Essays, Articles
and Poetry from Canada's Environmental Protection Movement, especially
concerning the ongoing...
War
on BC Forests
Bark
Beetle Update
26 November 2001:
A new web site has just been launched featuring links
to environmental, government and industry on-line resources related
to bark beetles in general and analysis of current salvage logging
strategies in particular: http://www.watertalk.org/wawa/beetle/index.html
There is also a collection of press reports from the
past year that have now been collected in one place: http://www.watertalk.org/wawa/beetle/news.html
Most forest managers have continued an "us against
them" approach to pest control. They consider insects "unconditionally
threatening forces" and show little regard for the long-term
good they can do, he said. Indeed, the world of insect science --
entomology -- breaks into two camps: those who argue for the longer
view that bugs benefit forests over time, and others who think that
managers must control bugs to protect forests. Each camp overlaps
slightly with the other. Both see insects as a natural force, but
they differ over how freely that force should function.
The links point to resources by proponents of varying
points of view.
The press reports, from the Vancouver Sun, Victoria
Times-Colonist, and The Oregonian focus on more analytical pieces,
most of which lean toward taking a more ecosystem-bases approach to
forest management. It is a common belief among many commentators that
aggressive logging now will set the stage for a more massive plague
in the future.
"We feel there's a dominancy of the social and
economic criteria that are driving the practices, and we would like
to see the management plan based more fundamentally on the ecology
of the system." - Ronnie Drever - Suzuki Foundation as quoted
in the Vancouver Sun - July 10, 2001
Poems
of Resistance and Celebration -- by Jack Ross
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