Port
Renfrew,
British
Columbia,
Canada
– Activists from the Wilderness Committee have discovered a logging operation
too close for comfort to the Red Creek Fir, which is the largest Douglas fir
tree known to exist on Earth.
Joan
Varley, from the Wilderness Committee’s
Victoria
office, recently discovered, and photographed the logging operation which is
within a kilometre of the giant tree and getting closer by the day.
The Red
Creek Fir is located 15 kilometers from Port Renfrew, on the southwest coast of
Vancouver Island. The massive tree stands 73
meters high and is 13.3 meters around.
“We are
extremely angry and frustrated to see this logging near by what is clearly one
of the natural wonders of the world,” said Wilderness Committee National
Campaign Director, Joe Foy. “Especially when the Forests Ministry led everyone
to believe that this wouldn’t happen, and that we had time to work to preserve
the area. The Forest Ministry should be ashamed.” Foy fumed.
“
It is
especially frustrating in the face of the recent Auditor General’s report on
the state of BC’s park system which gives the BC government a failing grade and
calls for an expansion of parks to conserve some of the amazing natural
treasures we have. This logging operation is vandalizing a national natural
treasure. The Red Creek Fir and surrounding forests should be protected and
included in an expanded Pacific Rim National Park, as the local MP for
Esquimalt-Juan de Fuca, Keith Martin, is calling for,” said Foy.
Signs at
the active logging site indicate the logging is being carried out under the BC
Timber Sales provincial government program. According to signage on site the
logging is under the control of Timber West Forest Corporation.
BC Forest Ministry had
claimed back in February “no immediate plans” to log near Red Creek Fir 
