Taryn Skalbania

Re: Okanagan producers of a documentary focused on wildfires ask for funds to finish their project (Feb. 24) Would we support (cigarette brand) Marlboro as leaders in the search for a cancer cure? Would we trust (oil company) Exxon to champion climate change? …So, why would B.C. trust “big forestry” to mitigate wildfires and save communities? This is what forester, Murray Wilson, and (Kelowna entrepreneur) Rick Maddison, are proposing. B.C.’S forestry sector is in the business of cutting down trees—period. …Also called strip and ship, or cut and run, logging, it’s all about profits and it contributes to floods, biodiversity loss, ghost towns, missing salmon and wildfires. The only mandate followed by logging cartels is dividends to shareholders. …How did the B.C. public get seduced by this ‘’loggers-as-wildfire-heroes’’ narrative? …a year ago, Linda Coady, CEO of B.C.’s Council of Forest Industries hired a market research firm to focus on how the sector could return to higher levels of harvest and gain long-lost social license.