in Duncan, on southern Vancouver Island, near where MB is flipping land, says the issue is some- thing for IWA-CANADA members to think about. “It's clearly a problem for us,” Brother Routley told the Lumberworker. “Out of one side of their mouth industry talks about community stability and their concern for timber supply. And the next thing you hear is that they have a block (of forest land) up for sale.” “Obviously (the forest companies) are not doing to the land what they claimed to have done,” says Bi r Routley. “This is outrageous - we have to mn what is going to happen (to private forest lands) around places like Cowichan Lake and the Cowichan Valley.” Routley says the IWA and the forest dependent communities must take an early stand against take- aways from the forest lands base. “Communities need to have some say in the man- agement of local forests,” he says, “We need to exercise our rights as a community to exert our influence as to what happens to those forests.” “In order to have sustainable development, we have to have long term planning and it’s clear that the forest companies don't take the long range view that they pretend they are taking . . . There’s a lot of fear going around about our long term security which is tied to the industry and I’m not sure the forest companies have our best long term interests at heart.” Brother Routley’s sentiments are shared by c@e B.C., Local 1-363 president Sy Pederson wht that workers should take note of what is happening. In his local Weldwood and Fletcher Challenge control a lot of private land. “Actions speak louder than words,” says Brother Pederson. “They (MB and Weldwood) are crying crocodile tears about land withdrawals at the same time they are becoming real estate flippers. The type of behaviour is just not acceptable.” Pederson says that if the companies have con- cern of forest land withdrawals they must commit to not removing managed forest lands out of their status until there are long-term employment strate- gies in place. Currently the provincial government’s Commis- sion on Resources and the Environment (CORE) is examining Vancouver Island in order to make rec- ommendations to the government concerning long term social, economic, and environmental sustain- ability. j Brother Pederson says that industry should keep forest lands as forest lands and let the CORE process time to work its way through all lands both public and private. By taking land out of forest production, he says unnecessary pressure is being put on the CORE process. “Through the government and its CORE process, they (MB and Weldwood) should adhere their land strategies that are now being developed,” says Ped- erson. “They (managed forest land withdrawals) create stress on the CORE process and there are enough stresses on it already without major forest compa- nies thinking they have the unfettered right to become land flippers and speculators.” {they do want to continue to take managed for- est lands out of their status, then that is an easy task. It only takes a letter to the BCAA, and then the landowner applies to the regional district and/or “oe authority for land rezoning and develop- jough only a fraction of 1% of the total land base has been taken out from Managed Forest Land Status, the tip of the iceberg is emerging. With popu- lation pressures growing there’s no doubt more of the working forest will disappear. It is only a matter of time. The question must be asked what will lead to the of forest lands; legitimate population pressure r over zealous corporations who see a higher tetum in the real estate sector? The eastern portion of Vancouver Island has ‘Some of the best fertile soils for yielding crops of So it’s important to keep the working forest ing to the maximum capacity for the long term onomie stability of forest dependent communi- About 25% of the forest lands on Vancouver d are in private hands and the rest is crown or lands, And that’s a good thing, says Brother “The industry has already said, give us your vn land -we'll manage it on a sustained yield isis because we will have greater interest in it; Pederson. “They've (the industry) always been tical that they can’t plan for long term on public without a firmer grip on the tenure than they have.” think the fact that the industry is taking its own ‘out of the working forest base really speaks es for the case that we must always retain 1 of public lands and not release them to pri- 4 a0) e MacBlo is one of the leaders in development of private forest lands. they are not in the real estate game (see article page fourteen). Taking or leaving what they say, Brother Routley says whatever MB and Weldwood are up to will likely be copied by the other majors. ooking at the value of lands for forestry and the value of them for development, there’s no question that a bigger buck can be made on the development/real estate end. But would development be the ethically correct path for the industry to take in light of the fact that they have enjoyed relatively low taxation rates while holding land as managed forest land? To get the BCAA to rule that the land is being managed for forestry purposes is a simple proce- dure with few requirements. The land owner simply contacts one of two dozen assessors across the province to come and look at the land. The land owners then submit a plan which shows that the private lands will be used for forestry pur- poses and meets the following criteria: proper refor- estation, care of young trees, fire, insect and dis- ease prevention and sound harvesting practices. Reforestation has to take place within five years of harvesting. Ironically, although all these commitments have to be shown to the BCAA, there is no requirement for sustainable yield forestry. The only basic com- mitment is to reforest what is harvested. If the own- ers does so then tax rates are generally lower than other property classes. Taxes are assessed only when the trees are har- vested, not when the timber is standing. The current system of taxation on private lands has been in place for about five years. Before that forest lands were classified as taxation tree farms. When the change was made, most of the owners rolled their lands into Managed Forest Lands status which is a tax class lower than Unmanaged Forest Lands. In addition to enjoying cheaper taxes, the man- aged forest land owners enjoy a voluntary regime of regulations over their own activities. All in all, land owners don’t have to make a long- term commitment to the working forest. Brother Pederson questions that lack of commit- ment. “Why shouldn’t the owners of private lands make a commitment of at least 25 years or more when they get their land holdings rezoned for preferential taxes so easily?” says Pederson. Brother Routley says that if the major forest com- panies want to take land out of the forest base then “they (the provincial government)should tax the hell out of them.” The question needs to be asked? Are companies looking at the land base of the east coast of Vancou- ver Island as a cash cow? “We've got to say to the MB’s, the Fletcher Chal- lenges, the Weldwoods, what business are you in?,” says Brother Routley. “They have already tried to co-opt the IWA to fight battles over forest lands on the west coast while meanwhile on the east coast they are poised to take visible high site land out of production. They are trying to have it both ways and they will sink us if we don’t speak out against this.” Routley put the issue into a simpler context. “The goals of large (company) profits is at one end of the spectrum and the union’s goal of creating a large number of jobs and a better managed forest is at the other end,” he says. “If their (the private land holders) goal is to liquidate old growth and sell off large tracts of real estate, then they don’t have our interests or communities’ interests in mind.” ° In May of 1989, IWA mem- bers went to Victoria protest to fight for right to log Car- manah Valley, held by MacBlo. MORE ON PAGES 14-15 LUMBERWORKERNUNE, 1993/9