An Island Publishers Newsmagazine

October 31, 1990

folie dceighiors |
ee their dual role

On one occasion, one of his con-
stables driving a fire truck pulled
over a disbelieving motorist who
had passed the pumper on a double-
yellow line. In a less humorous —
LaisHOn, the fire truck was used _
last New Year’s Eve to disperse an —
sy crowd when a Head Street —
party got out of a
h = SS

unique in Western
Canada and one of

‘wee s This Week).
recently
eleased provincial
government report,
sh Columbia in the
mmends epee

ontinued on Page. 4

By VAUGHN COCKE
_ This Week Staff
n their way to the
grand opening of

Trail last August,

: members of the Carmanah
Forestry Society (C ‘S) came
across a locked gate blocking
_ the road. By accident or by
design, forestry giant Mac-

Millan Bloedel had failed to
leave the gate open to allow

the group access to the
_ Walbran Valley. Still 15 miles -
_short of their destination, a

less-determined band of en-

vironmentalists might have

given up.

On this day, however, nothing was
going to stop the CFS people. Beam-
ing his trademark Cheshire cat
grin, CFS co-founder Syd Haskell
announced he had brought the “key”

to ihe Teak Then, with a television

Fthe West Walbran

“Photo by Cl CHUCK RUSSELL

camera rolling, Haskell produced a
hacksaw and cut his way through ~
the gate. The opening of the trail
went ahead as planned.

Haskell, the omnipresent en-
vironmentalist with the bushy
beard and red mechanic's coveralls, —
won that battle, andhe fully expects :

to win many more before he's
finished.

The 41-year-old Victoria sesident .

_is a man with many hats. He’s a _
husband, a father, a university —

graduate and an automobile
mechanic. But more than anything,

he’ s a determined environmentalist
_, .. determined to right what he

believes is a terrible wrong — the
destruction of old-growth forest on
Vancouver Island.

“I see this as being every bit as
serious as an oil spill,” Haskell says.
“What theyre doing to the land...
if another country did it we'd
declare war”

Continued on Page 3