When I was a little kid I walked all over the North End of Cortes w/my Dad - we hunted deer and grouse and also picked fruit at all the old homesteads. He told me that the forests we walked in were owned by somebody called "Macmillan Bloedel" and that they had bought up land that had been allocated to veterans returning from the war, at one dollar an acre, and that some day it was going to all be cut down and our beautiful forests killed.
As a mycologyst I can tell you that Mr Drew's assessment of our so called "degraded" forest land is very far off the mark. Leaving aside old growth forest, mixed stands starting at about 8O years - which is what we have on a lot of IT land - provide optimum biodiversity.
To use the 'anti-logging' banner to make a point is a diversionary tactic and a cheap shot. We all live in a wooden house and write on paper. I myself have been involved in resource extraction for my entire working life - forestry and fisheries and currently in the mining sector. The point is - lets say it again - that not every forest should be logged; not every motherlode should be mined.
If anybody can demonstrate how the logging of Cortes Island by IT will be beneficial to the community in any way, I would like to know about it.