Forests Forever, Fairy Creek

This week at Fairy Creek Blockade, Vancouver Island, B.C. Canada

Around 200 people have been arrested so far, many more offering to be in order to slow down or stop the logging of the ancient rainforest of southern Vancouver Island.

Pressure on Government has brought about a deferral of 2 years in a couple of areas while logging of these giant trees continues in most areas and road building continues into the area of these last stands. People aren’t backing down until all old growth is protected, there is so little left….

Send Premier Horgan a message at…. premier@gov.bc.ca

Hundreds of vehicles line the roads and people work to accommodate all the people coming and going, sometimes in the rain, sometimes in the sunshine. Baby ravens are calling from the ridge that divides the camp from the Fairy Creek watershed. Chainsaws are cutting down old growth forest trees en route to their area after more arrests this morning, people locked together by the arms inside steel pipes. Police helicopters circle over the camp early in the morning reading the injunction over loud speakers to those on the ground that can hear it.

A sacred fire is started to honor those children lost and traumatized by Indian residential schools, gathering in a great circle formed in a gravel pit. It is an action taking place across the country, started in Kamloops where so many children's bodies were found in a mass grave recently.

Around the meeting circle after dinner, people come forward offering to make signs, bus rides to Victoria for anyone's needs, people willing to be arrested, their supporters, cooks, cleanup crews, daily help. Lots of volunteers, training for peaceful arrest, rules of the camp explained. Respect for all, the Elders, Indigenous title holders, the land and each other is taught along with much more. Some of these people have been here for 10 months, some come for the day, all ages, all nationalities.

Scientists and biologists gather to compare photos and findings after combing the region for the amazing variety of species and plants that still exist in this ancient ecosystem, many endangered. All are dedicated to the forests and life it supports.

(Photo permission given by Grandma Rose)

It is "disgusting" says one person, about people being arrested to try to protect the final remnants of a once thriving ecosystem that supported humans, flora and fauna alike in balanced sustainability. It is incredible that loggers, police and citizens are being thrown against each other in something so obviously terminal. Once gone, it will never exist again in such beauty and majesty. Where will the owls go? They don't build nests, they hollow out old growth trees for their burrows. What about the flying squirrels which only come out at night and are silent? And the giant salamander, living only in the moist and rich ancient forest? What about nests for eagles, herons, osprey and hawks?

What of the clear, pure waters, bound to dry up as barren slopes erode soil and heat up in the summer sun? It is madness, the deforestation taking place and is a crime against all life... even if one doesn't see it, one feels it inside as all is connected.

It is amazing how nature keeps trying to give, even in the face of such disrespect. At what point do the waters cease to flow? the winds cease to blow? The green Earth cease to grow and the fires cease to glow?

Power to the peaceful, may the forests be with you….. For All Our Relations.