A new video made by Vancouver Island activists at the forefront of the Fairy Creek watershed blockade in Port Renfrew has gone viral on the internet as it takes a dig at B.C.’s destination marketing brand, Super, Natural British Columbia.
The video created by one of the spokespersons of the Fairy Creek blockade, Joshua Wright, highlights the “hypocrisy of the provincial government,” according to the group.
“Super, Natural BC promotional videos continue to market a rosy picture of B.C. as a utopian nature paradise. At the same time, the government owned BC Timber Sales works to eradicate our irreplaceable ancient forests,” said the protest group in a statement.
The ‘forest defenders,’ as the group calls themselves have also said that the video is “intended to help people compare TV ads with the truth, as they consider how they will vote in the upcoming provincial election.”
According to an independent study published in April 2020 entitled BC’s Old Growth Forest: A Last Stand for Biodiversity less than three per cent of BC’s forests support the growth of big trees. Just 35,000 hectares are rated, according to the study, at a site index greater than 25m, meaning they have the potential to grow trees larger than 25m tall within 50 years.
“In fact, in all of B.C. the amount of this forest remaining is about the size of Surrey,” said Saul Arbess, a spokesperson for the group.
“With the full collusion of the BC government, logging companies are completing one of the biggest and most destructive projects on the planet: eliminating BC’s original forests,” said the statement.
Protests against old-growth logging began in August after activists launched a blockade at Port Renfrew’s Fairy Creek Watershed to prevent logging company Teal Jones Group from constructing a road.
Since then, the protesters have gained support from groups across the province, including Pacheedaht First Nation elders, and recently, the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs (UBCIC).
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Editor’s note: This story has been edited to clarify what is meant by “big trees,” and the area of land that can support them, based on the study cited.
