When trees fall in the forest, do the Campbell Liberals?
Campbell falls flat on silviculture “The fact we could be planting fewer trees under current conditions seems to us to be a contradiction” – John Betts, Executive Director, Western Silviculture Contractors Association, Feb. 5, 2008, Kamloops Daily News. “By simple arithmetic we are harvesting at a rate that should see reforestation at five times the present levels.” – Western Silviculture Contractors Association Conference Brochure, 2008. The Campbell Liberals’ neglect of the reforestation backlog has pushed the province into one of its worst forest health crises. Sixteen million hectares of BC forests have been destroyed by the mountain pine beetle or other pests, and more through forest fires and windstorms. Yet the Campbell Liberals are planting 100 million fewer trees this year and next and have let nurseries shutdown across the province. The most recent example is the Surrey Nursery, which closed in March after being in business for forty years. Despite their talk about the import
