FWOC Logo

1997 RESOLUTIONS


Home

About the FWOC


Join the FWOC


Member Organizations


Adopted Resolutions


Outdoors West


Officers


Current List of Conservation Developments with Bush Administration


History


Policy Summary


Convention Schedule


Related Links


Site Map










FEDERATION OF WESTERN OUTDOOR CLUBS







1997 FWOC Resolution No. 21:

BRITISH COLUMBIA'S FORESTS AND PROTECTED AREAS


The province of British Columbia is blessed with the largest remaining tracts of uncut native forest in North America.  It is also, perhaps inevitably, the "habitat" of one of North America's largest, most aggressive, most heavily subsidized, and most politically intrusive wood product industries.
These two facts, one, ecological, the other, economic, have clashed repeatedly over the past century, and the natural forest has nearly always been the loser.  An airplane flight over the blighted and clearcut landscape of Vancouver Island will reveal to an appalled observer the true extent of the forest devastation and species extinction now occurring on a vast scale throughout this province.
Over cutting far beyond sustainable levels is also occurring by the B.C. government's own analysis.  Current logging rates exceed sustainability standards by 20 million cubic meters annually, or almost 30%.

Fortunately, B.C. environmentalists have made some progress recently in their efforts to both protect some of this magnificent forest for future generations.  In calling attention to the overcutting.  A new government came to power in 1991, which was much more environmentally aware and to its credit established several million acres of new provincial parks, some with forested areas.  Unfortunately, the current B.C. government seems to be reverting to prior policies favoring the timber industry, refusing to enforce protective laws and allowing the overcutting to continue.
The Federation of Western Outdoor Clubs urges the government of British Columbia to:

1.  Defer logging in the pristine valleys of B.C.'s central coast pending the completion of conservation biology studies.
2.  Phase in ecosystem-based forest management in all B.C. forests and phase out clearcut logging.
3.  Reduce the rate of logging immediately to existing government-determined sustainable levels and phase in ecologically determined sustainable levels.
4.  Support the establishment of a Biosphere Reserve in the spectacular Clayoquot Sound are of Vancouver island.



.............................................................................................................................................................................

F.W.O.C. member clubs and members are urged to send this resolution to the Premier and Minster of Environment of British Columbia.



next >>

| About the FWOC | Join the FWOC | Member Organizations | Adopted Resolutions | Outdoors West | Officers |

| Current List of Conservation Developments with Bush Administration | History   |  Policy Summary | Convention Schedule Related Links | Site Map   |