The leaders of a B.C. First Nation have condemned a move by anti-logging protesters who cut down some small trees to impede police from enforcing a court injunction against blockades set up to prevent old-growth logging on southern Vancouver Island.
The RCMP said in a news release Saturday that protesters had cut 18 trees with chainsaws and laid the trunks across a road in the Fairy Creek watershed area.
The Pacheedaht First Nation called the protesters’ actions “disrespectful and anti-social,” noting that no public trees in the territory can be cut down without their permission.
Pacheedaht First Nation hereditary chief Frank Queesto Jones and chief councillor Jeff Jones listed a series of other concerns, including vandalism, unsanitary camp conditions and a lack of access to traditional activities such as berry picking and bark gathering as well as hunting and fishing.
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The group, dubbed the Rainforest Flying Squad, said Monday that members cut the small, second-growth trees in order to slow police progress in reaching other protesters who were chained to structures.
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The group also said it has the support of Pacheedaht First Nation elder Bill Jones, releasing a statement from Jones that said it’s common practice in logging to cut down young trees growing at the side of roadways and that’s not a threat to ecology.
The Rainforest Flying Squad said that very little of the old-growth forest remains in B.C., and the province’s temporary deferral of old-growth logging across 2,000 hectares in the Fairy Creek and central Walbran areas falls short of what’s needed.
— With files from The Canadian Press
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