Real-time reports on clearcuts and log exports from southern Vancouver Island. Updated with data from online sources and first-hand info. Spread the word: bookmark, share, follow, comment. Send photos and tips to clearcuts@hushmail.com .
The Black Forest, a Hong Kong flagged cargo vessel, is currently loading raw logs in Port Alberni, bringing the number of raw log export ships in Vancouver Island ports to six this week.
Reported: Clearcut logging across the highway from China Beach, near Juan de Fuca Provincial Park, 70 km west of Victoria.
The company doing the logging is Queesto Logging, a partnership between the Pacheedaht First Nation and Canadian Overseas Group. The wood is reportedly destined for a mill on the Fraser River. This group began operations in its new Tree Farm License this fall. Click here for a larger PDF version of the forest map below.
A few kilometers east of China Beach, the Jordan River log sort yard is full of timber.
This just in: Caycuse Valley has been stripped.
Below: Ancient Forest Alliance executive director Ken Wu next to old
growth Douglas fir trees that were cut down in the Caycuse Valley between Cowichan Lake and the
Walbran Valley. The Alliance is trying to prevent this from happening
again, to preserve Vancouver Island’s few vital old growth forests.
Photo: Tyler Clark for Lake Cowichan Gazette.
The Ancient Forest Alliance reports:
The BC government has allowed an important deer
wintering range to be logged on Vancouver Island in the Caycuse Valley south of
Cowichan Lake. British Columbia's coastal black-tailed deer populations that
live at higher elevations (ie. where there is snow pack) spend the winter
months in old-growth forests where they find food and shelter. Lichens which
take a long time to spread and grow (and thus are found in much greater
abundance in old-growth forests) form a large part of their winter diet.
This
particular grove of extremely rare old-growth Douglas firs was logged in the
summer of 2011. Vancouver Island's deer population has dropped from over
200,000 individuals in the 1970's to less than 60,000 individuals 30 years
later in large part due to the logging of their old-growth wintering range. Help
protect Vancouver Island's last old-growth forests, ensure sustainable
second-growth forestry, and ban the export of raw logs.
