Editor:
The article on logging protestors stopping traffic on the B&K requires some clarification (Coast Reporter, Nov. 19).
A flyer being handed out quoted a recent David Suzuki Foundation report "valuing the benefits from nature" assigns intact forests with a dollar figure for services they generate. The report states that intact forests provide $5,900 to $7,400 in environmental and recreational services. Coast Reporter's article failed to mention that this figure is assigned on a per hectare and on-going yearly basis.
The clear-cut that we've been monitoring on the lower Mount Elphinstone slopes is 18ha. Using the low figure cited, these 18ha of (former) forests would have provided nearby residents $106,200 every year in services.
One has to ask how much is BC Timber Sales actually making from this sale of timber after all costs are accounted for? The two big services that intact forests provide are secured water quality/quantity and recreation. On recreation, we have seen year after year this area becoming an international destination for mountain bikers. Visitors leave behind $100,000 in accommodation, food and related services. If the public's mountain slopes continue to be sliced and diced year after year by logging, the sustainable mountain bike industry will pay the price.
We need to see a stronger position taken by the Sunshine Coast Regional District in promoting the mountain bike industry and speaking out more loudly against industrial scale logging that is causing great harm to the natural capital of Mount Elphinstone.
Ross Muirhead
Roberts Creek
