Protection from logging, mining urged for 41 per cent of Vancouver Island

Dirk Meissner
Canadian Press

Friday, June 10, 2005

VICTORIA (CP) -- An environmental group wants to protect more than 40 per cent of the land on Vancouver Island -- an area larger than Jasper National Park or more than double the size of Prince Edward Island.

Vancouver Island, with its laid-back, environmentally conscious residents, is the perfect location for a new approach to protecting large tracts of land, the Western Canada Wilderness Committee said Friday.

The wilderness committee's vision calls for 41 per cent of Vancouver Island to be fully protected from logging and mining, spokesman Ken Wu said.

Vancouver Island is about 32,000 square kilometres. The protected area proposed by the wilderness committee would cover more than 13,000 square kilometres.

"It's a natural-based society here on the island," Wu said. "A lot of people come here because of the high quality of life, which is afforded by the existing scenery and the forest cover and the natural beauty here."

The provincial government currently protects 13 per cent of Vancouver Island's land base, but the wilderness committee plans to push for reforms that increase the size of protected areas, said Wu.

Much of the land coveted by the wilderness committee is Crown land or private lands held by forest companies, he said.

The government said land protection decisions involve more planning and consultation than a Friday news conference by one group on Vancouver Island.

"It won't be done in an hour on the back of an envelope on a Friday afternoon," said George Abbott, Sustainable Resource Management Minister.

He said the government will continue to designate protected areas across British Columbia after wide ranging consultations with communities, industry and public organizations.

The wilderness committee is convinced it can save forest jobs through increasing value-added production in the forest industry or turning loggers into eco-tourism workers, Wu said.

"This is an opportunity to go beyond the traditional type of thinking for the province's economy," he said. "This is the centre of where we can build a new economy with a reduced rate of (forest) cut and a ramped up eco-tourism industry and a high-end value added sector."

Protecting large land areas makes scientific sense because it preserves homelands for wildlife, he said, adding that animals like wolves, bears, cougars and wolverines stand a better chance at long-term survival in large areas.
© Canadian Press 2005

I'm an avid back-country camper and hiker, and as much as I'd like to preserve the aesthetics of the Island (in some areas already in bad shape from logging) but 40% won't fly.

Some areas should be protected from any activity, but many areas can be used for sustainable harvesting of logs, and other low impact activities without being completley removed from the human activity circle. Look at the green buffer around the CRD, it sustains many large mammals yet logging, and other activities are allowed in the perifery (though to my dismay increasingly less activity is allowed in certain areas).

Green buffer? Is there one actually legislated around Victoria or is that just just the way it stands now?

^ I don't think that the Green-Blue Belt around Greater Victoria is legislated and I am pretty sure that it isn't even complete in its aquisitions. Most of the land purchases for this have been done in small parcels by The Land Conservancy.

If the WCWC is including developed cities in their areas that it would consider protected from Mining and Forestry then I would say this is an achievable number. Some of the best parts of the island have been ruined by clearcuts that are visible for kilometres around. I am mostly thinking about the areas around Lake Cowichan and the supposed new tourist route to Port Renfrew.