COWICHAN VALLEY, BC …the Six Mountains— Prevost, Sicker, Richards, Maple, Tzouhalem, and Stoney Hill — make up the 5,000-hectare Municipal Forest Reserve. The coastal Douglas-fir forest’s future in North Cowichan remains an open question. The results of the final phase of a parallel public consultation released last March showed 76 percent support for conservation management options. The next step is up to North Cowichan and First Nations. …Halalt Chief James Thomas said he supports selective logging that helps store water, while the timber can be used to create local jobs rather than being shipped offshore as raw logs. Selective logging can have many definitions, from, say, thinning to improve the overall health of a forest, to the slippery slope of logging the best timber for the highest profit. How the Municipality ultimately melds the wishes of North Cowichan taxpayers with those of First Nations is the big outstanding question.

Additional coverage in the Cowichan Valley Citizen, letter by Peter Rusland: Logging losses can be recovered by other means