. . . that they no longer engage in the rapacious removal of primaeval trees
. . . and that they act in moderation to preserve rainforest biodiversity of British Columbia
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Above: Aerial photo of the sawmill and log booms of the Canadian White Pine Company,
Fraser River in Vancouver, c. 1960. Owned by MacMillan Bloedel (click to enlarge). University of British
Columbia Archives.
Left: Aerial photo on Flickr of a log boom on the Fraser River in Vancouver, 2008
(click to enlarge).
The logging industry calls deforestation "harvesting." Yet when the end
result is extinction, a more honest term would be "massacre." One of the largest native species,
known as "King Pine," the western white pine (Pinus Monticola) not long ago dominated BC's ancient
moist inland forests. Ruthlessly targeted for its high value as wood, including for matchsticks, the ancient
tree specimens have today vanished.
By the 1960s, the grand groves of white pine had been wiped out in BC due to greed,
clearcutting, mismanagement, disease and pests. The Canadian White Pine Sawmill (above) became part of
Weyerhauser in 1999 when it bought out MacMillan Bloedel. Ironically the founders of both companies made their early
fortunes by massacring the native white pine. With the lucrative old growth
fir, pine and spruce timber gone, the logging industry has turned to the ancient "totem"
cedar trees and we are currently witnessing their shameful demise. |