Fletchers Upset Canadian Conservationists

Forest and Bird, Volume 19, Issue 1, 1 February 1988, Page 5

Fletchers Upset Canadian Conservationists

Fletcher Challenge Ltd, which has been posting large profits recently largely thanks to its successful Canadian companies British Columbia Forest Products Ltd and Crown Forests Ltd, is now running into major conflict with Canadian conservationists over the logging of the Stein Valley, claimed by the conservationists to be the last major unlogged valley in southwestern British Columbia.

The timber industry has painted the issue as one of jobs versus preservation, while conservationists Say it is time the timber industry started sustained yield logging and diversified into alternative ways of living — such as tourism. The Indian land claimants of the valley are also said to be opposed to logging. Under the logging plan for the Stein, the lower and upper parts of the 1100 square km valley will be set aside as wilderness areas, but the middle section will be logged for 9 percent of its timber over 30 years. Therefore a logging road will have to traverse a ‘‘wilderness area"’ with its steep rock walls and narrow valley bottom. A Wilderness Advisory Committee set up by the BC Government noted that the midStein contained an important grizzly bear population. However, it opted for logging in order to keep mills in the region going, but only if agreement could be reached with the Indian owners to build an access road. No such agreement has been forthcoming. No conservationist organisations were represented on the Wilderness Advisory Committee. Most members were from the logging industry.