Protecting Temperate Old-Growth Rainforest is Key for a Sustainable Future
On the west coast of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, red and yellow cedar trees over 1,000 years old are being cut down for lumber. The logging company, Teal-Jones, has a provincially granted tree farm license that gives them exclusive rights to log a 230-square-mile area in the southwest of the island, which is home to a globally rare zone of temperate rainforest. The loss of these giant trees is immeasurable, not only because of their cultural significance to the region’s Indigenous and settler populations, but also because of the pivotal role they play in forest ecology.