Advocates against old-growth logging have been blocking a bridge over the Gordon River with a large wooden statue of a screech owl for the past week.
A camp was set up north of Port Renfrew last Saturday to prevent forestry company Teal Jones from accessing cut blocks 7265 and 7263 on Edinburgh Mountain, organizers said on social media.
Savage Patch, an organization that has claimed responsibility for the latest blockades, said they are unrelated to the Rainforest Flying Squad, one of the primary organizers of the 2021 Fairy Creek blockades.
Savage Patch is asking participants of the latest blockades to not bring drugs, weapons, or alcohol of any kind and to be respectful while in the area.
“We’re here demonstrating to highlight the fact that old-growth logging is continuing, despite the provincial governments promises,” Savage Patch organizers said in a statement on the Instagram account @fairycreekblockades, which often posts in support of environmental protection initiatives for the Fairy Creek watershed.
Savage Patch describe themselves as led by “local Indigenous peoples, accomplices and allies,” and say their actions have been blessed by Pacheedaht Elder Bill Jones, a former logger and prominent advocate of old-growth protection.
In a statement to the Times Colonist Saturday, the Pacheedaht Nation said they are asking for blockaders to leave and to respect the First Nation’s right to manage the land.
“These individuals are trespassing on Pacheedaht First Nations territory despite our repeated request,” the statement said. “They do not speak for us, nor represent our interests.”
The nation signed a memorandum of understanding with Teal Jones in September 2022 for the two parties to identify and pursue forestry and employment opportunities in the Pacheedaht’s traditional territories.
The Fairy Creek blockades, which largely occurred during 2021 and 2022, were one of Canada’s largest civil disobedience movements.
The RCMP made 1,100 arrests from May 2021 to February 2022 after Teal Jones obtained an injunction against protesters who blocked roads and set up camp to stop the cutting of old-growth trees at Fairy Creek.
