About 50 people came out to a rally against logging old growth trees on Saturday afternoon in downtown Revelstoke. It was organized by the group called Old Growth Revylution, and was held in solidarity with the old growth rallies that took place in Nelson and Victoria the week before.
Three people from the group addressed the crowd, Kaisa Lindfors, Arnault Mateo and Virginia Thompson.
Thompson said they don't want logging to continue as usual, and they're calling on the B.C. government to protect old growth forest. She said the government is moving in the right direction, but very slowly.
A news release from the B.C. government in Nov. 2022 said that logging of old growth forest has declined from an estimated 65,500 hectares in 2015, to 38,300 hectares in 2021. That's since the province started in 2020 to implement its Old Growth Strategic Review.
"They're logging those forests around us, as we speak, right now," Thompson said.
The province estimates that stopping old growth logging fully would lead to 15,000 job losses.
Thompson wants the government to put money into transitioning into an "ecological-based" forest industry, to protect the ecosystem, loggers, and communities who rely on the forest for tourism and logs.
Since the review was released in 2020 the province has been deferring logging in some areas while it creates a long-term forest management plan.This is called an Old Growth Strategic Action Plan and it's supposed to be finished this year.
After the rally Mateo said it was "wholesome and nice."
"The goal is to show that across the province there are people who care about the trees," he said.
The group, Old Growth Revylution, isn't anti-logging, Mateo said. They support a just and fair transition into a sustainable industry.
"It's been tricky," he said, in a community like Revelstoke that relies on logging and mill jobs. But he said that both the group and people in the industry want the same thing.
Frustration should be directed towards decision-makers in big logging companies and the government, he said.
Listen to an interview with Arnault Mateo below.