A serene Sunday afternoon hike through what was—until very recently—pristine forest turned into a life-threatening situation for four residents of a Vancouver Island community.
Two local filmmakers, a city councillor and his eight-year-old son had to run for their lives when a Skycrane helicopter appeared suddenly and began removing massive 500-year-old trees from right where the group had been hiking on a small island.
“It was pretty scary. People could have been killed for sure. They hadn’t really marked off the trails or given any warning to the public,” said environmentalist and documentary filmmaker Richard Boyce, who had to dive for cover amid flying branches and debris generated by the intense downdraft from the helicopter blades.
Councillor Chris Berger called 9-1-1 to get a message relayed to logging company Island Timberlands that people were in danger, and the helicopter left10 minutes later. Owned by Island Timberlands, the island is just one kilometre from the boundary of Englishman River Falls Provincial Park.
Boyce had taken city councillor Chris Berger to the island in the Englishman River to show him how logging is affecting the drinking water supply for the nearby city of Parksville and the surrounding region.
Locals are concerned about logging activities in the area, not only because of the rapidly disappearing old-growth Coast Douglas-fir but also because of risks to drinking water and efforts to restore salmon habitat in the Englishman River.
Over two million provincial and federal dollars—and much local effort—have been spent to rehabilitate the Englishman, which up until last year was designated one of the most endangered rivers in British Columbia.
“The company is claiming they’re only taking 20 trees from the island, but the bigger picture is that the watershed has very little old growth left, and what is left they’re cutting it down,” said Boyce.
