Roadside Camp closes down at Fairy Creek; Elder Bill Jones given environmental award

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - Roadside, one of the last remaining Forest Defender camps at Fairy Creek, officially closed down yesterday. In the end, it was severe weather rather than police actions that brought this about.

An unknown number of Indigenous folks remain at a nearby watch camp.

The last RCMP press release, posted on Lake Cowichan detachment page more than a month ago (on December 2nd), states 1,188 people have been arrested as they attempted to protect what is sometimes called the last remaining intact old growth ecosystem outside of a park.

According to a Vancouver SUN expose, as of November 30th the RCMP spent $8.9 million opposing the protest.

The Teal-Jones Group claims that activists put hundreds of jobs at risk and hampered it accessing $10 million worth of timber.

On December 22nd, two days before the recent cold snap began, the occupants of Roadside posted a collection of video messages on their Facebook page in which:
A schoolteacher explained why she feels she would not be doing her job as a teacher or a mother if she did join the protest at Fairy Creek
A former loader describes the province’s current logging practises as “just grabbing resources at the expense of the other peoples.”
Another Forest Defender says, “I'm here because these blockades are the only thing keeping the NDP and John Horgan accountable to protecting old growth for us and committing the promises they made to the strategic old growth review report.”

A series of posts on the Fairy Creek Facebook page chronicle the camp’s closure:

The photos from January 3rd show camp life: tents in the snow, people chopping wood, a truck that spun off the icy road
Four days later a tree came crashing down beside the kitchen tent.
The camp spokesperson wrote, “Snow, ice, and hazardous conditions slam Fairy Creek. As the rivers rise, the threat of flooding is imminent.”

Yesterday, January 10th, pictures showing the last remaining inhabitants of Roadside packing their belongs into a U-Haul and close to a dozen other vehicles were added.

The spokesperson wrote:
“As we close up Roadside and start a new chapter, we reflect back on the year we’ve had. When we looked up at the towering cedars, spruce, and fir it gave us purpose in knowing that we protected what Elder Bill Jones refers to as our “Great Mother.” We sat in circles and ceremonies in reverence of their beauty as he reminded us that these places have always been meant for meditation and prayer. His grandfather once told him these forests should never be cut - in fact, it was his dying wish.”

He added, “While it may no longer be logistically possible to block logging in such awful winter conditions, we choose to see an opportunity here. This ending also means the beginning of a new chapter – one that includes more local actions, in a city near you.
The spring will bring new life; it always does. STAY TUNED FOR WHAT’S NEXT.”

As Cortes Currents was completing this story, word came that the Wilderness Committee named Elder Bill Jones as this year’s recipient of the Eugene Rogers award.

Torrance Coste of the Wilderness Committee explained, “Pacheedaht Elder Bill Jones has been a friend of our organization for almost a decade and a champion for old growth forests for much longer.”

The 80-year-old former logger responded, “ I am so flattered to accept this. It's a blessing to us all to realize that we are indeed the servants and protectors of our great mother.”