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Hundreds gathered on the steps of the B.C. Legislature in Victoria on Sunday, calling for a “paradigm shift” in how the province approaches forestry and old-growth logging.
The event, which was organized by the group Elders for Ancient Trees, was the flagship event in a series of rallies planned to take place over the weekend and coming weeks.
At its peak, organizers say approximately 400 people attended the rally.
According to Jackie Larkin, one of the event organizers, the date was originally selected to coincide with the return of MLAs to the legislature — but says with an election now imminent, the timing couldn’t have been better.
“We’re extremely distressed about the state of old-growth in this province and the fact that it keeps getting logged, despite the promises from the government to stop logging and to defer and to protect the ancient trees,” said Larkin.
Elders for Ancient Trees has been around for about five years, according to Larkin, and advocates to defer old-growth logging, stop clear-cutting, and stop exporting raw logs.
Larkin emphasizes that that the group isn’t against logging and rural communities, but instead wants those industries to develop in a more sustainable manner. She says the automation of the industry, coupled with fewer and fewer trees, puts jobs at risk.
She’s not alone in her advocacy.
Jennifer Duggan is a part of a separate group that has met every Friday in Parksville, B.C., for the last five years, to protest and advocate for old-growth preservation.
Her group held a supporting rally last Friday, outside city hall, with over a dozen people coming together to call for the protection of old-growth and improved forestry standards.
Protestors in Parksville, B.C., who were a part of a coordinated supporting event last Friday. Jennifer Duggan says a committed group in Parksville have been meeting every Friday for nearly five years to advocate for improved forestry standards. (Jennifer Duggan)
Duggan says, as a life long NDP supporter, she’s disappointed that the provincial government hasn’t kept its promise to implement recommendations from an independent review that was undertaken in 2020, called the Old Growth Strategic Review. The review had 14 recommendations that would have overseen a shift in how the province manages its ancient ecosystems.
“We’re not gonna give up, we’re gonna keep going. I don’t know what’s more important than the environment,” said Duggan.
Duggan points to the New Forestry Act, introduced by the Boundary Forest Watershed Stewardship Society last year, as something she would like to see adopted to show that the province is serious about old-growth protections. The proposed policy framework would dramatically reduce the annual allowable timber cut to just 20 million cubic metres from its current total of nearly 45 million.
Both Duggan and Larkin say they hope Sunday’s rally attendees will leave with renewed energy for environmental protections, and that they want to see concrete action taken by whoever ends up in government after the polls close on Oct. 24.