The Six Mountains of North Cowichan are at risk.

Will you act now to help protect them?

sixmountains.ca is the only source of investigative journalism in the Cowichan Valley and the only news outlet that does not receive subsidies from the Canadian government.

Know also it was sixmountains.ca that sounded the alarm over council preparing to push through a motion to make a resumption of logging in the Municipal Forest Reserve a priority in 2026.

Dozens of citizens responded by writing letters and showing up to speak personally to council, asking that the results of a lengthy public consultation process showing 76-per-cent support for conservation management of the Municipal Forest Reserve be respected.

None of that mattered to four councillors — Bruce Findlay, Tek Manhas, Mike Caljouw, and Becky Hogg — who supported the motion.

Mayor Rob Douglas and councillors Christopher Justice and Chris Istace were opposed.

The next step? Staff are reporting back with details of what a logging plan might look like — which, if approved, would signal a green light for cutting to begin even before a parallel consultation with First Nation is completed. Whatever the outcome, the forest reserve stands to be a major issue in the October 2026 election.

Now, more than ever, it is important to hold politicians’ feet to the fire — and only sixmountains.ca can be counted on to do that.

It’s also important that the Trump-style politics of misinformation that have infiltrated social media in our community are countered with the factual information found at sixmountains.ca.

For all these reasons, please consider a donation at this time to sixmountains.ca to help defray costs and to ensure that a critical voice continues to be heard in the Six Mountains.

(Political cartoon courtesy of Bob Krieger).

— Larry Pynn, Aug. 27, 2025