In 1994, the B.C. government's own poll found that 95% of respondents were calling for anything from a total ban on clearcutting to reduced size and limited locations of clearcuts under the proposed Forest Practices Code. A stunning 71% of the people polled told the government they do not support any clearcutting under the Code.²³

Twenty months after the Forest Practices Code became law, this is the reality:

Clearcutting is the designated harvesting practice for an estimated 92% of cutblocks ­ even though the public was told that companies would implement new harvesting methods.²⁴

Cutblocks in excess of l00 hectares are commonplace ­ even though the Forest Practices Code restricts cutblocks to 40 - 60 hectares.²⁵

The finding of 92% clearcutting is a flagrant violation of the B.C. public's expressed desires. And the exceeding of the 40-60 hectare limit for clearcuts is an outright violation of the Code.

Both the government and industry have been covering up the facts about B.C.clearcutting -- seemingly adopting the rhetoric of the industry front-group called the B.C. Forest Alliance, whose Feb. 1994 ad in German newspapers claimed: "No other forest producing region in the world has higher environmental standards for its forest practices and operations than British Columbia. Destructive clearcutting is not allowed."²⁶

At the GLOBE '94 business conference in Vancouver, the government announced with regard to the forthcoming Code: "We are reducing the allowable size of clearcuts, and we are banning clearcuts where necessary to protect wildlife habitat, fish-bearing streams or other sensitive forest values."²⁷

But on this point too, we have found otherwise.