PPWC takes stance against BC’s proposal to log protected areas

The Pulp, Paper and Woodworkers of Canada (PPWC) union has come out against British Columbia’s proposal to open up protected areas to logging.

“It’s just short term gain for probably long term pain,” said Arnold Bercov, the forest resource officer for the Pulp, Paper and Woodworkers of Canada, which represents some 2,000 workers in the sector in the province. “As I tell the guys, [if we] cut them all down tomorrow we’re screwed and we don’t cut any down.”

The British Columbia Special Committee on Timber Supply is touring the province, holding public hearings into their proposed options to increase the timber supply in the wake of the mountain pine beetle epidemic.  The committee’s proposals include the following options:

• harvesting some of the areas currently constrained from timber harvest in order to support other resource values;
• increasing the harvest of marginally economic timber;
• changing the flow of timber by adjusting administrative boundaries or accelerating timber availability;
• shifting to more area-based tenures and associated more intensive forest management;
• increasing the level of intensive forest management through fertilization and other advanced silviculture activities.

Read more from The Tyee:
Leave Old Growth Alone Says Union – Pulp, Paper and Woodworkers union says proposal to log protected areas goes too far