Brother Taylor fears that the type of injury could be serious.

He his obvious concerns are a spike punc- turing the eye or chest. A flying sake could eas- ily puncture a lung or rupture a heart or major blood vessels in a worst case scenario.

“We consider this action to be attempted mur- der,” says Taylor. “It is nothing less.”

The intentional flagrant threat to workers

lives is infuriating them.

To protect themselves the trees in the 28 ire cutting area having been examined b:

and the workers with a metal detector ee

reasonably pick up the signal of a spike from

ie base of a tree to about 3 feet over arms

4

_ The workers also have a physical check around the tree for signs of disturbance. Traces of sawdust or uprooted moss or disturbed brush may be signs where a tree spiker has been.

But eres Mr. Kitchen many times saw-

dust from the drill hole has been removed, hid- re or placed on the other side of the tree to the hole in order to deceive the workers.

They even spike some snags (standing dead trees) along the way.

“The snags are the ones we are most aware of when we're falling,” says Nickell. “When you have to deal with a spike and a snag together, it tells you that these tree spikers are just sick. Just the falling of snags by themselves kill and injure a lot of fallers in the woods.”

There are some rational fears among workers in general that when the wood is felled and bucked, that tree spikers may strike again, unless they are denied access to the logging area.

Tree spikers could piace many more spikes in "aie less time and have easier access to fallen timber.

‘ing all of the logged off wood from the Walbran 300 to its log sort at China Creek where it will scan each log individually

before it goes into company mills in Port Alberni. The hem/bal and fir will go to Alberni Pacific Lumber Division, and pulpwood will go to the chipper at the pulp mill. ‘The Company says all wood will be scanned by metal detector devices before it hits the mills.

Other measures to protect against future peuiny will be increased supervision around active logging sites and other behind the scene activities.

The ultimate and unwanted solution is to restrict public access to the working forest if need be. It is ironic that at a time when forest companies are trying to encourage the public to tour logging areas, (which are for the most part

bublic lands) that they may have to restrict pub- access.

Ti rotect their sawmill workers, MB will be

since they want to give the public greater access to forest in a effort to create a greater under- ‘Standing of what forestry is all about.

On May 1, the B.C. Supreme Court granted lacMillan Bloedel an injunction to prohibit s to the Walbran 300. The ban is vempe: and expires when logging concludes by

j ‘The workers in the spiked area don’t want tricted access but it may become necessary to themselves.

n Nickell says restricted public access to

ve logging areas is an option.

’s a terrible thing to have to say,” he says.

it has become quite obvious that our lives

at stake.”

lark Spence who hit the 10 inch spike and rs feel the same way.

should have some kind of security gate mething. Everyone coming into this area uld be watched.”

R.C.M.P. in the Cowichan Valley are estigating the tree spiking incidents and have e actual tree spiked sections of the

the police have been informed of have made verbal threats against ¢ a road blockage confrontation on

). Presumably the R.C.M.P. are exam- leads.

there is a general feeling amongst the legal system is not protecting r right to ere or doing an adequate

protecting them against the likes eco-terrorists.

_ That's the last thing companies want to do, °

¢ Bullbucker Eric Kitchen (left) and faller Ernie Calverley say treespikers knew exactly where saw would hit spike.

Forests Minister, A-G call for new

criminal laws to deter spikers |

incident, B.C. Forests Minister Dan Miller

raised the issue in the Legislative assem-

bly. Miller has announced that his Ministry in conjunction with the Ministry of the Attorney General, will be seeking federal assis- tance in getting the Criminal Code Amendments to include tree spiking.

He has received unanimous support from opposition parties, which is an indication that tree spiking is being taken very seriously by politicians.

In a Ministerial statement to the legislature on April 13, Miller called tree-spiking “an issue of grave concern to everyone with an interest in B.C.’s forests.”

Miller spoke negatively about media reports about Paul Watson of the Sea Shepherd Society who said that he knew of over 2,000 trees spiked in the Walbran Valley. Miller also refuted Watson’s claims that spiking is not a tactic aimed at hurting humans.

IN ot long after the Walbran 300 tree spiking

Miller said the spiking in the Walbran 300 was designed to injure people. }

Said Miller: “Tree-spiking is quite simply an act of violence against people... It is not an attempt to protect trees or encourage co-opera- ‘| tion on land use, but is instead a conscious and i deliberate attempt to cause injury or death to forest workers.”

Attorney General Colin Gabelmann has taken action by contacting Federal Justice Minister Kim Campbell in order to amend the Criminal | Code to include provisions covering tree spiking. }

According to Michael McEvoy, Ministerial | Assistant to the Attorney General, “the offence itself has, in our view some unique features and | it’s something we feel as a government strongly enough about that it should be singled out in the | Code as an offense.”

That process may take some time as amend-__| ments are in the hands of the Federal Minister of |

Continued on page twenty

¢ Diagram illustrates spike in area enlarged. Spiking method is designed to cause spike to eject when hit by chainsaw.

Illustration by Ingrid Rice.

LUMBERWORKER/JUNE, 1992/11