The other day, I asked Tourism Cowichan where I might go to see an old-growth forest. I was referred to Avatar Grove, a postage stamp of a protected area almost two hours away at Port Renfrew on the west coast of Vancouver Island.
Then I asked the B.C. Forest Discovery Centre near Duncan the same question and was told I might also consider MacMillan Provincial Park near Port Alberni, about as far.
That neither organization could point me to an old-growth forest in my own backyard in the Cowichan Valley hints at a troubling legacy that has placed far more value on forest cutting than forest conservation.
The municipality of North Cowichan is in a unique position to reverse that trend within its 5,000-hectare-plus Municipal Forest Reserve by adopting a conservation ethic that recognizes the value of a forest for ecological, recreational and tourism reasons.
Hundreds of people — the highest in recent memory — turned out for a council meeting last December to overwhelmingly support a change in management of the forest reserve, which for too long has operated under the public radar.
I was among them. After selling my home in Tsawwassen and purchasing a view property in the Maple Bay area last May, I soon noticed clearcuts appearing near and far, including on Mount Prevost and Mount Sicker, both within the forest reserve.
I was concerned as a citizen, a nature lover and future proprietor of an Airbnb whose investment stood to be diminished by such clearcuts.
When I inquired, a municipal staffer informed me that the “municipality does not release logging plans for public comment before proceeding with any activities” and that the Forestry Advisory Committee is mainly comprised of “community members who are professionals in the forestry field.”
That’s wrong — and that’s just the beginning.
What’s needed is, yes, greater transparency and public input on logging plans, a wider representation on the advisory committee, and also recognition of the need to permanently preserve considerable areas from logging, including important viewscapes such as those on the most visible slopes of Mount Prevost.
North Cowichan would do well to take a page from Port Renfrew’s book.
That small but forward-looking community at the end of Highway 14 has embraced standing trees, and officially calls itself the Tall Tree Capital of Canada — thanks to the Ancient Forest Alliance successfully protecting Avatar Grove.
Tourists today visit Port Renfrew for three main attractions: sport fishing, Botanical Beach and the big trees — and the protected forests are a draw year-around, and don’t give a hoot about the daily tides.
“Strictly on a business basis, the attraction of an old-growth forest will last forever,” says Jon Cash, co-owner of Soule Creek Lodge and past-president of the chamber of commerce. “The benefits of logging will be very short-lived and you can’t take it back.”
Which is not an indictment of logging, but a cry for greater balance in our forests.
At the provincial level, there are also stirrings. Senior cabinet ministers met quietly with environmental groups recently in Vancouver to discuss the old-growth file. Says the province: “This government appreciates the value of old-growth forests for their bio-diversity and is currently refining an old-growth strategy.”
Will the winds of change make it to North Cowichan?
On Friday at 1:30 p.m., council will hold a critical meeting to discuss “forestry budget options” for the Municipal Forest Reserve — and I hope the value of a living forest is not given short shrift.
Freedom-of-information documents I obtained from municipal hall certainly reveal where Ted Swabey, chief administrative officer, stands on the issue. When he writes: “We do not clear-cut as a harvesting practice,” I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.
He further urges council to preserve the “logging mandate” and warns that the “divisive” issue could take staff away from other priorities and that logging trees in the forest reserve is “part of our cultural makeup.”
Wait a minute. Bureaucrats don’t dictate the culture of a community, citizens do. If a cultural change is what’s needed in North Cowichan, then so be it. I believe it’s already here, just waiting for the chance to reveal itself.
All we need is a council willing to look beyond its four-year mandate to a time when people can once again walk amongst an old-growth forest in the Cowichan Valley.
Larry Pynn is a veteran environmental writer and the author of Last Stands: A Journey Through North America’s Vanishing Ancient Rainforests.
