‘War in the woods’: activists blockade Vancouver Island in bid to save ancient trees

Loggers say blockades threaten their livelihoods as activists build fortifications and vow to remain

Hundreds of activists are digging in at logging road blockades across a swath of southern Vancouver Island, vowing to stay as long as it takes to pressure the provincial government to immediately halt cutting of what they say is the last 3% of giant old growth trees left in the province.

The situation echoes the 1993 war in the woods" in nearby Clayoquot Sound, which saw nearly 1,000 people arrested at similar logging blockades in the largest act of civil disobedience in Canadian history.