BC's oldest and most important Old-Growth forest ecosystems are IN TROUBLE, due to rapacious logging companies and governments that have failed us by allowing disastrous CLEARCUT LOGGING of our precious ancient stands to continue..

We cannot stand by and watch while our last intact climate-cooling wildlife habitats are destroyed forever.  With only 1-4% of our oldest and rarest temperate rainforest remaining, we MUST TAKE ACTION NOW TO ENSURE THEIR ONGOING SURVIVAL!  Each day delayed means the further loss of these threatened vital ecosystems by logging corps whose greed and indifference know no bounds, as they wipe out the equivalent of 34 football fields DAILY -- using huge machines that also negate the need for human operators, as well as Govt's oft-repeated claims of 'JOBS!' as their defense for continuing to LOG AS BEFORE.

With Climate-related disasters like deadly wildfires and heat-domes increasing in intensity each year, these non-renewable ancient forest ecospheres are infinitely more valuable INTACT -- as C02 inks/ fire-shields/ oxygen sources/ water conservators/ wildlife habitat -- than unceremoniously demolished and shipped abroad for further (polluting) processing, into wasteful products such as fuel pellets..

Yet that's exactly what our government has allowed for over 150 years -- and despite repeated promises, huge in-forest demonstrations by 'forest defenders' and warnings from Climate scientists worldwide++ the DEFORESTATION CONTINUES UNABATED, leaving behind huge gaping wounds that never fully recover -- whether replanted with single-species 'tree farms' or not.. The damage is done:  the consequences of continuous clearcut logging are cumulative, disastrous and multifarious -- eg. from life-giving C02 sinks --> TWO (2) major GHG sources:  (1) when logged, C02 stored over trees' lifetimes is released and (2) when burned as fuel..

Contrary to Govt's claims, wood-pellet burning is UNSUSTAINABLE -- its GHG emissions equal to those of coal, gas and LNG.. but much worse with 1,000 years of stored C02 emitted by logging!  Using our last living iconic ancient trees -- whose forest habitats are lush havens of teeming biodiversity developed over centuries, providing countless benefits to life on Earth -- is as psychopathic as demolishing the Great Pyramids for the price of their stones~!!?  (Only worse, due to the value-added advantages of these VITAL stands, which are more urgently needed than ever as Climate-change disasters threaten our very existence..)

Conservation North's new map reveals that old-growth forests in BC have been nearly eliminated by industrial activity.  Despite this dire situation, the Provincial Govt. led by Premier Horgan is still allowing logging in most of the areas he promised to legislate "off limits"!

Without retention of our intact old-growth forests, Canada will NOT be able to fulfill its role in fighting climate change, NOR meet its carbon-reduction targets under the Paris Agreement.

WE NEED TO INSIST THE BC GOVERNMENT IMMEDIATELY CANCEL ALL OLD-GROWTH CUT-BLOCKS AND PROTECT OUR LAST INTACT ANCIENT RAINFORESTS, BEFORE THEY ARE WIPED OFF THE MAP FOREVER!  Leaving them intact ensures that their capacious eco-balancing/ C02-sinking/ life-sustaining services continue well into the future (at least 7 generations worth and beyond, to evoke a 1st Nations steward's guideline)  Once logged, these life-saving giants -- teeming with innumerable hypostatic, interactive, sustaining species/ systems performing countless complex eco-benefits built up over many centuries+ -- WILL NOT GROW BACK!!

Yes, we're on the precarious edge of calamitous climate breakdown, accelerated by human-driven extractive/ industrial carnage -- government-condoned deforestation decimating our last vestiges of effective defense against climate change/ mass extinction: CLEARING THESE LAST ENRICHING NATURAL BIOSPHERES, THEREAFTER EXACERBATING GRAVE AND IRREVERSIBLE CLIMATE IMBALANCES, IS NOTHING SHORT OF GENOCIDE, given what we know of their crucial importance in the ongoing health and wellbeing of every living organism..

I.E. PROTECTING OUR LIVING OLD-GROWTH FORESTS FROM DESTRUCTION BY UNSUSTAINABLE LOGGING SHOULD BE GOVT'S #1 PRIORITY: CRUCIAL in combatting rising GHGs alone -- which are still rising, and will continue to rise at the current rate of accelerated deforestation of BC's most critical ancient stands.

Scientists worldwide have repeatedly confirmed that THE best -- and easiest -- way to achieve a "green and just recovery" is to protect what protects us: Mother Nature. To win this fight, we need Premier Horgan to listen to the science and make good on his word:  STOP logging old-growth forests NOW, before it's too late! Our communities, and the threatened species that depend on these rare ecosystems to survive, CANNOT WAIT..

Therefore we call on Premier Horgan and his provincial government to END OLD-GROWTH LOGGING IMMEDIATELY, for the health and future wellbeing of our biodiversity, communities, environments, watersheds.. and our beloved wildlife species that urgently need the special protections these last remaining ecosystems provide:  please don't let the logging corps destroy their essential habitat and drive them to extinction!

 

[Photo:  A Western Screech Owl, one of the many S.A.R.A.-listed species that rely on BC's old-growth forests for survival.  Screech owls mate for life, with both parents involved in raising their young]

 

{This petition will send the following letter directly to Premier Horgan and Minister of Forests Katrine Conroy:}