Dear editor,
Unfortunately I was unable to attend the “Re-Think Our Watershed,” forum hosted by the Comox Valley Conservation Strategy group up at the Stan Hagen Theatre on Feb. 24.
I had a couple of questions that I was hoping that representatives from TimberWest might have been able to answer for us. So perhaps if I raise them now, the company could kindly respond via this paper, and address some of the concerns we here in the local community have had for some time?
1. Word coming off the local claim (Oyster River Division) in past few years has it the minimal, “sustainable” timber stands that TimberWest plans to harvest in the future, will be only some 40 years old, or is it, even 30-year-old trees that will be coming down, as some are saying?
For those who may be unaware of it, our Ministry of Forests… indeed confirms that, “..the determination of minimum harvest age on private-managed forest land - i.e. like the entire east coast of Vancouver Island south of Campbell River - is at the discretion of the owner.”)
2. Also, I’ve heard a rumour going around the Valley that TimberWest has now determined on its own that once some of their stands that have been logged off, restocking (replanting) these new cut blocks is really not all that necessary after all. So, I guess we are now to believe and accept that they will just reseed and regenerate themselves on their own? Well, that certainly will save on the overhead and make the corporate giant more attractive on the T.S.E.
And, oh yeah, before I close off here, we never did hear back and get those figures we asked for a couple of years back: the annual harvest rate on the Oyster River Division that has gone down for each and every year for the past 15 on the Oyster River Division claim. And preferably in a figure as it’s measured in cubic metres on Crown, (public) land claims. Looking forward to hearing back,
Rick James
Sandwich