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LETTER - Local logger disputes claims the forestry industry is unsustainable

Dear editor,
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Raw logs are loaded onto a logging ship from a log sort down the Alberni Inlet in March 2019. SUSAN QUINN/ Alberni Valley News

Dear editor,

Re: How can forestry companies claim sustainability while clearcutting old-growth and second-growth forests? (Feb. 1 letter)

To the members of Save Our Forests: I and other workers logged these same areas many years ago and now they are backlogging the same areas again. To me, that is being sustainable. These same lands that now belong to Mosiac belonged to Crown Zellerback, later to be TimberWest - they have vast holdings in this area and are able to grow more cubic meters of wood per year than what they log. To me, that is being sustainable.

I know they do not employ the same amount of people as they did in the past, but most of the reductions are to do with technology and the ability to log more with fewer people. These companies have been able to employ a lot of people from the Comox Valley and Campbell River throughout the last 100 years or so, and we hope it can stay that way and continue to employ people who earn a good living from the forests, not like some other areas of B.C. that have been devastated by the pine beetle, and the reduction of the allowable cut in those areas for various reasons.

People want to keep working and feeding their young families and growing up in this area. I know Save our Forests are a lot better letter writers than me, but hopefully, you get my idea of sustainable forests.

Ken Cottini,

Courtenay