Clayoquot Sound logging battle heats up again

Natives and environmentalists on opposite sides of new Clayoquot fight

The fragile economies of five first nations in Clayoquot Sound would be dealt a crippling blow if major environmental groups go ahead with plans to disrupt logging this summer.
“Every time we start to get on our feet, someone wants to knock us off,” said John Frank, deputy chief of the Ahousaht Nation.

Native-run logging companies provide the only meaningful employment left in many of the villages scattered throughout the sound, he said.

“Our economic engine has died, that was the fishery,” he said. “We had 140 fishboats with three men to each boat.”

These are never easy conflicts.