For Immediate Release - June 3, 2002

The Seattle Times reports on Weyerhaeuser's contentious logging of the Upper Walbran Valley's ancient rainforests

The controversy over Weyerhaeuser's logging of the Upper Walbran Valley on Vancouver Island is making international headlines for the first time. This week, the Seattle Times is running a 3 part feature entitled "Big timber: The world of Weyerhaeuser" on the American logging giant. The first part, Sunday's edition (June 1) featured an expose of the company's logging of the Upper Walbran Valley and other BC old-growth forests.

The article can be viewed at:

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/134864859_weyerhaeuser01m.html

It covers such topics as the Western Canada Wilderness Committee's (WCWC) campaign to protect the Upper Walbran Valley, the arrest of 74 year old great grandmother Betty Krawczyk for blockading Weyerhaeuser's logging operations, comments by University of Victoria biologist Dr. Neville Winchester about the ineffectiveness of Weyerhaeuser's "variable retention" logging for conserving unique canopy species, and a photo of WCWC campaigner Ken Wu by a giant Douglas fir and red cedar growing side-by-side in the Upper Walbran.

"It's high time that Americans and international consumers became aware of the Upper Walbran's endangered ancient forests - and of Weyerhaeuser's relentless drive to cut down its record-sized trees," states Ken Wu, executive director of the WCWC in Victoria. "This trend in growing international awareness will only continue until Weyerhaeuser permanently exits the valley."

Recently, WCWC campaigners measured Canada's 4th widest Douglas fir - newly discovered and then named "Grandma Betty" after Betty Krawczyk - in the Upper Walbran. It can be viewed by clicking here.

The 13000 hectare Walbran Valley lies adjacent to the protected West Coast Trail and Carmanah Valley on southwestern Vancouver Island. In it grow Canada's largest (girth plus height) Sitka spruce, 4th and 5th widest Douglas firs, and 8th widest western red cedar. It also harbours threatened marbled murrelet seabirds, Queen Charlotte goshawks, coho salmon, and steelhead trout, as well as wolves, cougars, bears, and Roosevelt elk. The 5500 hectare Lower Walbran was protected in 1994. Weyerhaeuser and Timber West have logging rights to the unprotected 7500 hectare Upper Walbran.

For more info contact Ken Wu, WCWC Victoria executive director:

(250) 388-9292 (office)