By Sherriff
Just off the Powell River Ferry everything seems normal. I am still not comfortable with the new view over to Hardy Island and Scotch Fir Point going up the big hill. It was always a tunnel through the big trees and seemed, well, safe. Now the trees are completely gone on the ocean side and the full drop down the side of the mountain is exposed and a bit scary.
Ten minutes later, just past where Pete’s toilet with the rubber boots sticking out of the bowl rests on the side of the road, the brake lights ahead
go on and the traffic slows.
On the side of the road is yet another clear-cut. The signs announce the Powell River Canoe Route. There ahead is the reason for the slow-down. It has nothing to do with traffic, but everyone is braking, slowing, and trying to get a better look.
A long banner is being held up by a lot of ladies on the side of the road. The ladies are naked. They look like the ladies in the Dove commercials.
Not twenty years old, or even in their thirties, but middle-to old-aged ladies. I need to know just what would induce seven ladies and two men to strip down in the cold air of March 21st on the side of the road. This isn’t expected in Powell River!
Their banner says “Stripped Bare by Island Timberlands!” Ah, a statement about the clear-cut behind them and all the other clear-cuts in their
region. Even now when lumber is almost worthless on the market, they say the stripping of the trees in the Powell River area continues at full speed.
They tell of the destruction of the Canoe Route, of Horseshoe Creek buried in fallen trees by Island Timberland’s poor logging, and the Provincial
Government’s slack regulations about how much of a buffer zone should be left around creeks. (Apparently no buffer is required on creeks that
don’t have salmon as the other fish and creatures have no value in British Columbia.)
These ladies have written letters, presented petitions, begged their regional and municipal councils, made calls to forestry, fisheries, and
the provincial government, and gotten no-where.
They have tried to get media attention; but this is happening in almost every town in the province, and none of the big newspapers is interested.
They are told nothing can be done. This is business. We can’t stop business. So they made a big sign. Then they stripped bare on a very cold day
on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere. The next logging area is a watershed. It is also the last wild Coho creek in the Georgia Basin. It’s hilly and everyone feels the silt will run down into the creek and kill the fish food and then the fish themselves.
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