I see that once again Glen Ridgway is urging council to fire up the chainsaws in the Six Mountains.

Know that Ridgway is a long-retired North Cowichan politician who is as responsible as anyone for logging BC’s most endangered forest — the coastal Douglas-fir, found right here in the Municipal Forest Reserve.

One can understand that a renewal of logging would help to justify his own past actions in clearcutting our rare forest.

But don't let his bias cloud the reality of the situation.

Here are some key facts that Ridgway routinely ignores:

— The public, in a lengthy and in-depth consultation process, has already voted 76-per-cent in favour of a conservation vision for the forest reserve. Only 17 per cent voted in favour of status-quo clearcutting.

— There is an ongoing, parallel consultation process with local First Nations that should not be summarily dismissed. (Cowichan Tribes has been working with North Cowichan on FireSmart projects that do not involve clearcutting, but reduce the risk of wildfire on the urban interface.)

— The BC Ministry of Forests is among 40 levels of government (but not North Cowichan) and conservation groups committed to “promoting and protecting” the coastal Douglas-fir forest.

— In other municipalities, millions of dollars are being spent to purchase and conserve small patches of this forest type. In North Cowichan, Ridgway would destroy this same forest that we already own, the 5,000-hectare Municipal Forest Reserve.

Ridgway further suggests that the byelection win by Becky Hogg somehow is a green light to log the forest.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Hogg, elected in a split vote of centre-left candidates, made no mention of the forest in her published campaign platform. And she was the only candidate who refused to answer a series of questions related specifically to the forest reserve.

Finding a silver lining in Ridgway’s views is always a challenge. But there is a glimmer in his last letter to The Citizen. His request that the new council try to work together and achieve agreement as much as possible is something everyone can support.

The fate of an endangered forest may depend on it.

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— Larry Pynn, May 23, 2025