News & Correspondence

Correspondence

FOFC Letter to Ministers Guilbeault and Wilkinson and Tara Shannon ECCC

Subject:	Reply regarding Marbled Murrelet – Canadian Wildlife Service
Date:	Fri, 10 Jun 2022 21:15:18 +0000
From:	Shannon,Tara (ECCC) <Tara.Shannon@ec.gc.ca>
To:	‘friendsoffairycreek@gmail.com‘ <friendsoffairycreek@gmail.com>
CC:	‘beth.macneil@NRCan-RNCan.gc.ca‘ <beth.macneil@NRCan-RNCan.gc.ca>, Hammond,Blair (ECCC) <Blair.Hammond@ec.gc.ca>, Wolfish,Daniel (ECCC) <Daniel.Wolfish@ec.gc.ca>, Lapointe,Renee (ECCC) <Renee.Lapointe@ec.gc.ca>, Sadler,Kella (ECCC) <Kella.Sadler@ec.gc.ca>, Leblanc,Genevieve (ECCC) <Genevieve.Leblanc@ec.gc.ca>

Dear Mr. Coon,

Please find attached a reply from Tara Shannon (pdf), Assistant Deputy Minister at the Canadian Wildlife Service.

Thank you

Elizabeth (for Tara Shannon)

Subject:	Reply regarding Marbled Murrelet – Canadian Wildlife Service
Date:	Tue, 21 Jun 2022 13:22:23 -1000
From:	Friends of Fairy Creek – Saving the Tree People <friendsoffairycreek@gmail.com>
Organization:	Friends of Fairy Creek
To:	Shannon,Tara (ECCC) <Tara.Shannon@ec.gc.ca>, Minister of Environment and Climate Change, Steven Guilbeault <ec.ministre-minister.ec@canada.ca>, Minister of Natural Resources, Jonathan Wilkinson <minister.ministre@nrcan.gc.ca>
CC:	‘beth.macneil@NRCan-RNCan.gc.ca‘ <beth.macneil@NRCan-RNCan.gc.ca>, Hammond,Blair (ECCC) <Blair.Hammond@ec.gc.ca>, Wolfish,Daniel (ECCC) <Daniel.Wolfish@ec.gc.ca>, Lapointe,Renee (ECCC) <Renee.Lapointe@ec.gc.ca>, Sadler,Kella (ECCC) <Kella.Sadler@ec.gc.ca>, Leblanc,Genevieve (ECCC) <Genevieve.Leblanc@ec.gc.ca>, elizabeth.kim@ec.gc.ca

Dear Ministers Guilbeault and Wilkinson and Ms. Shannon,

Please accept the following response to your June 10, 2022, answer to our plea submitted by Friends of Fairy Creek March 24, 2022, copies of both attached. The Minister’s and government actions you described in response to our plea to stop the unchecked and unregulated harvest of Old Growth trees will not stop the current loss of the MaMu and their habitat. Planting 2 billion trees and making your focus reforestation will not address or prevent the MaMu’s extinction, a migratory bird with a 10 year lifespan.

As the Ministers and government are well aware, coastal old growth trees require more than 200 years of growth before they are suitable habitat for the MaMu. Based on your recent response, the government is equally aware of many other species that rely on the Old Growth trees for their nests. The MaMu does not build a nest, the tree is the nest and the nest is the tree. The MaMu lays one egg per year about 3/4 of the way up the Old Growth tree on a mossy branch of the tallest stand of Old Growth hidden from it’s predators.

Is the government really proposing to ignore our plea and treat the replanting of trees as its solution in total disregard of the lifespan of the threatened and endangered species that rely on Old Growth forest stands? Clearly this is a violation of the terms and requirements of the Migratory Bird Convention Act as these species will not survive the 200 plus years it will take to restore the habitat they are losing daily.

The Ministers and all responsible government officials know that the situation for the MaMu is perilous and is getting worse because the government has refused to stop the logging of Old Growth. The government has continued to allow harvesting the Old Growth even though the recovery strategy has been ineffective. The 30% loss of habitat and population deemed an acceptable loss as of 2032, has already been exceeded and is over 40%. Please see documentation and references submitted with our March 24, 2022 plea, attached.

Government can waste no more time in stopping the harvesting of coastal Old Growth. Replanting will do nothing to help the MaMu with its 10 year lifespan. The government might as well sign the papers for extirpation of the MaMu outside of Provincial and Federal Parks. It is a travesty to realize our Ministers and government are willing to violate the laws under the Migratory Bird Convention Act and Migratory Bird Regulations that make it a crime for any individual to disturb, damage or destroy the nest of a migratory bird (any Old Growth tree which is itself a nest) while the timber companies have been allowed to clear cut and have escaped the required criminal prosecution. As your offices are well aware there is no exemption under the laws of Canada that permits timber companies to violate the Migratory Birds Convention Act or its Regulations. Simply put, Canadian and Provincial governments have been derelict in their duties and are responsible for the irreparable harm to our environment causing the loss of endangered populations that can not be recovered. The harvest of Old Growth forest stands has to stop now. Because of the extensive and unregulated clear cutting, the stands of Old Growth forests that remain on properties leased to logging companies are a small percentage and must be preserved under Canada’s Migratory Bird Convention Act. If the certain extinction of the MaMu and other endangered species do not warrant the exercise of the emergency powers under Article 80, what will?

Michael Coon, MSc Marine Biologist , Co founder Friends of Fairy Creek- Saving the Tree People

Links

Teal Cedar Management Plan #5

Tree Farm Licence 46 – Teal Cedar Products Ltd:

Comments on Management Plan

Alan Burger

Briony Penn

Yves Mayrand

Friends of Fairy Creek – Jenica K. Waymen

Teal Cedar Forest Stewardship Plan

Comments on Forest Stewardship Plan

Friends of Fairy Creek

Kathleen Code