Cathedral Grove Photo Essay By Syd Haskell

 

Master Trail Cruiser Ingmar Lee poses against the magnificent Douglas Fir trees at the entrance to the Culturally Modified Tree (CMT) Trail. All trees within this essay are contained within the privately owned lands of Weyerhaeuser, a giant multinational corporation which acquired priceless rare forests when they conducted a levered buy-out of B.C.'s MacMillan Bloedel, during the period of the former NDP government and loudly protested to government at the time, not unlike the Working Forest today.

Ingmar is actively campaigning for the protection of East Creek, Upper East Walbran, Valdez Island, shares concerns over the Coastal Douglas Fir zone of Vancouver Island with CFS, and is an outspoken critic of the Marmot Recovery Program due to ongoing habitat loss due to logging.

Two tree sitting platforms appear as silhouettes in the trees.

This photo depicts the large cedar bark strips that are pliant and have great fiber strength, allowing them to be cut at the base and then simply pulled from the side so that the bark can be partially removed while allowing the tree to not only survive, but eventually grow over and heal itself.

This photo depicts a tree with evidence of a combination of practices. Firstly a strip of bark was removed from the uphill side of the tree (all were modified from this orientation). Secondly a huge cavity was developed within the tree by fire. This fire was isolated and concentrated in a precise way in the few samples we looked at, unlike forest fires, where primarily the canopy is burned.

It is speculated that these were "unfinished" logging projects by First Nation peoples, who skillfully contained fire to complete what we suspect to be the falling of trees for canoes, longhouses or other uses.

Two easily visible culturally modified trees (CMT's), both with bark removed and one with major burning through the base.

Ingmar Lee posing in front of large CMT "burn-through".

Optical cable trail, 9 metres wide runs to the edge of the park. Some feel that this trail could be converted to a parking area without cutting a single tree. This could also provide an existing walking route into the park unlike the expensive and destructive plan proposed by government.

Free Parking to End. Government has been accused of charging the poor while subsidizing the wealthy and offshore industry.

Protest Camp set up at Steel Logging Gate. The banner over the camp depicts numerous aspects of the campaign.

BC Fiberals refers to the BC Liberals. the current government, who have been accused of not keeping their promises, (BCFacts.org).

WALLOP, means to inflict a knock-out blow. BC no longer has a Ministry of Environment and instead these needs are under-serviced by the Ministry of Water, Land and Air Protection, affectionately abbreviated known as WLAP.

Cathedral Grove.com is our web site and has been recently supplemented by a European version depicting a far broader exposure of the forest management and environmental problems of BC Forest Practices and the companies that profit from BC timber

A culturally modified tree in the last stages of growing over the area that had been exposed through bark removal by First Nations peoples likely a hundred years ago. When the bark is removed, the tree grows not only outward in corresponding years, but inwards to heal itself, not unlike a human cut where skin will eventually close the wound, except in the life of a Western Red Cedar tree, this might take a hundred years where we humans can accomplish the same task in a matter of weeks.

"Wolf's Platform" and climbing rope. Protesters (forest defenders) have basic life provisions stored on these tree platforms, some 40? metres in height. Residents will sleep with a full climbing harness strapped to the "platform". Water, food, personal effects are all stored above the platform to assure that the maximum occupation time is obtained. Platforms are connected with a network of ropes to facilitate escape and transfers. Read a story on tree sits and protests by Syd Haskell.

Protesters have stalled logging since February 9, 2004, and the brutal solution that the government had devised to remove them using the Royal Canadian Mounted Police under the authority of the British Columbia Supreme Court was successfully blocked by a combination of activists and the legal firm of Cameron Ward and Associates.

Carmanah Forestry Society acquired Cameron Ward (link) for the defense against an injunction which would have seen the Supreme Court sanction the actions of the government and enforce punishment on those that chose to defy in a manner which was disproportionate to the offense. The judge reasoned that the government could use existing laws which the government had not proven to be ineffective and would have been in keeping with the Canadian Charter of Rights, which allow the accused a full and vigorous defense.