Members of a group campaigning to preserve what remains of unlogged forest in the region say they have come across evidence of loggers targeting trees more than 300 years old.
Conservation North has made the claim on a video, now online, showing a log from a spruce tree they say dates back to 1691. It was found at a log sorting yard on the Pass Lake Forest Service Road which they have been monitoring for the past three years.
The video opens with a bird's eye view of the site.
"These stacks of logs come from the Inland and Boreal rainforests, representing a legacy of old growth and primary forests that are quickly being annihilated," the group says in a statement.
"This annihilation includes not only critical habitat for old growth dependent species like fisher, caribou, and bull trout, but also communities and jobs that were once supported by logging in this area.
"For example, the mill in Upper Fraser once supported more than 200 direct workers and now sits abandoned, while residents watch truck load after truck load of saw logs leave their area."
Earlier this year, the group issued an online map showing the cumulative impact industrial activity has had on the province's forests. It shows roughly three-quarters of the province covered in a swath of red while an accompanying map shows how little old growth is left.
"The B.C. government is failing both the ecosystems and forestry workers supported by these old forests by not providing a just and swift transition to second growth logging and value added wood products," the group says.
The video, entitled Lost Jobs and Log Decks, is found at https://youtu.be/JoQ2XGbCHxQ.
