Someone has been spiking trees in the Fairy Creek watershed, prompting condemnation from BC’s forests Minister Ravi Parmar.
In a statement, Parmar says “Spiking a tree, or even attempting to, is a dangerous criminal activity that puts the health and safety of B.C.’s forestry workers at risk.”
He called the reports “incredibly alarming” and condemned them as criminal behaviour, encouraging anyone with information to contact Nanaimo RCMP, who have opened an investigation.
“If anyone has any information, I encourage them to contact the Nanaimo RCMP detachment at 250 754-2345 and reference this file number: NA25-2275,” he said.
It’s not the first time trees in the area have been spiked. In 2022, Teal Jones, the company with provincial permission to log in the region, said one of its sawyers had a close call when a hidden spike destroyed his saw, and the spike nearly hit him.
“Tree spiking is a dangerous criminal activity meant to maim or kill forestry workers. There can be no justification for that,” the company said.
Despite old-growth logging in the Fairy Creek region being put on hold in 2021, the company continued to deal with protesters, blockaders and vandals for the next year.
“We’ve also been finding bundles of spikes stashed in the area around blockaders’ camps. The blockaders have hiked in to remote parts of Tree Farm Licence 46 and blocked culverts to flood and damage roads, dug into roads to undermine bridges, sabotaged helicopter landing pads, vandalized equipment, and spread nails on roads,” the company said in September 2022. “In one troubling instance last year [2021] they stopped a vehicle of tree planters on their way to work, held them, and insisted they be allowed to search the tree planters’ vehicle. They support their violent and threatening antics with a sophisticated and well-funded misinformation campaign.”
The South Island watershed was the site of months-long protests against old growth logging during the pandemic. In 2021, the province deferred logging in 1,200 hectares of land and this week extended the deferral again to September next year, while it continues working on long-term management plans with the Pacheedaht First Nation.
