I'm Ross Muirhead, I'm with the group Elphinstone Logging Focus.
We're a local forestry watchdog group.
We try and anticipate where logging could be happening in our local community.
We had about 40 people out today.
This is our second walk in the forest.
And people are starting to become a bit more conscious of what is in here, what could be
lost.
The island Timberlands has got plans to come in here and do clear cut logging, the old style
kind of big clear cuts that we're used to seeing around here.
They're part of a huge multinational corporation called Brookfield Asset Management with headquarters
in New York City.
And if you're ever following the Occupy movement, they own the park in New York City that the
protesters were living in.
From what we understand, they want to just come in and pretty much take out everything.
All the old growth trees, all the smaller trees right up to the edge of Roberts Creek.
And that would be a real loss to the community.
The first stop will be to the scuger scratching tree and then we'll go on to the waterfall.
It's a really heavily used area for recreation.
There are all sorts of different trail types in here.
There are horseback riding, mountain biking, ATVing, and just casual walking.
It's a well used area.
In fact, a lot of people think it's a park because it's been in this natural state for
quite some time.
McMillan Blodell owned this land previous to Island Timberlands, previous to that it
was a wire house.
McMillan Blodell was going to do a clear cut style operation in here.
The community was upset.
They had the opportunity of meeting with the local contractor and Mack Blow and they came
up with a really nice compromise.
And so today we have some selectively logged forests where they took out maybe 50% of the
trees.
They left most of the old growth around the trails and then they took out 5 to 6 acre patches.
So we're asking Island Timberlands to respect that prior agreement with the community and
just harvest the areas that they actually planted.
So they did some kind of selective logging where they took out 50% of the trees and then
they did these open cut patches.
When I was a kid, many of our utilities and things like that were shared.
They were owned by us, public companies, whereas now everything's been privatized and taken
out of our hands.
And along with that, we had all these forestry legislation that said things like you're not
supposed to log right into the creeks and things that are kind of basic ecosystem things
to kind of ecosystem no-nos.
And what's happened is they've created legislation at the end of every piece of legislation that
says not withstanding logging, which basically means don't do bad things unless it means
you can't log.
And in that case, you can just log anyway.
So it's the ultimate deregulation and there's just no regard for the environment whatsoever.
And we're not asking people to stop logging, we're just asking them to use common sense
and some legislation that protects things like our water, protects really important
trees that are protecting endangered or threatened species, some real basics that can help the
ecosystem maintain itself.
I've been picking mushrooms here for like, well, maybe eight years and identifying them
all the time and always finding mushrooms that are just not in bucks or just like, what's
this?
No idea what it is.
Yeah.
I think it's just foolish to think that we can let, we can destroy some of the last habitat
of these, you know, billions of year old creatures.
And as if it doesn't matter when in reality, some of these mushrooms might have some of
the biochemistry that might save us from whatever cancer or whatever ailment, I mean, a lot
of mushrooms have a lot of medicinal properties.
So it's certainly something worth looking into.
But you go to even in the interior in D.C. and you don't find the amount of concentrated
mushrooms within a small area, as you do here.
We hear it's everywhere all the time.
It's just amazing.
Like in the middle, whenever it's season, there's always a bunch of mushrooms around.
Yeah.
And up in these hills.
It's a unique ecosystem, but it's amazing.
But you see what happens is when trees are cut and especially uprooted, like clear cuts
are, all the excess water from rainfalls coming down from the mountain just gets poured.
It's not absorbed by the roots.
Like all those trees that were there were absorbing all the water, including the mushroom
mycelium.
And then you have this excess amount of water that just pours down the mountain.
And for the community, like we'll have, you know, we could have washouts and so forth,
right?
I think it makes sense for Island Timberlands to talk to the community and let them know
what they're planning on doing because people live right there.
Roberts Creek is right there and there's old growth trees all along the creek.
So it'd be good for the community to participate and let, you know, we want, we should let
them know what we're thinking and they should let us know what they're thinking before they
go ahead.
Even if they do have the legal right to come in here and log whatever they want according
to the province.
I think it just makes sense for there to be some talking.
So we're hoping Island Timberlands will meet with the community well in advance of setting
down any plans to bring in their equipment.
We think we can come to an agreement if the company is willing to come out, listen to
what the community has to say.
There'd be, have to be some give and take.
But if, you know, if we don't see some better communication with the company, we're just
concerned that there could be a confrontation doesn't have to come to that because there's
lots of opportunities for them to get their wood and the community to retain their wonderful
forest through here.
