November 5^th, 1990 

Dear Sir,

 Canada is not managing it’s temperate rain forests properly.  There is a vast amount of resources that are completely ignored. What my company hopes to do is bring these resources to the market place.  What I will do in this package is explain the problem and propose a solution.  Unlike clear-cut logging, where they use one resource (wood) and ignore the rest, I will be utilizing all the resources of the forest and leaving the ecology of the forest intact. 

            Within this letter is an article called, “What Is A First Growth Forest?” which I am hopefully going to get published.  This article explains the problem.  There is a proposal for a woodlot program, which I feel, presents a solution to the problem we face in the temperate rain forest in North America.  What I am asking of you is two things.  One is a letter supporting my method of logging, which is explained in the woodlot proposal.  Two is that I am looking for a stable market for my goods.  I also ask you to please send this letter to anyone who can either send a letter of support or is in the market for some of my resources.  A list of these resources is in the woodlot proposal. 

Sincerely,

  Paul Demontigny

Montigny Ent. Ltd.

WHAT IS A FIRST GROWTH FOREST?

            We are all aware that there is a fight going on in the forest industry between loggers and environmentalists.  The environmentalists say, “We have to stop clear cut logging because our children will have no forests left in the future and logging is damaging to the environment!”  The loggers say, “If we stop logging the old growth forest, we will have no jobs or wood to build our houses and paper to write on.  Our economy would collapse!”  For twenty years I have lived in our old growth rain forests.  For nine years I have worked as a part-time shake block cutter in everything from as fresh burn to a sixty-year-old regenerated forest.  Before I begin, I want to point out how the terms “first and second growth” forests are incorrectly used.

            A “first growth” forest is the first 2000-year-old growth cycle after the last ice age.  A “second growth” forest starts its 2000-year cycle 2000 years after the last ice age.  The last ice age that wiped out our forest-covered lands was 10,000 years ago.  Today, this puts our forests in a fifth growth cycle.  When loggers clear cut the land, and then replant, they are starting these cycles all over again.  So these regenerated forests (managed forests) are really the beginning stages of a first growth forest.

              The quality of wood that is logged in a managed regenerated tree farm is a coarse grain, tight knot wood.  In our country, this is only used for pulp, the inside of plywood, or poorer quality chipboard.  When buying good quality wood, always remember that the tighter the grain, the better the quality.  Old growth timber produces tight-grained wood.  Also remember that only Mother Nature can grow this top quality wood.  Man cannot.  I will explain Mother Nature’s method versus mans’.

              The most important part of an old growth forest is the forest canopy.  This canopy gives protection to the young trees which are starting off on the forest floor.  The adolescent stages are the most important part of the tree’s life cycle.  At this stage, the young trees grow with a tuft of branches near the top of the tree, as if they are reaching for the sunlight and the forest canopy.

              Forest companies and the government only allow the larger of these young trees to be used for pulpwood.  The smaller ones, 300 years and under, are left to burn.  The problem is that these young trees are future good quality wood, the future forest canopy, and are the only way our children can have a future in the forest industry.  Other important feature of the forest canopy is the underbrush that is able to grow from the filtered light that penetrates the forest canopy.  This underbrush is what gives the tree’s nutrients to grow.   Their dying leaves act as food for the trees through the soil. 

            Once the young trees have reached the forest canopy, they have reached the sun.  They now start to grow slightly faster with wider rings.  This is their prime growing cycle.  When the trees have reached their maximum growth, they start to slow down, resulting in tighter rings.   So, what we have now is a tree with an extremely tight ringed core, which protects it from bugs and rot.  These tight rings grow from the trees birth to its adolescent stage because of the protection of the natural forest canopy.  Next are its prime growth rings, which are much wider apart.  Then a tight ringed outside edge, which again protects it from bugs and rot.  The tree also has a long trunk of clear wood (no knots), from the roots to the branches.  This wood is the logging industry’s top quality, grade A, timber and is worth a fortune in the market place.

              This old fifth growth forest is what man has been logging since logging began in North America.  As in Europe, and now most other countries in the world, the method in which these forests are logged is clear-cutting.  I believe this method wipes out the forest to the same degree an ice age would.  Loggers say, “We have only a maximum of thirty years of logging in our old growth forest left.  Then our entire country’s old fifth growth forest, which is all our top quality wood, will all be gone forever.” Then they say, we can start logging our managed forests, which in their eyes is better. 

            When you take a fifth growth forest and eliminate it completely by clear cutting and burning it, what the land looks like is as if an ice age has come and gone.   When the tree planters are hired to replant the first crop of trees on the barren ground, the trees start to grow with maximum exposure to sun, wind and the rain.  This makes the tree grow extremely fast so the core grows extremely wide rings which results in no protection from bugs and rot.  These regenerated trees at about 80 years old, will have used up the soils few nutrients and cow start to sow down in growth.  If the loggers just left these genetically engineered trees to grow, their cores would quickly rot and the trees would die.  When you log these trees finally at eighty years old, they are only used for pulpwood and paper, and are worth very little.

              Once these trees are approximately thirty years old, they create a thick solid forest canopy that the sunlight cannot penetrate.  With no sun reaching the forest floor, you have very little life, such as underbrush, insects, and animals.  With these trees all the same size, under two feet in diameter, there is no place for animals to make dens.  Animals need cover for their babies.  With no cover they will die from exposure or drown.  When hiking through one of these regenerated forests on the West Coast there are no bugs and green life.  So you can see how the ecology and the environment has been severely damaged.

              Loggers say, “If we stop logging, we will have no toilet paper.”  The problem is, if we log all our old growth forests, all we will have is toilet paper!  How do you build a house out of toilet paper?  These methods of logging will not support the Canadian forest industry’s need for future good quality wood and does not ensure our children a future in the logging industry. 

            So what is the solution you ask?  Ask me. For more info see forestfacts

Paul Demontigny
President of Montigny Ent. Ltd.
General Delivery
Bamfield, BC
V0R 1B0

INTRODUCING OUR COMPANY’S SELECT LOGGING AND
FOREST FARMING METHODS

Dear friends,                                                                                                    1991

            My name is Paul Demontigny.  I am the founder and president of Montigny Ent. Ltd., my select logging and forest farming company.  I have worked in Bamfield as a shake block cutter most of my life.  I have always wanted to log the forest in Bamfield in a new, creative, environmentally safe way.  This is what my company hopes to achieve with 800 acres of crown land in the Bamfield area.  As well as a source of income, our objectives include the development of the environment’s resources, increasing employment, and determining the success of our newly designed logging methods.

            Some of this 800 acres has been discussed at Chamber of Commerce meetings as being land to develop for tourism.  We eagerly look forward to helping the Chamber of Commerce develop this land for tourists.   Bordering property owners and townspeople really support our selective methods and feel strongly opposed to any clear cut logging so close to their homes and the community.  Our methods are created and managed to meet the standards and specific needs of this community.  There is a small area on this property that we will preserve for tourism.  It was selectively horse logged sixty years ago by a small group of East Indians.  Most people in town don’t even know this because the area looks so much like an old growth forest.

              Here are my methods of logging: First, the forest farmers make a network of trails through the timber.  Their job is to prune the underbrush, which is bundled and then trucked to the Canadian,
U.S., and European floral market place.  We sell them salal, huck, ferns, cedar boughs, spruce boughs, pine boughs, moss and mushrooms.  We can also sell hard to find, unique, excellent quality wood, edible plants, herbs and berries, potential pharmaceutical products, bark for weaving, beautifully made burls, and dugout boats.  We can sell everything the forest has to offer and everything you need to recreate an old growth forest.

            For the tourism industry, we offer experienced men to make excellent hiking trails and to build them to meet the specific needs of the land and the community, i.e. bridges, creek and stream development, picnic sites, and Native Indian totem poles.   We will preserve any area requested for other uses and we will guarantee that with these select helicopter methods, we will leave behind a beautiful old growth rain forest!

              Secondly, fallers go in and fall the selected trees, without damaging the small ones, which are left to grow to market size.  These small trees are what clear cutters use for pulp wood.  This wood is worth very little.  I will leave these young trees standing for these trees are our future forest.   We select huge cedar trees for our boat operation.  I am borrowing the Native Indian cedar dugout design, as well as the Viking, Egyptian, and Phoenician.   Thirdly, the fallen logs will be bucked to proper weight and length.  The saw logs are then flown to the road and then trucked to the market place.  This wood will be extremely clean because it has not been dragged over the ground and through the gravel.  All the excess bark and rot are left in the bush so they can decompose into soil.  Also left in the bush are tree branches and tops.  These tops are future seed logs.

              Logging will be very feasible because I will only be taking and logs that are worth the most money on the market.  Unlike clear cutting, there will be no burning, replanting costs, alder control, thinning, less falling costs, less machinery costs, and less road building.  We will be utilizing more resources and creating more jobs per hectare of old growth, for forest farmers, loggers, trail builders, and boat builders, etc.

              Step four; the shake block cutters clean up the cedar that isn’t feasible to fly out in log form.  This includes long butts, windfalls, snags, and slabs.  The shake blocks are then flown out and sold.  These are the basic four steps.  As our beautiful rain forests grow all throughout Bamfield, our primary aim is to preserve the environment and ecology while successfully utilizing the forest’s resources.  It is our belief that all logging must be done this way.  The forestry’s woodlot program gives loggers like us a rare opportunity to put new methods of logging to the test.  Thank you for your support. 

Sincerely,

Paul Demontigny