SPIRIT BEAR UNDER IMMEDIATE THREAT AS LOGGING BEGINS

Dear Friends of the Spirit Bear,

It is the e-mail we hoped would never have to be written, but as of this week, despite promises to save the spirit bear, the British Columbia government has permitted one third of the bear's last intact ecosystem - the Green wilderness - to be logged. And the trees are starting to fall.

Two-thirds of the spirit bear's last intact habitat was set aside for protection by the BC government as a part of an historic land-use agreement last February; however, while the deal accomplished a great deal for many coastal stakeholders, it did not save the spirit bear.

While black bears usually can adapt to change, in this one case, if the Green is logged, bears that do not carry the unique gene that produces the white bear will be forced to migrate to areas where they do, diluting the gene pool and rendering the areas already protected - in the name of the spirit bear - useless.

If we destroy the fine ecological balance that results in these white bears, we risk losing the spirit bear forever. The world needs these bears to survive not only for the role it plays in its globally important ecosystem, but also as a symbol to what youth and citizens can achieve when they work together. If we fail, there is no turning back, no reintroducing white bears: we have one chance and this is it.

We feel that our track record is one of being positive, cooperative, engaged, and pragmatic; not one of being alarmists or dogmatic ideologues in addressing this issue. We have always tried to find positive solutions to meet this bear's bottom line without compromising the economic bottom line.

Despite the fact that the Spirit Bear Youth Coalition has pledged to help address the economic concerns associated with protecting the Green - an area only 200 times the size of Vancouver's Stanley Park - with the forthcoming CGI Hollywood animated movie THE SPIRIT BEAR, its release date in 2008 will be too late to aid in the bear's protection if logging doesn't cease immediately. But make no mistake: this movie will be made and if the money cannot help the people of Klemtu offset the cost of protecting the Green watershed, the money will go towards an international campaign to showcase what went wrong and what we must never do again - to ensure the voice of our membership and young people in all corners of the world continues to be heard.

It is a case of the present shouting and the future whispering. We can cross our fingers, log, and hope the bear lives, but run the risk of losing the bear and certainly lose the opportunity to create a more broad-based, stable economy for coastal communities. Or, for the sake of two or three years, in .005% of the entire coast's total operating area, the government can help the affected community defer logging until the release of our movie and allow us to put our money where our mouth is and really build a new paradigm between ecology and economics.

We're not anti-logging, anti-jobs - this isn't about the environment on one side and the economy on the other. We're for a rare bear and its last chance of survival. Our responsibility is great and the actions we take today will be our legacy for our future, and the bottom line is if logging in the Green does not cease immediately, not only do we run the risk of losing the spirit bear, we run the risk of failing a generation. Millions of young people from urban Vancouver to war-torn Iraq have passionately made their voice heard on behalf of the spirit bear in the hopes of making a difference, but if we do not heed their message, we will serve only to prove the skeptics right and confirm to young people the worst lesson of all: their voice doesn't matter

Premier Campbell, on behalf of all British Columbians and as a global steward, has the responsibility to err on the side of caution when speaking of the last chance to save an animal as unique to Canada as the Panda bear is to China - especially when we have placed an economic alternative on the table. Just as we would never ask the Premier to run a budget deficit to save this bear, he cannot ask us to run an ecological deficit in the last place the spirit bear can call home. Yet, with every tree that falls - trees that act as bear dens for their winter sleep - that is exactly what is happening.

Everyone, everywhere who believes in a world where the spirit bear will forever be wild and free needs to stand up and make their voice heard today. This is it. This is the final battle, the culmination of all our efforts - we have nothing left to lose...

...Except the spirit bear.

PLEASE TAKE ACTION TODAY - YOUR ADDED VOICE HAS NEVER BEEN SO URGENTLY NEEDED.

1. To all our supporters worldwide: write, fax, and e-mail Premier Gordon Campbell and urge him to intervene immediately to protect the 80, 000 hectare Green wilderness in order for him to honour his word to save the spirit bear for "generation after generation".

2. Contact 25 people you know and ask them to make their voice heard today by writing a letter to Premier Campbell and urge them to spread the word to 25 people they know.

3. Write a letter to the editor of your local paper - no matter where you live - expressing your support for the immediate halt to logging in the Green to save the spirit bear.

4. If you live in British Columbia, write to your MLA and demand that they represent you by taking a stand to protect the Green to save the spirit bear.

5. If you live in Canada, write to your MP and Prime Minister Stephen Harper and ask that they represent you by urging the BC government to immediately intervene to stop the logging in the Green.

This crisis may seem huge and it may seem unstoppable. But it is not. We have protected two-thirds of this remarkable bear's habitat thanks to you standing up and being counted on this issue over the last decade. We need your help this one last time and if we all do our part, like ripples in a pond, one by one, our voice will never have been stronger and, together, we will save our spirit bear, truly, for generation after generation.

With thanks for your continuing support,

Simon Jackson, Founder and Chairman
Salimah Ebrahim, Founding Member and Executive Director

P.S. We will be keeping you posted on how you can help in the weeks and months ahead as this crisis unfolds and we urge you to visit our web site www.spiritbearyouth.org for the latest updates as we launch an international campaign to save the Green to save the spirit bear.
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Spirit Bear Youth Coalition
www.spiritbearyouth.org