B.C. government will no longer allow timber sales in Skagit River headwaters

VICTORIA, B.C. (AP)  — British Columbia’s government announced it will no longer allow timber sales in the Skagit River’s headwaters.

The decision could intensify pressure over a Canadian company’s pending permit to start exploratory mining in the area, which conservationists see as a bigger threat to the river’s ecology.

The Seattle Times reports loggers last year built roads and clear-cut several large swaths of forest in the headwaters, which drain into the Skagit River and eventually flow through Washington state to Puget Sound.

Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan wrote to B.C. officials with grave concern about water quality and environmental degradation.