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September 17, 2020 - 8:00 PM
Several protest marches are planned in B.C. tomorrow, including ones in Peachland and Vernon, in an effort to get the province to retain old growth forests.
Simultaneous Forest Match B.C. rallies are being held in Victoria, Vernon, Peachland, Salmon Arm, Golden, Powell River, Nanaimo, Comox Valley, Gabriola Island, Salt Spring Island and Whistler, according to a media release.
Peachland resident and spokesperson for the Peachland Watershed Protection Alliance and co-organizer with Forest March B.C., Taryn Skalbania, will be marching at the Victoria protest in front of the B.C. Legislature. The rally will include representatives from First Nations, the community, unions and environmental groups.
“Every single tree in B.C. has got a dollar value on it and it’s not a value of something that creates water or animal habitat or a healthy ecosystem. It’s the value of a two-by-four at Home Depot,” Skalbania said.
She’d like to see the creation of a B.C. forester general, an overhaul of current forestry policies with more local community say.
Peachland’s event will be held at the Peachland Visitor Centre and along Beach Avenue from 12 until 2 p.m. In Vernon, marchers will gather outside of Vernon-Monashee MLA Eric Foster Constituency Office of at 4 p.m.
Forest March B.C. is a provincewide, grassroots campaign aiming to create a unified voice asking the province to protect old growth forests, include the formal involvement of frontline communities in the management of public lands and forests, and the prohibition of private corporations from having any level of authority over public land.
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