Re: B.C.’s forest management practices operate at a deficit (C.R. Mirror June 17 and online June 11)
Mr. Cooley obviously has no knowledge of logging or forestry, past or present. His obvious desire to ride bicycles through a beautiful, healthy forest is just great, however, the “blight” of logging patches of his nirvana upsets him greatly.
There is room for both cycling and logging in our forests but logging is far and above the largest financial contributor to our local economy. Well paid jobs spread all over Vancouver Island need a steady land base on which to operate. Work always trumps play.
Low-intensity patch cuts (as done on Quadra Island) seem the best way to achieve sharing, as long as special interest groups, such as cyclists, don’t get greedy and want it all.
Incidentally, the “selective” logging of railways and donkeys that he references were brutal clearcuts. The Comox Logging Co. yarded 2,500-foot circles around wooden spar trees and left any partial circles to contractors. The second growth he wants protected grew up despite this. Island Timber by Richard S. Mackie is one of the best historical books on local logging.
Today’s logging on the B.C. coast is sustainable if a decent land base is preserved. Old growth that is protected should include all the second growth in our vast network of parks, trees that will never be logging.
Arne Liseth
Quadra Island
