Huge redcedar stumps are beside the East Creek logging road. Photo by Joe Foy

July 2003: Wilderness Committee campaigners Ken Wu and Joe Foy have just returned from their first expedition into the remote and spectacular East Creek Rainforest on northwestern Vancouver Island. Until this spring, the East Creek Valley was one of 6 remaining unlogged primary valleys out of an original 90 such valleys on Vancouver Island. However, LeMare Lake logging began blasting a road through East Creek's spectacular ancient forests several months ago, ripping through thousand year old ancient yellow cedars in the process. Their road is now about 3 kilometres into the upper East valley and will access LeMare's planned cutblocks and eventually the tenure of American logging giant Weyerhaeuser in the lower East Creek Valley. LeMare appears ready to log its first cutblock within the next few weeks.

• Photos of the recent WCWC expedition (July 2003)
  
  
• Save the East Creek Rainforest documentary video (July 2003)
  
  
• Find out more on the Sierra Club's website at www.saveeastcreek.com

Take Action

The East Creek Rainforest is home to all 5 species of spawning salmon (chinook, coho, sockeye, chum, and pinks), Roosevelt elk, many nesting marbled murrelet sea birds, LOTS of black bears, cougars, wolves, deer, giant red cedar and sitka spruce bottomlands, and a spectacular, productive estuary.

The East Creek Valley must not go down without a fight! Here's what you can do:

• WRITE (yes, elected officials out of self-interest are FORCED to respond if there are enough of the electorate making noise...similarly, companies subject to markets campaigns respond to the bottom line - profits - when consumers speak up)
  
  
• TELL THESE BC POLITICIANS whether or not you'd like them to revoke the cutting rights for LeMare Lake Logging and Weyerhaeuser in East Creek on Vancouver Island, and whether or not you want the valley protected:
  
  
  Premier Gordon Campbell:
  premier@gov.bc.ca
  
  Stan Hagen, Minister of Sustainable Resource Management:
  stan.hagen@gems6.gov.bc.ca
  
  Mike de Jong, Minister of Forests:
  mike.dejong.mla@leg.bc.ca
  
  
• TELL WEYERHAEUSER whether or not you'd like them to permanently abandon all plans to log the East Valley as well as to pressure their contractor, LeMare Lake Logging, to immediately drop all logging of the Upper East Creek valley.
  
  
  Tom Holmes, Vice-President, Weyerhaeuser Timberlands:
  tom.holmes@weyerhaeuser.com
  
  Kathy Budinick, Weyerhaeuser Environment and Trade:
  kathy.budinick@weyerhaeuser.com
  
  
  Also, let Weyerhaeuser's customers know about your concerns regarding them selling Weyerhaeuser products, including:
  
  
  Staples - Paul Capelli, Public Relations:
  paul.capelli@staples.com
  
  Home Depot - Corporate Relations:
  phone (770)-433-8211 (no e-mail is provided on their website)
  
  
• CALL, MEET WITH, or WRITE to your elected MLA (provincial politician who represents you in your area) to voice your concerns. You can find them at www.legis.gov.bc.ca/mla/3-1-1.htm
  
  
• INFORM and ORGANIZE your friends, church, community group, union, environmental group, co-workers, etc. to write and speak up against the logging of East Creek.
  
  
• HELP the WCWC distribute East Creek Rainforest leaflets into mailboxes, stores, libraries, etc. throughout BC.

For more info, contact:

WCWC Victoria
651 Johnson St.
Victoria, BC V8W 1M7
wc2vic@island.net
250-388-9292