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LETTER: Add land to Purcell conservancy, protect forests

From reader Michael Jessen
25004955_web1_210429-KWS-LetterJessen-forest_1

Every weekday a cavalcade of logging trucks pass by my house, sometimes four in a row. Each truckload makes me wonder what mountainside is being denuded for the sake of our gross domestic product, a yardstick that measures destruction of ecosystems as a gain.

What we measure as beneficial is a choice and those choices influence the policies our governments enact. An economic system that counts greenhouse gas emissions, producing plastic waste, and cigarette sales as meaningful economic indicators cannot logically continue forever. So where do we citizens call a halt to such destruction?

As someone who joined with others in the 1970s and 1980s to create the Purcell Wilderness Conservancy (PWC), I suggest we begin by including the proposed Mount Willet Wilderness as part of the PWC. It is already surrounded on three sides by the PWC! Preserving this vital missing part of the PWC will demonstrate that we can make choices that focus on well-being and quality of life.

Please visit https://www.willetwildernessforever.ca/, become concerned, write letters, and ensure that no logging truck carrying Mt. Willet timber ever passes my house.

Michael Jessen

Nelson

The Nelson Star welcomes letters to the editor intended for publication but reserves the right to edit for brevity, clarity, legality, accuracy and topicality. Letters should be a maximum of 300 words in length. Anonymous letters will not be published. To assist in verification, address and daytime phone number must be supplied but will not be published. Send letters to editor@nelsonstar.com.