Dear Editor:
I have just posted my new short movie on my YouTube channel – “Why Log Whispering Creek? Chá7elkwnech / Gambier Island, Atl'ka7tsem / Howe Sound." (See below.)
The creek and its forests above West Bay on southwest Gambier Island are a jewel and there are imminent plans to log its headwaters, including old-growth forest and cutting right through the creek. If you are moved to act there is a petition against the logging on the Gambier Island Conservancy website at chng.it/Pc5CwT7rF7. And MySea2Sky has a letter-writing campaign to Premier Horgan at myseatosky.org/defendancientforests.
We’ve been here before. In 2014, a new provincial woodlot operation was proposed for the NE corner of Gambier Island. And in 2017, as we remember well here on Bowen, BC Timber Sales proposed logging the provincial lands on the island. Both times big public protests against these initiatives were an important part of the withdrawal of these plans. We are hoping a huge public outcry can happen again with the proposed logging in Whispering Creek.
Ancient forests once clothed Atl'ka7tsem / Howe Sound. They defined this place. Today, the only remnants remaining, on the islands of Atl'ka7tsem / Howe Sound, are seven scattered tracts on Gambier Island. This is all we have left. One of them is in Whispering Creek.
So worth fighting for.
Bob Turner
