“KNOWING WHAT I KNOW, THERE WOULD BE NO FUTURE PEACE FOR ME, IF I KEPT SILENT.” RACHEL CARSON.
Can you believe that in this time of reconciliation, biodiversity crisis, a global drought, wildfires and climate disruption, that ancient Mother Trees in the Upper Walbran Valley are, as of early September, being clear-cut? In a race to the bottom, with neo-liberal politicians foaming at the mouth about “Major Projects”, nothing seems sacred anymore. Especially not the Indigenous peoples, forced to bow down to these projects, nor the 400+ plant and animal species whose very survival depends on intact Old-Growth forest ecosystems.
I told a UBC research biologist last week about the Walbran and they said: “Oh, I thought there was a moratorium on logging Old Growth in BC.” The corporate propaganda machine has infiltrated even the educated. Rachel Carson once said: “Conservation is a cause that has no end; there is no point at which we can say our work is finished.” Indigenous peoples of Turtle Island have lived in perfect harmony with nature and have witnessed over 500 years of land theft to feed an insatiable colonial empire of hatred, ignorance and greed.
The few remaining remnants of old-growth forests on Vancouver Island are under imminent threat. Vancouver Island Forest Focus hiked into a Tsitika Valley BCTS cutblock, for a rare- species count in August and we saw many clear-cuts and dried up creek beds. There are BC Timber Sales Legacy Tree signs on 5 gigantic Mother Trees, which are perched on the edge of an “extremely-steep,” a BCTS technical designation, mountainside clear-cut. This cutblock (TA 1375) is slated for logging in 2026. Legacy Trees are the biggest known trees ever found in BC and they are not protected by law. Even if these trees are left standing, eventually they will fall because the forest up above them will be cut and drought and erosion will bring them down. Almost three quarters of the Tsitika Valley, creeks, valley bottoms and steep mountains are under the rule of BC Timber Sales. Hats off to the blockaders who in the 80’s, fought hard to save the lower half which is now a semi-protected provincial park. Logging in the mountainous, upper river areas, however, threatens the integrity of the lower portion of the valley that slopes eastward to Robson Bight.
Solar panels, electric cars, growing your own food; yada yada yada; there is no simple solution to the global ecological crisis. Rachel Carson wrote in 1968: “The more clearly we can focus our attention on the wonders and realities of the universe, the less taste we shall have for destruction.” Instead of living in harmony with the laws of nature, neo-liberalism wants us to focus on our own individual gain and wants as superior to the basic needs of all species. Indigenous traditions remind us that non-human life-forms and ecosystems are vital members of the world we share. Plants and animals are proving to be more sentient than we humans have previously understood. We are inseparable from nature, we cannot actually live one second in isolation from the natural world. Our animal bodies are totally dependent on the interplay of sun, moon, stars, forests, oceans, air, land and water and a trillion other intelligent organisms.
“Even the food on your plates are your relatives….we are kin with all the animals, with the trees, with the mountains, with all living beings…strangely enough, this has more in common with astrophysics than any christian notion of a higher power. Never forget that while your wealth comes from the theft of Indian land and the extraction of resources from that Indian land, you might see it as God’s great gift. But in reality it is a tragedy.” “No potential government has or will have the energy or spirit to oppose this military-industrial phalanx.” (Dr. Tink Tinker, Osage elder, as quoted in Rooted and Rising, Voices of Courage in a Time of Climate Crisis) Colonial governments operate as if the land belongs to them and they ruthlessly destroy forests, rivers, oceans, mountains, as if they have God-given authority to do so. What a sham and what a shame.
As I bowed to the thousand year old Mother Trees in the Tsitika, I recalled these famous words from Shakespeare: “Pardon me, thou bleeding piece of earth, that I am weak and gentle with these butchers.” Is human greed, apathy, stupidity and cowardice forgivable, when we know what we know about interdependent, global, life support systems?
