I am concerned about old growth logging in the Walbran Valley.
The government of British Columbia just allowed a logging company to cut down some of the oldest and largest trees on Vancouver Island. I find it terrible of these companies and the government to do such a thing!
If we log all the old trees then they can’t produce oxygen and can’t capture the carbon that we produce with our cars and factories. The trees will let go of the carbon that they have captured for all these centuries. That will be very unhealthy for us and the climate.
Logging old growth also endangers lots of animals. For example, the marbled murrelet, a seabird that nests in the big trees that are disappearing on our Island. There are lots of other animals that make their homes only in the mossy giant’s branches.
If these trees are gone, then… you can imagine what happens to its inhabitants.
On Vancouver Island, about 90 per cent of the original old growth forests have already been logged. If we continue like this, there will be none left. It would take over 1,000 years to grow back to what it was before.
The Walbran Valley has trees that are four metres wide! I think that what they are planning on doing is incredibly cruel to nature. These forests are incredibly rare. Hopefully the government will rethink its decision and make a natural park out of it, then we could all go there.
Leonie Eisenhauer, 11
Oak Bay