Raw Logs, Raw Deal
It was standing room only at the biggest meeting room they’ve got at the Travelodge Silver Bridge in Duncan Thursday night. The enthusiastic crowd came to hear about forestry, community and sustainability.

The keynote speakers were

  • Ken James, President, Youbou Timberless Society
  • Rick Doman, former CEO, Doman Industries
  • Bill Routley, Steelworkers Union Local 1-80
  • Justin Calof, Sierra Club of BC

The audience received the premiere screening of “Exporting Jobs”, a new film by Ernie Tomlinson and Jack Moss of the Council of Canadians, Nanaimo Chapter.

The focus was on forestry and community and how appropriate policy and management of the one can support the economics and ongoing vitality of the other.
Calof: the future of our forests and the future of our communities go together. Right now, BC’s pine beetle wood is being sold for 25 cents a cubic metre, it will last perhaps another ten years, and there is no discussion or policy making to prepare communities for that time.

Doman: the policies of both the federal and provincial governments will ensure that neither BC’s coastal forests nor BC’s coastal forest communities have a future. But the first step in a solution is as simple as following the US policy: no log exports from trees cut on public lands.

Routley: I’d like the premier to sit with me in those meetings where a mill has been shut down. Listen to the workers talk about their families

The award for weird goes to the Sierra Club for holding a meat draw. As Taylor Bachrach observed, “The Sierra Club was founded in 1892, and I bet this is the first meat draw we’ve ever held.”

The organic beef was donated by Kevin Maher and Tracy Drews of Cobble Hill Farms.