Op-ed by Jennifer Houghton
I’ve been out in the mountains north of Grand Forks for the past 4 days. Two of our dedicated forest watchdogs, Stan Swinarchuk and Wayne Tblus, led our consultant Erik Piikkila, and I, on a journey that covered hundreds of miles of high mountains, valley bottoms, streams, and various ecosystem types. I saw clear cut, after clear cut, after clear cut, after clear cut…
Our watershed, which is over 8000 sq km on the Canadian side of the border, has been DEVASTATED. This is not hyperbole.
Anyone who drives the entire length of Christian Valley Road (over 100 km) can see for themselves – almost the entire vista has been clear cut over the past 40 years – barely any has been left untouched by corporate clear cut forestry. Miles and miles of old growth forests have been taken down and are not coming back – the steepest, highest slopes aren’t going to grow back into anything resembling a forest. Anyone who believes they will grow back is a victim of the Doctrine of Corporate-Forest-Deception. Corporations have logged out the valley bottoms and mid-elevations and are now logging out the high steep slopes.
A substantial number of bridges and roads are being washed out because of the volume and speed at which the water is pouring down the slopes. The trees that used to manage the water were taken out.
Is it any wonder that Grand Forks has had floods in 3 out of the past 4 years?
The BC NDP Minister of Forests is not stopping, pausing, or even looking at the logging that caused the degree of flooding we’ve had here over the past 4 years. Donaldson and Horgan are encouraging and requiring it and are complicit in the continued destruction of our watershed. 100’s of thousands of hectares are scheduled to be cut in the Boundary in 2020, 2021, 2022, and so on.
Over the past few days I’ve felt horrified, saddened, depressed, and ENRAGED. My head is full of profanities. However, I’ve made the decision to channel the rage into strategic and collective action.
We (Boundary Forest Watershed Stewardship Society) are creating a report on the state of our forests and making recommendations for how to fix it. Its ugly. Big changes are needed to fix it.
I’ll be putting out all the video and photos over the next few weeks – there are hundreds of them. Here is a small sampling of some of the photos and video that were taken during last week’s tour.
Jennifer Houghton, President of BFWSS
