Logging is one of those gut-wrenchingly complicated issues for me. On one hand, seeing vast swaths of land gutted of its natural beauty makes me sick but on the other hand, logging is still a necessary evil as we still depend on lumber for so many things in our daily lives. There's a large portion of the BC population that also relies on the forestry industry for jobs so livelihoods are at stake, even as industry increasingly exports Canada's raw logs overseas. With such reliance on logging, there's no attempt to hide it on Vancouver Island, which makes it easier for curious members of the public to view the effects logging has on the forest ecosystem. I chose to take a bit of a closer look yesterday. I did not like it one bit. Although seedlings grow where massive trees once stood, the ecosystem will not return to its former glory for a very, very long time. These lands have been basically transformed from wild forests to cropland.
This is not the positive outlook you've come to expect on this blog so to help brighten things up a bit, here are a few photos of a little black bear, I came across, taking a nap on a mossy hill that likely took hundreds of years to develop into a cozy mattress.
I'll just add that this black bear was enjoying an early afternoon siesta in a small forested area right next to this...
No soft blankets of moss here.
