Conservation North, a local non-profit dedicated to protecting and conserving forests is taking action to protect two old-growth rainforest areas that are in the process of being logged for pellets.
“In the late spring, we came across some flagging indicating that the area would be logged for pellets,” explained Michelle Connolly, Director of Conservation North in PG, “we walked through the area for about an hour before seeing an end to the area that was flagged.”
One of the areas is about 45 minutes east of the city and the other is near Purden Lake Provincial Park.
“We were taken to the area near Purden Lake by a trapper who is really concerned that his trap line is going to be logged for pellets,” explained Connolly, “we were told that Pacific Bioenergy and Canfor have plans to log the area that is in his trapline.”
Conservation North expressed concerns that an Old Growth forest is being logged for a lower quality product like pellets, and is instead advocating for areas that have been previously logged to be used for pellets.
According to a report titled, “BC’s Old Growth Forest: A Last Stand for Biodiversity” both areas are a hotspot for biodiversity loss because of the loss of old forests within the last 60 years.
“We were fully aware of the risk of all our remaining old-growth being logged for higher-value products,” added Connolly, “but we were caught unaware that the province is actually granting permission to log old-growth forests for pellets.”
She explains, “this remains as a really serious threat to our area and we believe that logging rainforests are a really inappropriate use of our last rainforests.”