Sliammon First Nation files suit over decade-old landslide mess

Sliammon First Nation sues governments and forestry company, saying road defects caused slide and depleted salmon stocks
SUNNY DHILLON, Globe and Mail
VANCOUVER — The Sliammon First Nation in Powell River filed a lawsuit against a northwest forestry company and the provincial and federal governments on Tuesday “to compel cleanup of damage caused to its Toquana Reserve” in a 1995 landslide.
“It was mud and debris and everything else,” Sliammon First Nation Chief Walter Paul said.

Protecting the public interest in B.C. forests

Forestry can best meet expectations of the public by striving to meet them
Ray Travers, Special to Times Colonist
British Columbians have just witnessed a spirited public exchange between auditor general John Doyle and Forests Minister Pat Bell over the release of the report “Removing Private Land from Tree Farm Licences 6, 19 & 25: Protecting the Public Interest?”
Why is protecting the public interest — a central concept in B.C. forestry — attracting so much attention? Done well, it should result in us being better off.

Talks continue on proposed logging in Hesquiaht

Gillian Riddell, Westerly News; with files from http://www.iisaak.com and http://www.focs.ca
Talks are continuing between environmental groups and a forestry company run by local First Nations about logging in the untouched Hesquiaht Point Creek valley in Clayoquot Sound.
On Monday, just hours before a deadline imposed by the environmentalists, a news release was issued stating the groups would be meeting with the Central Region First Nations Chiefs.

Minister to review Crown, private logging practices

Judith Lavoie, Times Colonist
Forests Minister Pat Bell will be in Campbell River today taking a look at the difference in logging practices on private managed forestlands and Crown land.
Bell, who is meeting with the forestry round table in Campbell River, said he will look at blocks being logged by TimberWest.

Ongoing threat fuels Clayoquot rally, group says

Judith Lavoie, Times Colonist
Clayoquot Sound remains under threat, even though a temporary truce has been called in a brewing battle between environmentalists and companies wanting to log an old-growth valley, says a prominent environmental group.
Friends of Clayoquot Sound, which grew out of massive protests that halted logging in Clayoquot in 1993, will hold a rally in Tofino Saturday to draw attention to what it calls industrial threats facing the area.

Locals oppose mine on Catface Mountain

By Matthew Burrows, Vancouver Straight
An environmental advocate has promised to take “action” in Tofino, arguing that a Vancouver-based mining company’s exploratory drilling on Catface Mountain does not respect the need for community input.
However, Friends of Clayoquot Sound office coordinator Kevin Bruce told the Georgia Straight not to expect a rewind to the mass protests of 1993 just yet.

The arrogance of the environmentalists

Iain Cuthbert, Special to the Sun
Randy Shore’s excellent article on Clayoquot Sound describes yet another example of the inability of environmentalists to learn and adapt to change, which is why it is widely held that this tired movement is doomed to extinction.
During the 1990s “war in the woods,” environmentalists along with first nations blocked forestry operations and achieved a moratorium on logging in areas of Clayoquot Sound, forcing industry to work with scientists and communities to develop ecologically and socially acceptable harvesting practices.

Minister open to TFL talks

By Francisco Canjura – Castlegar News
Minister of Forests and Range Pat Bell said he would be willing to talk to community leaders before making a decision on whether or not to sell private lands on Tree Farm License (TFL) 23.
“(The) TFL 44 deal is done, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t learn from it. We will work closely with Nakusp Mayor Karen Hamling on the decision concerning TFL 23,” Bell said.

Doyle report a damning indictment

John Horgan, NDP MLA for Malahat-Juan de Fuca. Opinion in Goldstream Gazette

Over the past eighteen months I have written and spoken at length about former Forest Minister Rich Coleman’s decision to remove 28,000 hectares of land from three Western Forest Products Tree Farm Licences on Vancouver Island.

Sides in Clayoquot dispute agree to talk

Environmentalists angered by aboriginal-owned company’s plan to harvest trees in watershed
ANNA MEHLER PAPERNY, Globe and Mail
VANCOUVER — Native and environmental groups are sitting down to settle their heated dispute over the fate of forests in Clayoquot Sound, a controversial wilderness area on the west coast of Vancouver Island that was a symbol of aboriginal and environmentalist solidarity in vocal resistance to clear-cuts in the early 1990s.