Legal Rights of Forests - Long Overdue
This has also been published as a letter to the editor, Muskoka Region News. LEGAL RIGHTS OF FORESTS There has been a lot of interest in the news about Climate Change, how it relates to our Muskoka forests and how to protect them. Some environmental experts like Norm Yan and Peter Sale believe in the 'Legal Rights of Forests' and have said that, "People being responsible to look after the environment hasn't worked well." My husband and I protested the clear-cutting of old-growth forest for a snowmobile trail behind our home. They went ahead and cut it anyway, saying the economic benefit was more important. After our snowmobile trail protest, the Municipality of Bracebridge enacted a tree-cutting bylaw. But it did little good. They went ahead a year later and cut down the second largest yellow birch tree in Ontario, almost 13 feet in circumference because snowmobiles kept running into it. See the inset. Look closely. That is me, Kathy hugging the tree for t...