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General News · 6th December 2012
ron lund
I have worked in the now closed plywood mill in Victoria. I have worked in the now closed logging camps in Port Renfrew, Kelsy Bay and Pitt Meadows. I have also worked for five years in reforestation. Starting as an irrigation tech. advancing to a foreman and finally as co-owner of a forest nursery. I have seen so much destruction. I have profited from it too.

I have also been an activist since I was 14. In the early seventies I marched in Victoria against the Amchika blast. a nuclear test site north of us in Alaska. We didn’t stop the test but the testing was stopped. Green peace was famously born.

I have been involved in protests in the Walbran, the Clayquaot and many others. Including opening a homeless shelter/soup kitchen/art gallery in Victoria, running for mayor in Victoria 2002, and many other actions.

I have lived on and around Cortes island for the last ten years. When i came to the island it was and is littered with clearcuts. Not as bad as Denman island but obviously an island in a forest decline. No surprise, all the islands are being clearcut.

We have a big unresponsive industry that has a duty to make as much profit as it can from our forests. We have the karma of living on stolen land. We have a government that does not serve the people who elected it but the industries that create profit from our natural resources. We have a populace that lives on clear cuts and off the profits of resource industries. Directly or indirectly we all benefit from the destruction of the earth. We also all suffer from it.

Wisdom can come from experience. I have had some experience in the forest industry. From logger to nurseryman to activist. The only wisdom I have gained about forestry, is that I have some idea how little we know.

Most everyone on all these islands live on what was an old growth forest. When is enough enough? “when its all gone” is my very cynical response.

David Suzuki recently said on C.B.C. radio “activism doesn’t work” I agree. at least it doesn’t work good enough.

We have turned the earth into real estate. Like by calling it real makes it so. We are all living unsustainable lives, that is real!

As far as people being arrested. There is never as much support as promised and being arrested can effect your life plans, short and long, from court times to continued police harassment, your life will be changed if you get arrested. now and forever. It’s ok if you want to, but I don’t think children or non-land holders should get arrested for the forests. In my opinion it is abusive and dysfunctional to use homeless, poor and the young to fight these battles.

I hope for peace in our forests.

I invite your comments.