Clayoquot partnership rotting away

BARRICADING THE FORESTS

Clayoquot partnership rotting away Days when environmentalists and natives stood shoulder to shoulder on logging protests are gone. A backdoor argument has emerged over the fate of Clayoquot Sound's iconic rain forest, Mark Hume reports

MARK HUME

mhume@globeandmail.com

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August 2, 2008

VANCOUVER -- In Clayoquot Sound, where a towering rain forest has achieved iconic global status, the first logging protests saw environmentalists and natives standing shoulder to shoulder.

At Meares Island, Sulphur Passage and Atleo River, natives and non-natives faced arrest at blockades more than 20 years ago, while forging an alliance that would go on to change the face of British Columbia.

But in that tangled, temperate jungle, where deer ferns stand waist-high and giant trees blot out the sky, environmentalists are now threatening to block a native-owned logging company from cutting trees.

The alliance of natives and environmentalists not only brought a halt to logging on Meares Island in 1984, but in 1993, after a massive protest that drew international media coverage, it celebrated a resounding victory - the stoppage of clear-cutting in Clayoquot Sound.