On Saturday, 60 stout-hearted folk took a stand out in hammering December West Coast downpour, on the first of a series of Mass Mobilizations to PROTECT the Walbran Valley from the rampant industrial logging assault on the heart of this endangered watershed. This continuing outrage, with the full knowledge of the BC Government, is advancing daily along the park boundaries. Photographed here is Pacheedaht elder Bill Jones speaking for the rainforest within his traditional unceded territory at a small rally before mobilizing to the front lines of destruction. We witnessed the heart-breaking sight of hundreds of clearcut and limbed ancient trees, stacked by the roadside, ready to be trucked to Nanaimo and set on tug-booms to the Teal Cedar mill in Surrey.
Work crews were retreating for the day when we arrived at noon and some welcome constructive dialogue with heli-logging operators and road-builders occurred, reinforcing hopes that logging of the highly controversial first Central Walbran cutblock 4424, in the steep fog-shrouded hill country of ancient forest wilderness north of the river, might be avoided without confrontation. But the new heli-landing area built this week directly across the valley from 4424, gives us perhaps stronger grounds for skepticism.