Dear Editor,

In June when the Lil'wat and Squamish Nations partnered with the RMOW in the Cheakamus Community Forest Society, I naively thought, “great, out of provincial hands, at least the parties managing the 30,000 hectares of forest around Whistler understand how valuable our forests are to our tourism-based community.” Now, here we are three months later faced with the prospect of cutting down old-growth trees in our valley. What! How is cutting down trees that have been standing for 200 or 300 years ecologically, socially or economically sustainably managing our forests? So far the big accomplishment of the Cheakamus Community Forest Society is that they negotiated with the Ministry of Forests to reduce the timber cut from 36,000 to 20,000 cubic metres (big deal, this still sounds like awful lot of trees). It’s 40 hectare per year, an estimated 500 truck loads per year, for 25 years. The plan is to log in two- to five-hectare blocks, leaving a few trees standing while cutting down irreplaceable old-growth trees. Once these trees are gone they are forever gone! This is the sustainable plan? Come on, we can do better than this. As stewards of the forest, the Cheakamus Community Forest Society has been given the opportunity to manage our forests sustainably and so far they have dropped the ball. It's 2010. Are we really going to debate weather old-growth forests should be protected or not? Let there be a mandate to protect all old-growth forests in the Brandywine, Callaghan, Madeley, Rainbow, 19 Mile, Wedge, Cheakamus and Daisy Lake areas. That is a sustainable plan.

Melonie Morris

Whistler