Sustainable Logging

What is meant by this term? At the Tsain-Ko Information Meeting held in May at the Egmont Community Hall, the term was batted around quite a bit. Tsain-Ko's logging consultants said they practice sustainable logging. However, we cannot agree with them if by that they mean they will pursue the guidelines established by our own provincial Ministry of Forests. We, the Friends of Egmont, are not anti-logging but we are against any policy that would allow logging on watersheds. We are not anti-logging but are against clear-cuts which would remove a forest within days and see it gone for 10 to 20 years and possibly forever.

So, what would we like to see and support and what do we mean by the term sustainable logging? Perhaps, the description supplied by the Ecoforestry Institute describes it best.

Ecoforestry is a low-impact approach to forest management that maintains a fully functioning forest within the natural historic range of spatial and temporal variability. It is a long-term ecologically sustainable and economically sound alternative to current conventional forest management.

Examples of ecoforestry principles and practices are:

*Mimicking natural ecosystem structure, function, composition and changes in management
*Preserving natural forest structure
*Protecting wildlife and their habitats
*Considering a wide range of forest products, both timber and non-timber
*Using low-impact techniques
*Harvesting less volume than forest growth rate in order to provide important forest structures such as standing and downed dead trees
*Promoting natural regeneration
*Appreciating all forest values (aesthetic, spiritual, genetic, recreational, protective) at least as much as monetary values of marketable products

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According to one Egmont community member, Billy Griffiths, the premier example of true sustainable logging was that practiced by Merve Wilkinson at Wildwood on Vancouver Island. As you will notice by clicking on 'Wildwood,' this view is shared by both the Ecoforestry Institute and the Land Conservancy of BC which are both raising funds to purchase Wildwood to preserve it forever.

As I write this, the lowland temperate rainforests of the Sunshine Coast from Pender Harbour south are being clear-cut and lost forever. Wouldn't it be miraculous if we could could preserve what remains of it here at this far end of the coast for all generations to come both native and non-native? As Billy told me the other day, "It is a worthy goal and one we will never know we could attain unless we tried." So, let us try.