Coming Soon_ The 2026 New Forest Act Roadshow

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - The 2026 New Forest Act Roadshow will be coming to our area next month. The Sentinel Educational Foundation and Watershed Sentinel magazine are the sponsors of the Vancouver Island leg of its tour. Jennifer Houghton, Campaign Director of the New Forest Act Proposal, will be speaking at the Campbell River United Church at 7:00 on Thursday, June 11, and Quadra Island Community Centre at 7:00 on Saturday, June 13.  Jennifer Houghton:  "Right now we're seeing a decline in timber supply, mill closures, degraded lands, degraded watersheds, rising disaster costs, and less stable communities. The current system isn't even protecting the future of forestry itself. Ecosystem decline is a serious problem across BC, and the whole structure of forestry needs to be replaced. That's why we've developed a legislative proposal to restructure all forestry in BC." "It's a proposed replacement of BC's current forestry legislation, including the current Forest Act, the Forest and Range Practices Act and the Private Managed Forest Lands Act. Right now, BC's forestry laws are built around maximizing timber extraction. The New Forest Act framework is a citizen-developed proposal to shift forestry towards ecological limits, stable communities, and long-term ecosystem function, instead of short-term liquidation."  "It's based on a simple framework. Protect what still functions, restore what's been damaged, and harvest carefully where the land can actually support it. Our goal is not to end forestry. The goal is to stop destroying the systems communities depend on: water, slope stability, biodiversity, and long-term timber supply itself."