An area of the B.C. coast called the Great Bear Rainforest by environmentalists is being logged at an alarming rate despite agreements reached nearly two years ago to implement more environmentally responsible logging practices, says an environmental report.

"Many of these sites are very remote and that's why they [logging companies] have been able to do what they do and get away with it," said David Suzuki of the David Suzuki Foundation, which co-authored the report with Forest Watch of B.C. and the Raincoast Conservation Society.

The report says that in the vast majority of 227 logging sites surveyed, more than 80 per cent of the trees have been removed and only four per cent of fish-bearing streams in logging sites had protective stream-side buffers.

Wednesday, January 15, 2003 Page: B8 Section: News Source: Vancouver Sun