You may ask yourself, ‘What is Fairy Creek is and why should I care? With the reality of British Columbia’s old growth forests being targeted and logged for private profit, everybody should care.
Old growth logging of forests in BC has become an international issue as evidenced by the recently released The World is Watching video featuring well known personalities such as Canadian academic, science broadcaster and environmental activist David Suzuki, American actor and activist Mark Ruffalo, and South African actor and activist Nathalie Boltt. The video highlights people from around the world talking about the importance of keeping old growth forests and their biodiversity in-tact. The video also focuses on the NDP government’s lack of action in protecting the forests. People need to understand that old-growth forests are not renewable and are worth more left standing than logged. Old-growth forests are so important because there has been an increasing recognition that biodiversity depends on undamaged ecosystems. Protecting our tall giants is also a key factor in helping to combat global warming. B.C. is at a high risk to loss of biodiversity because of the province’s poor management of our forests.
Three First Nations have recommended to the NDP government that they postpone the logging of old-growth forest in and around Fairy Creek, B.C. This follows months of blockading by environmental activists to stop logging roads being built by forestry company, Teal Jones Group, which brought an order against the protesters that led to over 170 arrests by RCMP. Despite First Nations’ interventions and the media spotlight via social media and the video, activists are still being arrested and irreplaceable trees are still being logged.
Not only are the tall giants at Fairy Creek in danger but so is the habitat of endangered species, including the Western Screech owl and more. Environmental organizations such as the Wilderness committee have a team of people that go out to investigate the forests in search for Western Screech owl nests. Activist Brandon Mulholland, a volunteer with the wilderness committee, described what environment and what it was like to be at Ferry Creek. “The environment is absolutely beautiful but terrifying at the same time. On one hand you can see old growth forests, on the other you see clear cut mountain sides with huge scarring. It is quite devastating to be up there and think how they could possibly take any more trees from the area. I also saw several of the camps that were set up. They have set up several blockades all throughout the area. The original camp I was supposed to camp at was blocked off by RCMP as they were about to do a series of arrests,” said, Mulholland.
