December
1994
The
Clearcutting of Clayoquot Sound
By Phil Goff
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When people think of rainforests, what usually comes
to mind are faraway places like Brazil, Vietnam, or Indonesia. And when
people think of rainforest destruction, what usually comes to mind are
the extraction of exotic woods like Mahogany and Teak, or the clearing
of the land for grazing cattle to provide America with fast food. But
there are many other aspects to rainforest destruction and the burgeoning
hot spot of the mid 1990’s is happening close to home at an area
called Clayoquot Sound in British Columbia, Canada.
Clayoquot Sound is the World’s largest remaining intact tract
of Coastal Temperate Rainforest. It is a majestic landscape of 1000+
year old trees, and provides a home for a complex network of wildlife.
Only 10% of the Earth’s Coastal Temperate Rainforest remain and
of this, 25% is in British Columbia. What makes Clayoquot Sound’s
natural beauty is also its nemesis - huge Red Cedar trees with incredibly
strong wood, enough to make timber CEO’s drool. Sadly, these same
Red Cedars, with the complicity of the Ottawa and Vancouver governments,
have begun to be destroyed via the clear-cutting practices of the lumber
conglomerate MacMillan Bloedel. MacBlo is supplying the increasing demand
for raw lumber and paper pulp from, guess who, the United States. Their
largest customers includethe New York Times, the Wall Street Journal,
USA Today, the Seattle Times, Pacific Bell, GTE, and the US West phone
directories.
“This 262,000, hectare region has become a global flash point
in the effort to define and put into practice the murky concept of ‘sustainable
development’. Who owns and controls the resources? What types
of activities are compatible with the conservation of biodiversity?
What methods of resource ‘harvesting will keep them sustainable?”
(Western Canada Wilderness Committee Educational Report, Vol. 13, #5,
p.1) The British Columbian government’s answer to these questions
was to allow the logging of 2/3 of Clayoquot Sound’s resources
with no stipulation on the methods used. (What this comes out to in
real numbers is 15,000 logging trucks worth of raw lumber per annum.)
This decision was made without any input from the First Nations of the
Central Region of the Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council, who have aboriginal
title to the region.
In an attempt to legitimize this decision in the Canadian public eye,
the B.C. government set up a Scientific Panel of experts to ensure that
the logging methods would be of the highest order. Interestingly enough,
the panel’s Spring, 1994 interim report concluded that due to
the current clear-cutting technique, the biodiversity of the area is
being lost. It also recommended that current practices need to become
more “holistic” and ecosystem-friendly in order that they:
1. Maintain the interrelated functions of soil and freshwater 2. Maintain
the old-growth forest characteristics, i.e., density, shade, soil retention
3. Avoid clear-cutting. In addition, the panel recommended that further
road construction or logging in any of Clayoquot’s pristine valleys
be delayed until sustainable long term plans have been approved.
Clayoquot Sound is yet another is a series of locations where the controversial
method of clear-cutting has been the preference by logging companies.
Clear-cutting maximizes profits for the company, but ignores the interests
of all others involved: the fish, the nesting birds, the land animals,
the indigenous peoples, outdoor recreationalists, and even loggers.
Besides the obvious visual blight of a landscaped left strewn with only
stumps and broken limbs, clear-cutting also destroys the natural interactions
of the local ecosystem. Without trees, erosion and rapid runoff become
prevalent, subsequently leading to unnatural sedimentation of streams
and rivers, suffocating many species of fish, and disallowing proper
spawning grounds. (This is the main reason why Salmon are nearing extinction
in the Pacific Northwest.) Many of the ground plants and small organisms
rely not only on the water, but on the cool shade provided by the canopy
of trees overhead. Soon, they die in the hot sun. This destruction at
the bottom of the food chain has repercussions that go all the way to
the top. Land animals are faced too with lack of shade, polluted water,
no remaining vegetation, a dwindling food supply, and a myriad of logging
roads to further disturb and fracture their local territories. All forms
of life are completely eliminated in a piece of clear-cut wilderness.
Often times the logging debate in the Pacific Northwest is framed by
the enigma of “trees vs. Jobs”. This is a deception, for
the terminator of jobs are not the trees nor the environmentalists,
but the logging companies and their greedy clear-cutting practices.
After a forest is wiped out, it is replanted with a single species,
transforming a true complex forest ecosystem into the gridded rows of
a raw lumber factory. Therefore, a young logger working on a particular
plot of land will never be able to return in his or her lifetime. What
is truly best for all parties involved, except the profit hungry logging
corporation, is the eco-friendly, sustainable technique of selective
logging, followed by the replanting of a variety of trees. The variations
in tree species of differing ages are natural to the forest, and will
allow the local ecosystem to remain intact. Erosion and flooding are
reduced, rivers remain healthy, ground plants have their shade, and
wildlife only has to contend with the disruption of logging roads and
polluting trucks. The forest also remains pleasing to the eye and allows
for human recreational use such as hiking, biking, and camping. Finally,
it allows loggers to work much longer on the same piece of land and,
with the added bonus of an increase in eco-tourism, the local economy
becomes strengthened.
Selective Forestry makes sense from just about any angle, but amazingly,
the method of clear-cutting continues. Logging companies have powerful
lobbyists, and coupled with the mining and ranching industry, they virtually
own most Western Senators and Representatives. Change, typically, is
very slow; but, soon the world’s governments will realize that
large wilderness areas, like Clayoquot Sound, must be preserved if we
are to retain the much ballyhooed “Biological Diversity,”
spoken about so often at the 1992 Rio Conference.
Many of you are already doing your part by becoming vegetarian, but
there are other things that can be done to stop the destruction of the
rainforests, and more specifically Clayoquot Sound. First and foremost,
you can express your dissatisfaction to the Earth-Raper MacMillan Bloedel
and their many U.S. customers mentioned in this article. (Names and
addresses can be obtained from James Hansen or Jim Ace at the Wetlands
Preserve in Manhattan.) There are a number of groups in New York who
are working with these issues. They include Greenpeace, the Rainforest
Action Network, and the Federal Land Action Committee; the latter two
meet at Wetlands on Tuesdays. Finally, you should boycott all products
made by the Mitsubishi Corporation, the world’s largest corporate
destroyer of rainforests. These include all Mitsubishi cars and trucks,
Mitsubishi electronic equipment, Nikon cameras, Mitsubishi Bank, Value
Rent-a-car, and Chrysler cars made by Mitsubishi Motors, including Eagle
Talon, Dodge Colt, Ram trucks, and the Intrepid. Mitsubishi has operations
in five continents, clear-cutting 24 hours a day under bright lights,
destroying not only ecosystems but indigenous cultures that have lived
peacefully with the forests for thousands of years. They are Japan’s
major importer of lumber and supply raw wood for the Western World’s
Chinese restaurants. Yes, it’s true, our disposable chopsticks
were made from Rainforest wood!
Phil Goff is an environmental and animal activist
living in New York City.
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