I am thinking I need to clarify my views regarding the current (and past) situation with Island Timberlands. No doubt this is a very complex situation and that this one post will not nearly be enough to express all that needs expressed so please extend a little patience to what I am posting as it would be deeply appreciated. First of all, I do not agree with ANY industry, business or corporation that operates without being solidly grounded in values that recognizes a larger responsibility other than merely maximizing profits. As important as a working forest is, for many reasons, the entire concept that a forest (or any resource) exists merely for profit is bizarre and totally irresponsible. Our first obligation as fellow creatures of creation is to understand that as humans we are but a grain of sand and the life itself exists for all life. And we are all literally related to all life. We simply have to end viewing the world as a dollar sign and think in terms of family. Life itself is a huge family in all of its forms of what moves and breathes, seen and unseen. And we have to end viewing meeting needs as only meeting economic needs and/or the needs of this generation. The future generations, of all of our relations (which includes all life) need to be given equal consideration to meeting this current generations needs. Sustainability is not a "science based" or "professional forester" based decision. Sustainability is a sacred and spiritual connection and responsibility. It is a way of life, a way of thinking, a way of making decisions. Any logging or land use that does not make its decisions based upon these simple truths is not sustainable. In all candor, I resent the theft of words used to describe values that undermine and diminish what the true meaning actually is. Having said all this above, it is not just Island Timberlands that makes these type of decisions that they catch so much heat about. For whatever reasons the "private lands" timber companies seem to attract more attention to their poorly thought out and corporate profit based decision making. The simple truth is that they are not the only ones that do this. The irresponsible decision-making without full consideration of all the impacts occurs every single day in forestry decision-making. Market logging contractors, log brokers, First Nations logging operations, community forests.....they all make decisions every day without having all the information needed to make informed decisions. And they all make these decisions deliberately knowing that the people affected that know the lands, see the impacts and know the history and current use (of not only people but of our other relatives such as the cougar den and elk/deer herds for examples) are not adequately informed of what is planned to be able to insure that responsible decisions are made. This is done deliberately because these planners know that this would change the decisions and make their jobs "more complicated" to put it simply. There was a time when reaching towards "excellence" was a value to aspire to. There was a time when making the "best" decision was a goal. There was a time when people could put their minds together and come to decisions that included all considerations that needed to be thought through. These values were lost as "expediency" became a priority. Making decisions "faster" and thus maximizing "profits" became the goal of seeking "excellence". Science moved away from knowledge holders and towards computer models and decision making that are all guided by industry expediency and profits. And private timber companies, as I said, are not the only ones that have supported expedience over what is the right thing to do to meet the true responsibilities we have. Today we see habitats that are threatened as being some of the last habitat. We see words like "critical habitat" or "old growth management areas" and per centages of land base used to try and rationalize the distance from connectedness that needs to exist for decision-making to be able to be trusted. As human beings we can, and must, do better. We must insist that responsible decision-making become a part of a way of life again....and not just to private timberland companies but to everyone, without exception, that is involved in the decision making of what is called resource management. Life knows how to "manage" itself....it is people that need managed and that is where we are at today....how do we better manage the people making decisions that have lost their way and simply do not want to prioritize responsible decision making beyond the narrow lense that has become a sickness of this era we live in as a result of centuries of exploitation of peoples, lands, waters and life? There are no easy answers. It is complicated. But those are the exact reasons why we must take these hard questions on is because these have been used as a excuse to not do so long enough.
Posted on: Thu, 01 Aug 2013 17:45:46 +0000
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