Councillor Caljouw sees Six Mountains as ‘crop’ waiting to be ‘clearcut’
Environmental Advisory Committee chair fails to recognize rarity of coastal Douglas-fir forest
When you hear the word “crop,” what do you think of?
Corn, carrots, oats, apples — sure, all come to mind.
But you might be surprised to learn that North Cowichan councillor Mike Caljouw thinks of something quite different — the most endangered forest type in British Columbia. That would be the Six Mountains, aka our 5,000-hectare Municipal Forest Reserve.
“To me, I see it as a crop and it can be harvested….” Caljouw told the Aug. 21 meeting of council, adding: “I enjoy going through the clearcuts that are growing up….”
Councillors Tek Manhas and Bruce Findlay have long supported taking the axe to the Six Mountains — despite the impact on biodiversity, recreation and other values.
But one expects more from Caljouw, a councillor who chairs the Environmental Advisory Committee, no less.
Caljouw made the surprising comment during a discussion of an annual staff report updating the Municipal Forest Reserve.
His remarks suggest a lack of understanding for the lengthy public consultation process that culminated last year. The community made a clear and informed choice for a conservation management scenario (76% support) over status-quo logging (17% support).
Now that citizens have made their feelings known, they rightly expect council to act accordingly in future management decisions.
With that in mind, it’s worth repeating some important reasons why the Six Mountains should not be logged:
— The Municipal Forest Reserve overlaps the smallest and most endangered forest type in BC, the coastal-Douglas fir (CDF) biogeoclimatic zone.
— Logging and development are two of the biggest threats to this forest.
— The Coastal Douglas-fir Conservation Partnership consists of more than 40 conservation groups and levels of government — including the BC Forests Ministry — committed to “promoting and protecting” the CDF and its associated ecosystems.
— The partnership says the CDF “contains more species at risk than any other ecological zone in BC (25 globally imperilled species and >225 species that are provincially imperilled or threatened).”
— A consultant’s draft report for the Municipality in 2017 found that the “North Cowichan Forestry Program does not currently have a formal system in place to manage” species at risk.
—Almost all the old-growth has been logged from the forest reserve. A few big isolated trees survive by the Chemainus River.
— By managing the forest as a crop, and cutting it on a rotational basis, the forest never reaches its full potential of biodiversity.
One could go on, noting the value of intact forests for recreation, tourism, personal well-being, Indigenous cultural practices, viewscapes, carbon storage, etc…
Caljouw, on the other hand, believes “we can have our cake and eat it, too….We can have recreation and we can have harvesting at the same time.”
A recent update on closed talks between the Municipality and local First Nations on future management of the forest reserve stated: “Staff will work with Quw’utsun Nation and proceed with a request for proposals to hire a qualified contractor to investigate further a forest carbon credit project which could be considered as the forest management plan for the MFR is developed in the future.”
The UBC Partnership Group has already told council it stands to earn millions more from carbon-credit sales than logging over 30 years — an assessment recently confirmed by KPMG consultants.
Yet Caljouw somehow fails to appreciate all this, the rookie councillor who, alas, cannot see the forest for the clearcuts.
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— Larry Pynn, Sept. 2, 2024
