ENVIRONMENT

The campaign for Meares Island —

By MAUREEN SAGER
and GARY SWANN
The opposition to the logging of Meares

Island revolves around the question of who ~

is going to benefit from the resources on
Meares Island and in the water surrounding
it. :

These resources are many. Besides the
timber, there are herring-spawning grounds,
extensive crab, clam and oyster beds and
salmon streams. The island is in the centre
ofa flyway for migratory birds and contains
rare eel-grass mudflats which provide a
home for many thousands of birds includ-
ing Canada geese, trumpeter swans and
great blue herons. Many species also live on
the island.

_ Meares Island has hundreds of important

archaeological sites (including 65 recorded
shell middens, 32 intertidal stone fish weirs,
32 canoe runs, two ancient village sites, an
unknown number of burial sites and
hundreds of old trees where planks and
barks were obtained). There are eight his-
toric sites including Fort Defiance where
Capt. Robert Gray and his crew wintered
and built a schooner in 1791.

Some of the earth’s most ancient and
largest remaining trees are on Meares
Island. This is one of the last virgin forests of
any size on the North American coast and
the only one which is easily accessible to
tourists.

Also lost will be a potential thriving shell-
fish farming industry. The pure waters of
Lemmens Inlet provide ideal growing con-
ditions for oysters. There are four leases in
operation already and. several more are
planned.

_ Native Indian medicine plants, which
grow undisturbed in this virgin territory,

will perish as will the spiritual “vision quest”
areas.

The struggle to. save Meares Island began
in 1980 when local residents, outraged by
MacMillan Bloedel’s announced plans to
begin clear-cut logging of the island, banded
together to demand some action from the
government.

Forest Minister Tom Waterland res-
ponded by setting up a public planning pro-
cess. Unique in its day, this planning process
promised an opportunity for public partici-

pation in decisions affecting the forest —

industry.

The planning team included MacMillan-
Bloedel, B.C. Forest Products, the Interna-
tional Woodworkers, four government
agencies (Fisheries and Oceans, Marine
Resources Branch, Ministry of Forests, and
Parks Canada), the Nuu-Chah-Nulth Tri-
bal Council, the Village of Tofino, Friends
of Clayoquot Sound and the Alberni-
Clayoquot Regional District.

After two years of work, and many meet-
ings and discussions, it became apparent to
MacMillan Blodel that the planning team
would not accede to its desire to clear-cut
Meares. The Company then chose to pull

out, and appealed directly to the provincial

cabinet through the Environmental Land
Use Committee (ELUC) for approval of
their logging plan.

The planning team meanwhile came up
with three.options which they presented to
the government: total preservation; 50 per
cent preservation combined with a 25-year
deferral of logging on the other half; 50 per
cent preservation and logging of the other
half without any deferral.

In November 1983,,ELUC decided to
allow logging of 90 per cent of the island

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be PACIFIC TRIBUNE, DECEMBER 19, 1984

2Campbell River, Courtenay
and District Labor Council

xtends greetings to all |
rade unionists and working people

2 solidarity in the new year.

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Peace, Solidarity,
: Season’s Greetings from the |
United Fishermen and Allied Workers Union

Jobs |

and defer 10 per cent for 20 years. This
decision made a mockery of the democratic
planning process. _

MacMillan Bloedel, motivated: by the
easy accessibility and inexpensive™logging
Meares Island presented, decided it could
not allow any public interference in their
“right” .to decide the fate of Meares
Island — and, by extension of any other
B.C. forest.

The threatened logging operation en-
dangers the water supply of both the village
of Tofino and the Indian village of Opitsaht.
Ina report to Tofino town council the engi-
neering firm, C.W. Bullock Associates of
Victoria, states: “Government policy, as
presently formulated, may put the munici-
pality at risk, and...should be changed
...Alternative water sources have been

_ investigated in detail and rejected. Meares

Island is the logical and natural source of
water for the municipality.”

The report concludes, ‘“Foreseeable
shortages of water. . .may involve a substan-
tial financial liability because it could result

in cancelled bookings and losses to tourist

facilities.” :

The solution to the present dilemma
— to save or not to save Meares
Island — inevitably comes down-to choos-
ing which resource takes the highest prior-

ity. Total preservation would mean the loss -

of 26 temporary jobs in direct woods
employment and the possible loss of jobs in
mills in the Alberni Valley mills. (MacMil-

lan Bloedel recently stated all the logs from _
- Meares Island will be directed to Alberni

Valley mills.)

Noteworthy is the fact that the total
available cut on Meares almost parallels the
amount of raw logs MacMillan-Bloedel
exported last year. In any case, logging of
Meares will result in huge profits for Mac-
Millan Bloedel.

Of equal importance is the just settlement
of Native land claims, which would relieve
the abject poverty of the local Native peo-
ple. (Ben Swankey, in his 1981 book, Native
Land Claims: For a Just Settlement, lists
extensive evidence of this poverty: 50 to 70
per cent of status Indians are on welfare;
Indian unemployment hovers at close to 75
per cent; average annual income for more
than 60 per cent of the Native population is
less than $2,000; infant mortality is four
times the national average; Native life

~ expectancy is 10 years lower than for non-Natives,

80 per cent of Indian children do not com-
plete high school; the number of Native
peoples in jails is, in proportion to their
population, three times higher than the non-
Native population. It should be noted that
Swankey’s figures, taken on a national
scale, are conservative when estimating
Indian poverty on the west coast.)

The key to survival of the native people is :

land — adequate land and a resource base
to provide economic activity to relieve the

“up to 90 per cent unemployment on Nuu-

Chah-Nulth reserves.

Nuu-Chah-Nulth people by bitter expe--
rience have already answered the question.
of who should own and benefit from natu-
ral resources: they want control of their
lands.

’ economic fate well-known to Native people. -

* ~ Should th

On the West Coast nutitul old-gn

‘Ow
ast be clearcut ieoncdt iQrest

intact Meares |g
quot Chief].

There is a high degree of unity between
the Nuu-Chah-Nulth people and Tofino

area residents who oppose MacMillan —

Bloedel’s proposed logging.

However, the IWA has sided with Mac- a

Millan Bloedel in calling for logging of

Meares Island, albeit with suitable envir-

onmental safeguards.

With this “business unionism” attitude, it
is not surprising that the [WA sees Meares
Island in the context of jobs for its members
instead of being concerned with Native

_ rights, equality, land claims and community

control of local resources.

It is unlikely the question of land claims
will have a positive settlement until broad —

segments of the population, including the ~ :
_ IWA are supportive. The task before pro- —
gressives in the [WA isto make that uniona —

force for social change.

The central question around Meares —

Island and Native land claims, which —
increasing numbers of IWA members are
asking is: Who is going to benefit from our
resources — multinationals like MacMil- —

lan Bloedel which exports logs, and with

them jobs, or the working people of B.C.? _

With nearly 20,000 IWA jobs lost this past ;
decade, a people’s response to that question

is vital. Without policies which put people _
before profits, all working people face an

For more information, contact Friends
of Clayoquot Sound, Box 489, Tofino, B.C.
VOR 2Z0 or the Nuu-Chah-Nulth Tribal
Council, Box 1383, Port Alberni, B.C. VOY
7M2. -

Maureen Sager is an activist involved in the
Organization of Unemployed Workers. Gary
Swann, a former forestry department
employee, is an Alberni school trustee and —
chair of the local Communist Party club.

Season’s Greetings
om the
Nanaimo, Duncan ue District Labor Council

May peace and disarmament
prevail over war and the arms race.

7 ES es oe R
ai MAR id ae Be ee Rear ey