First Tassie Treesit of the Season Costs Logging Company $10,000

-The Age
Forestry Tasmania wants protesters who blocked access to a harvesting area of state forest to repay the estimated $10,000 cost of their actions.
A protester tethered to a boom gate and 16 other activists from the group Still Wild, Still Threatened abandoned their blockade of a site in the Upper Florentine Valley, 120km west of Hobart, after a police warning on Monday. There were no arrests.

Company Logging Cathedral Grove 25% owned by BC Government

-Richard Boyce, Island Lens
Cathedral Grove is under attack again, this time by a company that the BC government owns 25% of through a numbered company in Manitoba. Does the public know that the same government responsible for protecting this unique old growth forest is logging adjacent to this world famous provincial park?
Scott Fraser, MLA for Port Alberni-Qualicum said; “The BC government is the single largest investor in Island Timberlands, which is putting the public at risk by logging along the boundary of the park. The government has a very important responsibility to protect public safety in Cathedral Grove. I need to know what the government is doing to protect the trees in the park from wind-throw caused by adjacent logging.”

Logging at Cathedral Grove stops – for now

Julia Caranci, Canwest News Service
PORT ALBERNI – Island Timberlands has put plans on hold to log 7,500 cubic metres of old-growth forest near the border of Cathedral Grove park.
The forestry firm says, however, there are no guarantees the area won’t be harvested in the future.
Protesters concerned about the logging of the old-growth forest threatened to interfere with the harvesting and had held two protests, one at Cathedral Grove park last weekend and another outside the company office in Nanoose.

Piece of Vancouver Island has pricetag of $25 million

Timber company selling Capes Lake
Chuck Chiang, Calgary Herald
Those looking for their ultimate wilderness playground — complete with lakes, lush B.C. rainforests, hiking access to the Comox Glacier and views of a 300-foot waterfall — will now have their chance to own a piece of Vancouver Island.
The catch? The parcel, all 5,110 hectares of it, is selling as a single entity, with a $25-million price tag.
Capes Lake is one of the first forays into the real estate market by TimberWest Forest Corp., better known as a forest products company that primarily uses its land for lumber.

Judge Rule Berkeley Treesitters Must Pay $26,000

By Will Kane, Daily Cal Staff Writer
A judge ruled Thursday that five protesters associated with the tree-sit must pay the University of California more than $26,000 in legal fees associated with the 22-month tree-sit.
Judge Cecilia Castellanos required that tree-sitter Michael “Shem” Schuck pay $8,500. She also ruled that unofficial tree-sit leader Erik “Ayr” Eisenberg pay $4,100 and supporters Terri Slanetz, Matthew Taylor and Gregg Horton pay $5,100, $4,900 and $3,750 respectively.

Protesters threaten to disrupt logging near the border of Cathedral Grove

Julia Caranci, Canwest
PORT ALBERNI — Protesters are threatening to interfere with operations near
the border of Cathedral Grove Park using non-violent means. But some
reports suggest plans to log 7,500 cubic metres — or about 200 logging
trucks full — of old-growth forest could be on hold for the moment.

Cathedral Grove Logging Blocked by “Frogs” and “Mice”

Early Monday morning, Vancouver Islanders placed a symbolic roadblock across an active logging road in Cathedral Grove next to MacMillan Provincial Park. Volunteers with Friends of the Grove (FROG) warned
Island Timberlands contractors that others in the forest are prepared to interfere with logging operations by playing “cat and mouse” with the loggers.

Friend’s of The Earth becomes First major NGO to no longer support FSC certification

-from Earth’s Tree News (http://olyecology.livejournal.com)
Friends of the Earth (FoE) is the first major international NGO to confirm they no longer support Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification [search], which falsely suggests primary and old-growth forest logging is desirable and even sustainable. This is a major victory for those including Ecological Internet (EI) and FSC-Watch[1] who have courageously taken on large environmental interests using FSC to greenwash ancient forest destruction. FoE pioneered timber certification during the 1980s and was one of FSC’s founders, but FoE International in Amsterdam has confirmed that it is now “reviewing” its membership of the organization.

Old-Growth Logged in Cathedral Grove

-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.

Protestors flood BC Hydro Site C ‘consultation’ meeting

-cjdc 890
Representatives from BC Hydro were in the middle of explaining aspects of the proposed Site C dam when about 20 protestors armed with cowbells and large banners saying ‘Save the Peace’, flooded the 2 p.m. meeting at the North Peace Cultural centre.
They marched around the room once, then left after about five minutes to stand on the streetcorner chanting ‘No Site C.’
George Desjarlais of the West Moberly First Nations, joined the protest because he says the proposed dam would destroy the valley and the wildlife in it.

Nick Parsons, a farmer from Farmington, says he thinks the public consultations aren’t about listening to stakeholders. He says the meetings are just the government’s way of pressing ahead with the project.

The last public consultation meeting in this region for Round Two, Stage Two, takes place Monday evening at 6:30pm. For more information or to register for the meetings, go to BC Hydro’s website at http://www.bchydro.com/

Tobi Elliott — Fort St John