[Front]Protect your drinking water! Be part of the solution! [Back]Urgent -Public Notice- Clear-cut Logging of Our Drinking Watersheds Must Stop

HOW YOUR DRINKING WATER GETS DIRTY!/ WATER RETAINING ANCIENT FOREST Seymour Watershed, July 1991/ Clearcuts and road construction cause increased landslides and erosion. Rain on snow causes the most damage./ STEEP CLEARCUTS IN WATERSHED Capilano Watershed 1988/ JAMIESON CREEK SIDE July 1991/ DIRTY WATER IN SEYMOUR RESERVOIR AFTER NOVEMBER 1990 JAMIESON CREEK SLIDE AND FLOOD/ PROTECT YOUR DRINKING WATER! BE PART OF THE SOLUTION! [Back] URGENT -PUBLIC NOTICE-/ The Greater Vancouver Regional District Water Board passed a motion this Thursday, July 16th, to permit the clearcut logging of another 125 acres of ancient rainforest in our drinking watersheds, bringing this year's total up to 235 acres./ The motion, passed in the face of up-to-date scientific studies which document that the undisturbed coastal old-growth forests provide the highest quality drinking water available and that logging degrades the water supply./ This motion was forwarded on the false premise that our old-growth forest present a high risk of forest fire. However Dr. Mike Feller, Professor at UBC's School of Forestry and one of B.C.'s foremost forest-fire experts has stated that "extensive fires in old growth coastal B.C. forests...are very infrequent" (see table). Fire hazards in clearcut and second growth, even-aged forests are obviously greater./ Some of the groups calling for a moratorium on logging in our drinking watersheds are: - The B.C. Medical Assn Environmental Health Committee - Associate Boards of Health of B.C. - B.C. Public Health Assn. - Canadian Bar Assn., B.C. Branch, Environmental Law Section - Canadian Institute of Public Health Inspectors - Western Canada Wilderness Committee/ The GVRD Water Board continues to refuse to halt logging and road construction despite the fact that critical ecological studies will not be completed until 1993./ The ancient rainforest acts as a natural filter which purifies water and regulates its flow throughout the year. Once the forests are clearcut, it will take hundreds of years of succession to return to their present capabilities./ Because you care about protecting the water supply of the most beautiful city in the world help us STOP the clear-cutting and show up on July 31st./ RAINFOREST DESTROYED IN GVRD DRINKING WATERSHEDS/ "Forest fire management is the underlying basis for the GVWD's forest management program" Greater Vancouver Watershed Management Evaluation and Policy Review - Final Summary Report, Aug. 91, pg.50/ "The (GVWD consultant's) finding that old growth forests present a higher fire risk than managed forests is most unusual and is not supported by available data or current fire behaviour models." Dr. Mike Feller, Professor, U.B.C. School of Forestry/ BE PART OF THE SOLUTION SHOW UP/ CLEAR-CUT LOGGING OF OUR DRINKING WATERSHEDS MUST STOP/ Attend the GVRD Board Meeting and speak up. Friday * July 31 * 9:00 AM GVRD Boardroom, 4330 Kingsway, Burnaby (near Patterson Skytrain Station)/ THIS PUBLICATION IS SPONSORED BY STUDENT ACTION FOR EARTH, 676 W. 31ST AVE., VAN., B.C. CANADA, V5Z 2J7