-Richard Boyce
While the logging company claims that there is a buffer of 300 metres between the falling area and the internationally renowned park, the reality is that the buffer is actually the Cameron River which meanders along the bottom of the Valley at that point just before flowing into Cameron Lake. This water then flows into the Little Qualicum River which is the source of drinking water for thousands of residents of Whiskey Creek and the Town of Qualicum Beach.
Dear Supporters of Cathedral Grove.
Friends of Cathedral Grove will be coordinating gatherings of those interested in showing there is great concern for an imminent logging program by Island Timberlands in Cathedral Grove. The logging will occur near the boundary of MacMillan Park but still within what is considered the ancient, old-growth forest. Deforestation near the park is changing the hydrology and putting all remaining forest in the valley-bottom at risk. Several organizations have expressed interest in acquiring more of the Cameron River valley, including the Nature Trust of B.C, preferably with the ancient trees intact. Below are two articles for your information, 1 local & 1 International
We seek your support by attending these events. Please bring friends and help show the media that people still care about Cathedral Grove.
Visitor Parking Area
Cathedral Grove Provincial Park
11 am Sunday, October 5, 2008
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Main Gate
Island Timberlands’ Nanoose Yard
Northwest Bay Road & Inland Highway (At the lights just south of Parksville)
11 am Monday, October 6, 2008
Please bring signs with these suggested exhortations
SAVE OLD GROWTH
TREE CUTTING = BLOWDOWN
PROTECT CATHEDRAL GROVE
PROTECT DRINKING WATER
DON’T CUT ANCIENT TREES
IF YOU ARE UNABLE TO ATTEND OR WANT TO DO A LITTLE MORE PLEASE CONTACT THE FOLLOWING WITH ANY CONCERNS (This can really help a lot because they hate bad PR since it can effect their bottom line!)
Brooksfield Timber Division Leigh Tang Telephone: (604) 661-9143 E-mail:ltang@brookfield.com
Makenzie Leine, Island Timberlands manager of sustainability and community affairs – Telephone: (250) 755-3500 mleine@islandtimberlands.com
Darshan Sihota, Island Timberlands President – Telephone: (250) 755-3531
Email: dsihota@islandtimberlands.com
Island Timberlands Woodlands Office 5th Floor, 65 Front Street Nanaimo, BC Canada V9R 5H9 Fax: (250) 755-3540
LET THE MEDIA and ALL LEVELS OF GOVERNMENT KNOW YOU WANT LOGGING IN CATHEDRAL GROVE STOPPED NOW!
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REMEMBER THIS IS A GLOBAL COMPANY DESTROYING A LOCAL GEM!
Friday, January 04, 2008
Profitable Island Timberlands to become part of Bermuda-based partnership, a “global, pure-play public issuer”
BROOKFIELD TO SPIN OFF TIMBER ASSET
Gordon Hamilton
Vancouver Sun – Friday, January 04, 2008
Brookfield Asset Management, which owns 50 per cent of one of Vancouver Island’s largest forest companies, Island Timberlands, is spinning off its timber and power assets into a Bermuda-based partnership to create an offshore investment vehicle.
Toronto-based Brookfield intends to issue 60 per cent of the new firm, called Brookfield Infrastructure Partners LP, as a special dividend to its existing shareholders. Brookfield will retain the remaining 40 per cent.
Brookfield Infrastructure Partners will initially own five electricity and timber operations in North America, Brazil and Chile. It is to begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange Jan. 31.
Being based in Bermuda, the new company will have an international board of directors and is expected to be exempt from certain Canadian taxes and the enforcement of Canadian civil judgments.
In its prospectus, Brookfield Infrastructure Partners lays out the purpose of the spinoff as a strategy to create a global pure-play public issuer “that should be well positioned to pursue an infrastructure and acquisition growth strategy.”
It defines infrastructure as “long-life, physical assets that are the backbone for the provision of essential products or services for the global economy.” The partnership will be the primary vehicle for future large-scale infrastructure acquisitions by Brookfield, which has $90 billion in assets worldwide.
Island Timberlands is one of its more profitable assets, the prospectus reveals.
Brookfield, along with two Canadian institutional partners, created Island Timberlands in 2005 from Weyerhaeuser Co.’s private lands after purchasing Weyerhaeuser’s coastal assets. Weyerhaeuser’s sawmills and Crown timberlands were later merged into Western Forest Products.
Island Timberlands owns 258,000 hectares of land on Vancouver Island, the largest chunks being in the regions of Courtenay, Port Alberni, Nanaimo and Duncan. There are 58 million cubic metres of timber on the properties, mostly high-value Douglas fir, cedar and hemlock. Island Timberlands harvests 1.8 million cubic metres a year, which is mostly exported to markets in the U.S. Pacific Northwest and Asia.
The prospectus provides a rare glimpse into privately held Island Timberlands, revealing it to be one of the most, if not the most profitable forest company in the province based on net income.
Income statements show that despite the generally depressed forest economy in B.C., Island Timberlands posted net income of $32.1 million on log sales of $184 million for the nine months ending Sept. 30, 2007. By comparison, Western Forest Products, a company under common control of Brookfield that operates sawmills and logs Crown land in the same region, lost $12.9 million over the same nine-month period.
The prospectus also sheds light on Brookfield’s strategy for Island Timberlands.
Log exports: The U.S. Pacific Northwest has made significant investments in modernized sawmills, resulting in a three billion board-foot, or 29-per-cent increase, in regional sawmilling capacity over the last five years. “This increase in capacity, combined with conservation-related reductions in harvest levels, has made the U.S. Pacific Northwest an attractive timber market.” Because of their high fixed costs, the U.S. sawmills continue to operate in depressed markets, such as the one the industry is now experiencing.
Looming timber shortages: Brookfield foresees a global scarcity in timber supplies, the result of the mountain pine beetle’s drastic effect on future timber production in B.C. and Alberta, Russian log export restrictions, the continued withdrawal of timberlands for conservation or real estate development, and competition for wood fibre from bio-fuel producers.
Real Estate: Island Timberlands has 14,000 hectares of Vancouver Island identified as “higher and better-use” properties that could be developed or sold for conservation purposes. It values those lands at $104 million. In the nine months ending Sept. 30, 2007, it sold $14 million of those properties for a net gain of $7 million. Two other forest companies, TimberWest Forest, and Western Forest Products, have attracted broad public concern on the Island for selling off parcels of their own timberlands.
ghamilton@png.canwest.com
©VaacnouverSun2008
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Timberlands to log near Cathedral Grove
Nature Trust wants to purchase sensitive parcels from company
Julia Caranci, Alberni Valley Times
Published: Thursday, October 02, 2008
Island Timberlands (IT) will be harvesting about 7,500 cubic metres of old growth forest within about 300 metres of the MacMillan (Cathedral Grove) Park boundary.
The news isn’t sitting well with an environmental group that has been fighting to have the area protected, and an organization that has been attempting to negotiate the purchase of some environmentally significant land owned by the forest company.
Island Timberlands spokesperson Mackenzie Leine told the Times the harvesting will commence later this week.
“Our biggest concern is that the saws will be audible inside the park,” she said.
Leine explained the closest point the logging will come to the park boundary is 300 metres to the south — the area being harvested is all land privately owned by the forest company.
Helicopters will be used to remove the harvested logs from the area.
Leine explained the company has done a visual assessment of the land to be logged from the highway, pertaining to “Crown Land visual quality objectives.”
She said a small portion of the logging will be visible from the highway, but is only expected to affect about 1.5% of the viewscape in the area.
The land being logged is within the company’s operating land base, and generally speaking, such plans are laid out up to two years in advance.
Leine could not say where the logs will be going after they are harvested.
“I don’t know who the customer is,” she said.
Doug Walker, president of the Nature Trust of B.C., said the non-profit, charitable organization has been trying to negotiate with Island Timberlands to purchase additional parcels of land adjacent to Cathedral Grove (and other areas), but following the hiring of a new director of real estate at the logging company, talks were put on hold.
“They told me they were not logging in that area (near the park), but that was about six months ago,” Walker said. “It’s unfortunate to hear they are now.”
He added it isn’t clear whether or not the parcel being logged is one the Trust was interested in, but the group is attempting to secure more land (with cooperation from the province) around the park to protect it for future generations.
Walker said his group is very interested in getting back to the table with IT again.
“We want to negotiate the purchase of extremely important conservation habitat,” he explained.
The money the Trust uses to purchase land comes from donors, grants and help from government.
Annette Tanner, spokesperson for the Western Canada Wilderness Committee, has herself been trying to obtain more information about exactly where the IT cut block is located, but says the company has thus far refused to supply her with a map.
“They say they don’t need to let anyone know what their plans are,” she said.
Tanner is opposed to any logging of old growth forest near the park because she says it is “Canada’s most important forest”, a designated community watershed area, and a region with high bird, elk, fish and other wildlife values.
WCWC officials also say logging around the park will increase flooding, run off and erosion inside protected areas, which detrimentally affects the natural balance of the area.
“I don’t think they should keep logging until there’s nothing left,” Tanner said.
Filed under: BC, Canada, Cathedral Grove, Vancouver Island
