Letter: Why I Was There
By Letters to the editor
To The Editor:
A number of reasons!
I say “we” because this is bigger than just me, I am connected to something much greater and there are a number of people with the same concerns. (So I will say “I” or “we” while not taking credit for anything.)
We tried reaching out to our local MLA Michelle Mungall (who locked her doors to the public a few times), Licensee holder Cooper Creek Cedar Ltd. / Porcupine Wood Products, Selkirk District Forestry office, local Area D director Aimee Watson, Interior Health, and local MP Wayne Stetski, and submitting letters and petitions to various levels of government.
I felt that we tried all other avenues reaching out to our local leaders I felt like we kept getting directed to someone else or hearing “there’s nothing we can do”. We keep getting sent down some deep rabbit holes.
Lands and trees start out owned by the “crown / public / Us” but we have no say. We only get a say once a licensee holders gets the tenure at which point we are approached which is too late.
Regardless of how much negative community input they get, the licensee holder does not really care about our concerns they are just merely ticking off their box that ‘they engaged with the community’.
So we have to beg for protection of our forests and waters because all science is being ignored. All common sense is being ignored. This is simply a for-profit system at the expense of the land, water, animal habitat eco-systems and the people. Essentially we are getting in the way of ‘their money’.
Am I the only one who feels like this is very wrong?
Greyhorse Ridge is located approximately 10-15 km north of Meadow Creek, BC and is very close in proximity to the ONLY inland temperate rainforest in the world which governs our local climate and is also an important wildlife corridor for species at risk and non-species at risk animals.
So after I felt that all other avenues were exhausted I felt like I needed to take a stand at Greyhorse in the cold of winter as my way of continuing to raise awareness about climate crisis adaptation in an effort to stop these massive clear-cuts at the headwaters of the Kootenay Lake. They are taking way too much out of there. We are at the tipping point of climate emergency.
Un-sustainable clear-cuts heavily contribute to “natural” disasters such as floods, wildfires, droughts, change in wind patterns and also taking away animal habitat such as; Caribou, Grizzly, Deer, Elk etc, etc.
I needed to take my stand where very few else would. I was willing to stand in the wee hours of the morning exercising my moral obligation and duty to stand up for my environment and our future while exercising my civil rights to protest and protect. Or else what good is democracy? I know what I’m willing to give up for what I feel is right and morally just.
I felt like we reached the point of having to exercise our civil rights and by protesting to get our voices heard only to be met with potential criminal charges and watching the RCMP escort the loggers to “work” and removing us from the area. Where is the injunction? What happened to my Civil Rights?
I am going to continue to stay steady, strong and persistent and bring light to the intent of protecting and enhancing intact forests as one of our best methods to buffer climate change as demonstrated by countless scientists.
We are requesting a complete moratorium on clear-cut logging in the Kootenays, or at the very least be met half way by the industry. I feel like we need to change the way our forests our managed. In fact I know it.
Sincerely your;
Local Farmer, Environmentalist, Activist,
Brock Snyder, Meadow Creek, BC
