Nice to hear how forest management

practices should change to include a long term management strategy. Sadly however the ideas discussed here are nothing new. There have been a number of commissions during the later 50 years of latest century dealing with forestry and ecosystem values and their importance to the social/economic well being of this province. The forest's carbon sink value was quite well recognized several decades ago. Forest Planning Canada( independant forestry magazine) covered much of the topics discussed here. As far as I can tell successive governments have simply continued to shelve the greener recommendations that came from these commissions. Considering government's inaction these exhaustive processes where a monumental waste of time and money and energy. The facts are none of the recommendations ever expounded any virtues of international corporate logging other than creating local employment. The original language in Tree Farm Licenses guaranteed local employment including manufacturing and processing in exchange for timber allocations and land use rights. When the NDP became the government in the 90,s they promised to double the number of wood lot licenses in the province but alas and unknown to the newly elected politicians, corrupt forestry officials had their own plans and changed TFL agreements, removing corporate licensee's obligations to include employment and local socioeconomic benefit. Hence on the coast we now have corporate log export companies with little employment to show for it. As we know corporate interests don't give a rat about anything but the bottom line. The public seems even more apathetic concerning the state of our forests now because so many have had to leave small town BC and urban BC has no idea if there are any trees on the other side of that mountain and don't seem to care.