LETTER – ‘Forest stewardship’ just worsens the risks to rural B.C.

Those of us in rural British Columbia are bracing for the ravages of climate change that will bear down upon us with a vengeance this year (if the government and its experts are to be believed).

We brace knowing that the Emperor Wears No Clothes.

The premier and the ministers (Ralston of Forests, Ma of Emergency Management & Climate Readiness, Cullen of Land, Water Resource Stewardship, and Heyman, Environment) present publicly with compassion and concern.

They wear the cloak of legitimacy.

All are urging citizen proactivity — firesmarting, purchasing water storage capacity, upgrading irrigation methods.

Funding is announced for this or that “resiliency-building” endeavour, all of which must be applied for through complex bureaucratic structures and grant applications that do not and cannot ensure “resiliency” before the crunch and crisis we will see.

Every single emperor in the tacit service of timber, with loyalty to timber, is refusing to audibly and publicly acknowledge that in private, at the cabinet table and in their own ministerial offices, each one knows that poor forestry practices, and “forest stewardship” (absent rigorous checks and balances and the absent any concern for conflicts of interests – fox guarding the henhouse stuff) has exacerbated every single risk that rural British Columbians face: fire, drought and flood.

The experts have spoken for decades.

DANICA DROJDEWICH