Anthony Britneff, a 40-year employee of the B.C. Forest Service, has written an op-ed in the Times Colonist recommending that the purposes of the forest ministry be re-written to include a stewardship purpose.
This recommendation comes just in time for the launch of our campaign to push for changes to forestry legislation. Forests manage our water for us and must be protected by law so that communities are safe and have a secure future.
Excerpt from Britneff’s article:
“With many forestry communities upset with the poor stewardship of their local forests and with contamination of their drinking water from clearcut logging, one wonders why appeasing initiatives like the Old Growth Strategy (1991), the Protected Areas Strategy (1993) and the Old Growth Deferral Initiative (2021) have not delivered.
The only substantive changes to how forests are stewarded, or not, have resulted from new legislation. Politicians eager to appease public concerns about forestry without conviction (i.e., without changing the law), do so by offering up these flavour-of-the-month, appeasing initiatives, which are bound to fizzle and fail because their requirement is not rooted in law.”
Read the article here: https://www.timescolonist.com/opinion/comment-forest-service-needs-to-include-ecological-stewardship-8310075