INTERFOR SERVES INJUNCTION TO PROTESTERS IN DAY 4 OF LOG-EXPORT BLOCKADE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Diana Wilson or Greg Higgs
Saturday, August 10, 1996 604-799-5800
BELLA COOLA, BC -- Interfor process servers arrived at 5:00 pm last
night to read a court order to 25 FAN protesters who have been
shutting down operations at Interfor's Taleomey log sorting area
since last Wednesday morning. All the logging feeding this operation
is being carried out on unceded Nuxalk territory. Before the processs
servers arrived, FAN activist David Damstrom, 50, moved from his
previous position, locked by the neck inside the claws of a front end
loader, to perch atop a 40-foot pole imbedded in the road through
the body of the the same machine, which is used to dump logs into
the ocean. This completely shuts down the entire log sorting
operation and is preventing Interfor from loading the logs onto
a barge to ship them out of the local area.
A second activist, 30-year old Alicia Alfonso, remains locked by her
neck to the axle underneath one of Interfor's pick-up trucks for her
4th day, preventing any further logs from being hauled down from
the logging sites. A third protester is suspended on a line between
two trees with a banner that reads "LOG EXPORTS EQUAL JOB
EXPORTS". Other activists have set up their tents directly on the log
sorting area.
"These jobs being shipped out of the area translate directly into lost
employment and revenue in the local economy," said FAN spokesperson
Diana Wilson. "Big companies like Interfor are making huge profits
clearcutting the last of B.C.'s old-growth forests, while locally-
controlled small business loggers and value-added operators are shut
down because they can't get access to wood. What we want to see is
ecologically sustainable forestry that is locally-controlled and locally
processed, so that we can have both a healthy local economy and preserve
the long-term ecological integrity of the coastal temperate
rainforest."
Interfor received the court order prohibiting interference with their
Taleomey operations yesterday from the Supreme Court of B.C. The
protesters were advised that they were now liable for arrest if they
continued to defy the court order, and the police are expected to
attempt to remove the protesters on Sunday or Monday.
According to an affidavit from Hans Grenander, Operations Forester
for Interfor's mid-coast operation, the logs being blockaded contain
6000 cubic meters of timber valued at $730,000. The logs were
scheduled to be barged out of the area on August 11 or 12th.
Practically none of value of this timber stays in the local Bella Coola
region. Over 95% of the trees cut in the Mid-Coast Forest District are
exported out of the region, with no local processing. None of
Interfor's 9 mills are located within the district, so all the logs, and
processing jobs, are transported 400 kilometers south to Vancouver.
Interfor ships approximately 50 fully laden barges per year from the
region.
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***** / . / /. / |/. F O R E S T A C T I O N N E T W O R K *****
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* Vancouver: Box 155, 1895 Commercial, Vancouver, BC, Canada V5N 4A6 *
* (604)739-4782, (604)736-7115 fax *
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* Bella Coola: Box 625, Bella Coola, BC, Canada V0T 1CO *
* (604)799-5800, (604)799-5830 fax *
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* http://www.alternatives.com/fan/index.html *
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************ CAMPAIGNING TO SAVE THE GREAT COAST RAINFOREST