ecosystem, our water, our people and, most importantly, our future. We need an earth to inherit."
