Protesters gathered at Island Timberlands’ offices along the Island Highway in Nanoose Bay Tuesday to express their disgust with recent old growth logging near Cathedral Grove.

Arrowsmith Parks and Land-Use Council member Berni Pearce said helicopter logging by Island Timberlands on a slope near the border of provincially protected McMillan Park was discovered inadvertently.

“We discovered by chance that harvesting has apparently been underway for some time, culminating in the helicopter removal of previously felled old growth trees from a cliff across the Cameron River from the park.”

She said the APLUC has requested a moratorium on logging in the upper Cameron Valley until a protection plan for the grove can be agreed to.

“I feel personally betrayed. We were looking for a moratorium on logging ... that controls the hydrology in Cathedral Grove but instead we have to come back out here time after time to get Island Timberlands to pay attention.”

A spokesperson for the logging company, Mackenzie Leine, said the harvest, which started last week, “doesn’t pose a threat to the Grove,” and is comprised of both small patch and single stem retention methods done in accordance with the governing Private Managed Forest Lands Act.

“If there was a moratorium on old growth logging it would basically destroy what’s left of our business. Old growth is an important part of our operations,” said Leine.

Approximately 30 concerned citizens, some from as far away as Victoria and Port Alberni, converged for the road side rally with the aim of confronting the provincial government for its lack of an old growth strategy.

Among issues raised are the potential for slides and erosion in an area that drains into water sources for the Town of Qualicum Beach.

“Repeated requests for the BC Liberal Government to undertake a comprehensive, provincial, old-growth strategy to inventory and protect what remains, especially in a high profile and high tourist visibility area such as the internationally famous Cathedral Grove have gone unanswered over the past six years while Island Timberlands continues to log and flag the last remaining old growth trees,” said Annette Tanner, mid-Island chair of the Western Canada Wilderness Committee.

Critics of the logging company’s practices point to the ability of older trees to act as carbon sinks mitigating against the effects of climate change.

“How many places on Earth still have these kinds of forest?” said WCWC executive director Ken Wu. “They can store two to three times more carbon per hectare than a tree plantation .... We’re by far in the majority of public opinion now.”

Leine disagrees.

“Island Timberlands cares a lot about the community and what the community thinks. We work with local government and a number of different groups to keep them informed on what is happening,” she said and added, contrary to claims from logging opponents, that decisions on how and where to log are made locally.

“No forest management decisions are made in Bermuda. We’re totally a Nanaimo-based company,” said Leine countering the argument that strings are pulled by Brookfield Asset Management that, according to the company’s website, joined in a limited partnership with Island Timberlands after acquiring 635,000 acres of B.C. timberlands in 2005.

One protester hailed from Bella Bella and said even loggers are waking up to the plight of B.C.’s last remaining stands of ancient forest.

“Private land logging, with no regional or local government oversight, is targeted directly at Cathedral Grove,” said Ingmar Lee. “No government official has overseen more forest destruction than our premier. He takes his orders from the B.C. logging industry. It’s an outrage.”

Leine said there’s research to suggest use of old growth wood in a variety of long lasting products can create “a net benefit to the carbon cycle,” and dismissed claims that the company’s practices could lead to the extinction of towering ancient forest ecosystems.

“We have old growth in our parks already,” she said. “If we are logging near parks we ensure our harvests don’t have an impact on the park ... Those folks opposed to our operations have a right to their opinions.

“We are going to be managing forest land for a long time and that includes forest in the Cameron Valley area.”