Editor:
Another ad by Sunshine Coast Community Forest (SCCF) appeared in the Nov. 24 Coast Reporter paper this time about its 2023-2028 logging plan. The plan was first revealed at a Nov. 20 meeting and SCCF is now asking community members for feedback by December 20 – 30 days and counting.
Elphinstone Logging Focus (ELF) attended that meeting there was a lack of detail on each block and certainly not enough for the average person to provide reasonable feedback besides “not opposed” or “opposed.”
This is a ridiculously short timeframe for feedback and ELF recommends it be extended to April 1, 2024 to provide us time to get the public out to each forest and look at what could be lost.
The ad states that “41% of the community forest is protected by legal or voluntary measures…”
However, 50% of SCCF’s tenure area (10,800 ha) lies in the registered community drinking watersheds of the Chapman (2,483 ha) and the Gray (3,104 ha) for a total of 5,587 ha. These are two areas where no logging should be taking place in the first place due to the sensitivity and importance of drinking watersheds.
In terms of protecting biodiversity, each watershed area is well represented by the mountain hemlock and alpine ecosystems.
The five-year plan calls for logging in a lower elevation forest ecosystem referred to as the “Coastal Western Hemlock dry maritime,”
We know that this zone is facing “irreversible biodiversity loss” due to past and projected unsustainable logging, however it’s where the last of the easily accessible timber is found.
Ross Muirhead
ELF
