Mikie and Lili Among the Tall Trees: Cortes Island and Industrial Logging

Below are links my off-island friends and readers might like to click. I encourage you to read the material.
The first link is a piece written by Carrie Saxifrage for the Vancouver Observer. Ms. Saxifrage is their sustainability reporter. The second is a reprinting on Tideline, our local on-line new source and internet voice of the Cortes Island community so you can see what else is happening on Cortes. The third is a connection to the petition. It's open to anyone.
There are a number of competing interests and areas of concern in the question of industrial logging on this tiny island, many articulated in the article and the petition.
Other questions I have, not included in the actual petition, include but are not limited to

when logging activity commences, how will it affect ferry traffic (and route)?
what provisions are in place for wildlife (and its interaction with humans) when habitat is destroyed?
jobs for islanders?
is Cortes' fragile infrastructure (roads, power, trails) being considered?

I am troubled about the connection to the oil sands of Alberta. Although those companies now portray themselves as an operation based on sound sustainability and protection of the environment, there are still questions. Most significant to me is that even if things there reflect a more enlightened view, it was not always thus. For years, until that flock of water fowl landed on a tailing pond protected by scarecrows and flapping sheets of plastic, the decision-makers were very much shoot first aim later in their stewardship of their surroundings. Is that to be the approach here, too?
I respect private property rights and the rights of the owners to do with their holdings what they wish. I also believe in the the balancing effect responsibility. Until the questions are answered there is no balance.

A few visual reminders what this island means to its inhabitants: