Stop the loss of old-growth forests

I applaud the B.C. government’s support for trying to reverse the pending extinction of spotted owls through breeding programs and rewilding efforts.

However, it seems nonsensical for the same government to issue logging permits to cut down the very habitat on which these endangered birds depend for survival.

For too long, logging interests have driven land management decisions in B.C. With 1,900 species at risk due to habitat loss, the provincial government must do everything it can to stop the loss of old-growth forest habitat immediately, and permanently.

Since about 20 per cent of B.C. forests are managed through the province’s Crown corporation, B.C. Timber Sales, why not start with an immediate moratorium on those old-growth and older second-growth forests within BCTS control?

Why is it so easy to find billions in subsidies for LNG, pipeline and fracking projects which the premier has declared incompatible with climate stabilization, and so hard to find the courage and funds to halt deforestation and support afforestation which the IPCC has declared the second best way, after wind and solar energy projects, to bend the curve on GHGs?

Why not lead for a change, instead of being dragged kicking and screaming to implement the measures on which you have campaigned and the values you so often have claimed to cherish?

Who knows? You may even be able to win another election rather than be relegated to the dustbin of governments who “unduly” chose to let corporate greed overwhelm the environment, biodiversity, and the chance to pass a “Supernatural B.C.” to future generations.

Bill Johnston Victoria