Topics:
- Clearcutting by North Cowichan municipality revealed (youtube video)
- Public Consultation: The Stacked Deck
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Click on the button below to watch a short 3 minute video
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1. Clearcutting by North Cowichan municipality revealed
Reprinted from Larry Pynn's blog at https://www.sixmountains.ca/
You won’t see the images from this video on the North Cowichan website.
In fact, the municipality’s senior administrator has told council: “We do not clear-cut as a harvesting practice.”
But if you drive up Mount Prevost, for example, you will see plenty of clearcuts.
Which begs the question: Do these unseen forests represent the past or the future for our Municipal Forest Reserve — the Six Mountains of Prevost, Sicker, Richards, Maple, Stoney, and Tzouhalem?
Until now, North Cowichan has taken a singular view of our forests — as a revenue source.
But even its own figures show that on average the forestry program generates a net profit of just $132,000 per year — while leaving an unsightly and environmentally damaging legacy.
It gets worse — logging in the Six Mountains provides little direct employment, while 63 per cent of the municipality’s timber is exported as raw logs.
There is another way.
UBC experts have informed council that the municipality stands to make as much — or more — money by selling carbon credits and leaving our forests standing.
What a concept — being paid not to log.
But there are many other reasons to preserve our local forests — which even the municipality describes as plantations.
The importance of recreation, tourism, residential viewscapes and biodiversity far outweigh logging. Our Six Mountains fall within the most endangered landscape in British Columbia — the coastal Douglas-fir biogeoclimatic zone. Do we not have a moral obligation to protect it?
The Six Mountains are at a crossroad.
Council has embarked on a flawed public consultation process on the future of our forests. Everyone needs to learn the truth and become engaged.
With selflessness and foresight we can make a difference, so that one day future generations can walk not amongst clearcuts and biological deserts, but amongst towering ancient forests reaching for the sky.
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2. Public Consultation: The Stacked Deck
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Sadly, a citizens’ Working Group (WG) established to help guide public consultation on the future of the Municipal Forest Reserve appears to be a rubber stamp. And the deep, broad, transparent, inclusive, accountable, unbiased process we had expected has not transpired.
It would be easy for Where Do We Stand (WDWS) to walk away in cynicism. But we’re not. We’re sounding the alarm.
WDWS joined the WG in good faith to contribute to a transparent engagement process. But the consultants, Lees and Associates, want to keep it secret.
Several times they have given the WG instructions not to put out materials to the public. Meetings are closed and they refuse to record them for the public.
At the third WG meeting on Monday, June 6, members voted 58 per cent in favour of transparency before the public—to tape the meetings.
But a majority vote holds no weight with the consultant who ruled virtual unanimity is required. So, citizens are left with minutes that report selectively what has transpired rather than full access to make their own judgements.
Also worrisome—the draft survey and discussion guide (DG), presented to the WG before being posted online, are biased toward the business-as-usual plantation forestry model and full of leading questions.
For instance, the draft survey asks you whether local family-supporting forestry jobs are important to you. (Note the leading “family supporting). It’s particularly misleading because it doesn’t spell out that logging last year employed, in man hours, about 10 people, 2 of them staff and the 2 two logging companies are from up Island. The question is also silent on the greater number of jobs created by preserving the mountains for recreation and tourism, including bike shops, artisans, restaurants, pubs, bed and breakfasts, and on and on.
The draft survey asks the same about the forest reserve contributing to local mills and sawyers; (local mills and sawyers don’t get to buy our logs—according to everyone I’ve interviewed); it fails to mention 63% of our trees were exported last year.
The DG says, in recent years the Forest Reserve earned an annual average $288,000 net profit. Fact is, since 1987, the net profit is $132,740 a year on average. Since 2017, 1/3 of that is renting land to a cell tower (included as forest profit!)
The DG fails to outright report UBC says carbon credits could generate as much or more cash than logging (selling to local buyers—not Chevron).
Also troubling, the consultants will allow only 5,000 words of written submissions and won’t consider the 800 citizen comments submitted with the original 1,500 person petition that began this whole process.
Who decides what comments will be prioritized? No comment.
The on-line platform, Placespeak, will be used despite widespread concerns it’s too confusing. As the Mayor said, “It makes my head explode.”
The absence of broad, deep education is another issue. People lack a thorough understanding of our forests and their ecological importance as part of the most endangered landscape in BC — the coastal Douglas-fir biogeoclimatic zone.
The coup de gras: the “interim plan.” Council has endorsed a two-stage consultation process. The first phase, the interim stage, is being hurried along with the apparent goal of continued logging while the second plan is developed. What is the “interim plan?” I have no idea. We have been asking for a year and haven’t received a comprehensive answer from staff and the consultants. At the recent Forest Advisory Committee meeting, the Mayor said even some Councillors are asking what it is.
When we ask tough questions, the consultants come back with: “Council approved it.” I fear that Council, too, is being used as a rubber stamp, that our elected officials want to do the right thing but are also bombarded with last-minute reports to synthesize in impossible time frames.
WDWS wanted to believe the process would be fair. We didn’t want to believe the debate is another stacked deck, an infomercial for the forestry department. Now, our only hope that consultation and the “ship” (as the municipality calls itself) could turn around is Council. We are counting on the Mayor and Councillors, as our elected tugboats, to demand a transparent, open, inclusive, broad, deep process.
There is so much more to report. Please follow WhereDoWeStand.ca for updates.
Icel Dobell
late breaking news (Saturday July 11 - 2:00pm):
- The latest draft of the DG now shows that UBC says carbon credits could generate as much or more cash than logging (at the very bottom of the Guide with a disclaimer)
- PlaceSpeak is now playing a minor supporting role, the North Cowichan Website has been enhanced to include a Forestry Engagement landing page.
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