Roy L Hales/ CKTZ News - The Strathcona Regional District is the latest local government to endorse the recommendations of the Old Growth Strategic Review Panel. >>> The motionThere were only two opposing votes at the SRD Board meeting on Wednesday. The Comox Valley Regional District and municipal governments of Courtenay, Cumberland, Lantzville, Metchosin, Nanaimo, Powell River, Port Moody, and Victoria have all passed resolutions urging the province to implement this plan. Mayor Martin Davis of Tahsis introduced the motion that the Strathcona Regional District endorse the recommendations of the Old Growth Strategic Review Panel and write a letter to the Provincial Government in support of this document. >>> Mayor Davis’ recommendation “What they came out with several months ago, was a strong set of recommendations which I think are quite fair and balanced. It is unfortunate that this did not come up as an item in our agenda until this morning, but hopefully people have had a chance to look at it - or at least look at the recommendations,” he said. “Considering what’s going on these days, we seem to be shaping up for another war in the woods. I find that really unfortunate. I believe it is because the government has not acted quickly enough to rebalance the issue. The Premier actually endorsed this when he was running in the last election and just in the last few days the government has endorsed it once again.”Davis described the recommendations as pretty basic:Committing to partnerships with Indigenous Nationsbetter datadeferral of logging the remaining ‘at risk’ old growth in valley bottoms: “the high quality stuff, which is very rare now” Prioritizing ecosystem health“There is nothing really radical here, considering how big of an issue this is. So I am really hoping the government will move on this and I hope our Directors will support it,” he said. Campbell River Director Claire Moglove said she would be supporting the motion. She agreed that most of the recommendations are fairly straightforward. As for the somewhat controversial recommendation to protect old growth: “the Devil will always be in the detail.”Photo credit: Aerial view of log booms by Richard Lee on Unsplash