Resistance is escalating in the old-growth forests of the Sunshine Coast, from blockades to tree-sits to a burning barricade. For decades, residents have used almost every strategy in the book to protect wildlife and their drinking watersheds. But the clearcut logging continues under the control of the BC government's Timber Sale program.
Last week. protesters set a homemade roadblock on fire to stop the logging above Roberts Creek, in a bear denning area adjacent to Mount Elphinstone Provincial Park. Currently there are several camps and at least two groups of defenders on the mountain. Contact Elphinstone Logging Focus for info and to let us know if you can bring or donate gear.
As the Vancouver Sun notes, we could be returning to the days of the “War in the Woods” that wracked coastal BC in the 1990s. Environmentalists spiked trees, damaged equipment, blockaded roads, sparked international boycotts, and hundreds were carted off to mass civil disobedience trials. Loggers heaved rocks, waved nooses, wore T-shirts saying that female environmentalists should be sexually assaulted, and they burned down a peace camp and injured three young people in 1999.
Whatever tactics they employ, VICFAN can advise and train land defenders to be prepared for anything. Please sponsor their action training.
This update comes from Victoria Forest Action Network (VICFAN), a grassroots organization fiercely committed to land defense in British Columbia. See also The Courage to Speak Truth to Power, a speech by VICFAN's Zoe Blunt recently published at the DGR News Service.
Cheers to the new year! And to the gutsy land defenders who stand up to corporate villians and win (sometimes)
People are blockading, occupying, and protesting corporate destruction across BC. Message us with news or to find out about joining and supporting community organizing to protect land and water.
2016 land defense forecast Skill-shares, workshops, and action training
We're putting together a training schedule for spring, summer, and fall in Victoria, Vancouver, Port Renfrew, the Walbran Valley, and Northern BC. Please get in touch to find out how to bring a workshop to your community!
To make these workshops succeed, we're calling for workshop leaders, cooks, fundraisers, drivers, child-care providers, and spaces for the trainings and for out of town guests. Visit the House of Solidarity to learn more.
April, May, June - Spring Training in Victoria, Vancouver, and the Walbran Valley
Mid-May - Spring Construction Crew at Unist'ot'en Camp
July - Summer Caravan: schoolbus convoy from Victoria to Unist'ot'en Camp
Fall Getaway - Labour Day weekend
Stay tuned for details. Participants can donate on a sliding scale.
No pipelines, No tankers: the good news
Prime Minister Trudeau ordered a ban on oil tankers on the Pacific Coast, effectively killing the Enbridge Pipeline. (National Observer)
Experts say there is no way the BC government can make good on its promises about natural gas exploitation (fracking). It is not going to take off, thanks to falling prices, a global glut, and renewable energy. (Bloomberg)
Changes to the political and economic landscape last year are having an impact on pipeline plans and logging operations, but some companies seem to be on auto-pilot, ignoring court decisions, change in government, indigenous rights, the Paris accord, and reality. (The Tyee)
The bad news
Some of the worst projects are still going ahead in 2016:
Petronas LNG is preparing to build a fracked gas terminal at Lelu Island near Prince Rupert. Members of the Lax Kwalaams Nation are occupying the site.
Kinder Morgan is currently drilling test holes in Burrard Inlet for a new tarsands pipeline and terminal in Burnaby.
Site C dam and hydro project is planned to flood the Peace River Valley in Northeastern BC to make energy for gas liquefication plants that will probably never be built.
Teal Jones is logging cathedral forests in the Walbran Valley, Vancouver Island. The company has obtained a court injunction to block protestors.
South Island Aggregates is dumping toxic soil in the Shawnigan Lake watershed, Vancouver Island. Local residents are in the road blocking trucks almost every day at 7 am. Three lawsuits are in process and a dozen people were arrested after the company obtained an injunction to block protestors.
There has never been a more important time for effective, strategic action for land and water. Please support our work today.
Walbran Witness Camp in the ancient forest
We're recruiting people to help hold back industrial logging next to Carmanah Provincial Park on Vancouver Island. Find out more here.
Thank you for being part of this movement to protect living ecosystems
VIC FAN is celebrating its ninth year on Vancouver Island, Coast Salish and Nuu-chah-nulth territory. Big cheers to everyone who took part in our victories!
WildCoast and Forest Action Network are 100% home-grown, grassroots. and volunteer-led.
In the past year, we're seeing a surge of land defense actions in BC and elsewhere in Canada. Zoe Blunt of Victoria Forest Action Network compiled this list to help keep track of current, ongoing, and flying blockades, along with ways to get involved and support the actions.
We are ALL BEING CALLED to support these land defenders. To answer the call, email Zoe at wildcoast@riseup.net - she can help set up ride shares and give advice for fundraising.
Injunction and arrests at Shawnigan Lake, Vancouver Island: Community residents, including members of the Cowichan First Nation, are seeking an injunction to shut down toxic soil dumping in their drinking watershed. The dump overflowed during heavy rain November 13, 2015. Meanwhile the company is seeking an injunction to shut down the protestors, two of whom were arrested Noveber 13.
Walbran Valley blockade: Members of the Pacheedaht First Nation and non-native environmentalists have built a camp to stop the clearcutting of ancient cathedral forests just outside a park boundary. The Walbran has been the site of massive protests, civil disobedience, and sabotage for twenty years.
Ongoing: Coastal First Nations vs. Grizzly hunters. For two years, the Coastal Forest Guardians have been patrolling the central coast of BC and "educating" grizzly hunters and guides about the ban on hunting on their territory. The province continues to issue trophy hunting permits and now the Guardians say they are escalating their enforcement of the ban.
Happening now: Ahousaht First Nation on Vancouver Island is using boats to stop a new salmon farm in their territorial waters. Media reports here.
Ongoing: Gitdumden Clan of the Wet'suwet'en (neighbours to Unist'ot'en) in Northern BC. They are occupying their territory to block pipelines, logging, and mining.
New: Likhts'amisyu Clan of the Wet'suwet'en (neighbours to Unist'ot'en), Northern BC. They are occupying their territory to block pipelines. This is Chief Toghestiy's camp. FB page.
Ongoing: Lax Kw'alaams First Nation vs. LNG pipeline terminal, near Prince Rupert BC. The drilling platform was barged into position near Lelu Island in a bay that holds millions of young salmon. The community is mobilizing to occupy the island and surround the barge. News story here.
Occasional: Shawnigan Lake, Vancouver Island: The community has been trying to blockade a contaminated soil dump in the drinking watershed for Victoria and the south island. It is largely symbolic but it has potential. News report.
One-day blockade near Powell River to protect wildlife. In May nine women surrounded a feller-buncher to stop it from working in a sensitive habitat area. They are demanding logging stop during nesting season, and an end to clear-cutting on the Sunshine Coast. More protests are expected.
Nicola Valley Chiefs and locals are blockading a biosolids dump near Merritt, BC and preventing sewage sludge from being trucked into their community. No shipments have made it through the blockade in over a month, and the companies responsible are preparing for a court hearing to have the protestors removed. Fundraising link here.
Ongoing: Voices of the Voiceless camp is an Indigenous re-occupation of Junction Creek area, St'at'imc Nation, 50 km north of Lillooet and about 250 km north of Vancouver. This camp was set up March 2015 under the direction of Xwisten elders to stop logging. The site is near a heritage site and the Junction Creek summer village, a traditional meeting place where people hunt, gather and process food. Video: Re occupying Junction Creek, Christine Jack's Welcome - YouTube
Victory: The Heiltsuk First Nation is fighting for the recovery of herring stocks on the Central Coast of BC. After the feds opened their territory to commercial fishing in March 2015, they occupied offices and set off solidarity rallies. UPDATE:Their blockade is now over and the government has caved in and closed the fishery.
The Sapotaweyak Cree Nation in Manitobais protecting sacred sites by blockading workers cutting trees for a hydroelectric transmission line.
Ongoing: Burnaby/Langley - KM pipeline: 120 locals and allies were arrested in two weeks at a tarsands pipeline test drill site near Vancouver. In 2015, drillers and surveyors are trying to do their work in various locations but people report their whereabouts and they are confronted and prevented from working. The Kwantlen First Nation is leading the charge for the next round of resistance, which shows signs of escalating further (workers threatened, truck vandalized, equipment stolen).
The Nuu-chah-nulth Nations have closed the spring herring fishery in the strait off the west coast of Vancouver Island. They are promising to intercept commercial vessels with their own boats.
Blockade down: The Northern Trappers Alliance, a traditional Dene group, was blocking forest roads near Ducharme, Saskatchewan to push back against the loss of wildlife and land to drilling, pipelines, and gates. The protest camp and picket line were moved to the side of the road after an injunction was issued and RCMP seized a trailer.
Victory: Tseshaht Nation, Port Alberni, Vancouver Island: Blockade down and victory - the province has agreed to stop timber sales in old-growth forests of the Nahmint Valley. The Tseshaht are monitoring to make sure this agreement is respected.
Blockade down: Klabona Keepers, Talhtan Nation (near Iskut) Blockade removed after injunction issued. They were blocking Imperial Metals mine in Sacred Headwaters and other projects in various locations. They are still seeking volunteers, rideshares, donations, and legal help. These traditionalists boycotted the injunction hearing and withdrew for now.
Victory: Penelakut (Grace Islet, near Salt Spring Island) Development site on burial ground. Blockade down: The province is moving to intervene and purchase the development site.
Sabine Channel (between Lasqueti Island and Texada Island) Oct 4: One-day blockade of coal tanker traffic.
Ongoing:Unis'tot'en Camp, (near Smithers) Permanent camp - blocking tarsands and gas pipelines for five years. Get info about the Caravan.
Ongoing: Madii Lii Camp (Gitxsan) New permanent camp - blocking tarsands and gas pipelines.
Ongoing: Sutikalh (near Lillooet) Permanent camp on St'at'imc territory, blocking resort development for over ten years.
Island Timberlands (I.T.), a logging company owned by Wall Street investment firm Brookfield Asset Managaement, has its sights set on Cortes Island in British Columbia. But they'll have to go through Zoe Blunt and a slew of local activists first. This is shaping up to be another epic battle between concerned activists and greedy corporate capitalists! Show your love!
Tete-a-tete between activists and I.T. representative during walk-through of condemned forest
Saturday morning’s walk and talk was set up as a casual getting-to-know-you thing. We met on a dirt road, an easement into I.T.’s private forests. The temperature was mild, the atmosphere was relaxed, and the residents were chatting and joking. Except poor Wayne, [I.T. representative] who seemed a little tense.
Twenty of us were standing around talking when Wayne freaked out. “You can’t film here!” he barked at a young man with a camera. Everyone turned to look.
“There are people who can’t be here today, seniors and disabled people, and I’m filming it for them,” the young man said. He looked Wayne right in the eye and held the camera steady.
Wayne got louder. “This is private land and I’m telling you, you can’t do that here,” he hollered.
“But you invited the public,” someone piped up. “Yep, public events can be filmed,” agreed another.
The younger man kept the camera’s little red eye aimed at Wayne. “I’m making a record for the people who can’t be here.”...
We all stood there looking at Wayne. He looked around at us, and there was a long awkward silence, which I broke.
“Of course you don’t want to be filmed today, because I.T. doesn’t want to be bound by anything you tell us. Because you guys want to be able change your minds and do something else if you want,” I said.
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