B.C. Ministry of Forests guilty plea the tip of the iceberg

VANCOUVER – Yesterday’s guilty plea by the B.C. Ministry of Forests to charges of damaging fish habitat represents only one violation among potentially hundreds in an out-of-control industry, says the David Suzuki Foundation.
 
"This prosecution should be the first of many by Fisheries and Oceans Canada," says Bill Wareham, acting director of marine conservation with the David Suzuki Foundation. "Destructive logging and disregard for fish habitat continues to be the norm throughout B.C., and DFO must continue to hold the province accountable."
 
A recent analysis by the David Suzuki Foundation found that since 2001, 46 per cent of logging in the Great Bear Rainforest and Haida Gwaii has taken place in the region’s most productive salmon watersheds. Small fish-bearing streams continue to be logged to their banks, and only eight per cent of salmon streams flowing through the logging sites analyzed had any significant level of protection.
 
"A $30,000 fine is laughable in light of what the ministry and the logging industry are getting away with right now," says Mr. Wareham. "B.C.’s Ministry of Forests needs to fundamentally redesign the way it does business. Without an immediate end to logging in vulnerable salmon habitat, and legally binding protection in place, these rainforests – including some of the best salmon habitat we have left – will continue to be destroyed by this industry."
 
For more information, see the David Suzuki Foundation’s third Coastal Status Report, at www.canadianrainforests.org
 
For more information, please contact:
Jennifer Brown
Communications Specialist
David Suzuki Foundation
(604) 732-4228, ext 229