Meares Island became historically significant shortly after 1984, when the Nuu-chah-nulth and environmentalist groups such as Greenpeace and Friends of Clayoquot Sound began protesting forestry giant MacMillan Bloedel's potential harvesting activities. The Nuu-chah-nulth, with significant cooperation from environmental groups, eventually erected a blockade, preventing MacMillan Bloedel from logging the island. Both sides pursued legal action, and the court ruled that since the Nuu-chah-nulth had claimed that this was part of their traditional territory, until that claim was resolved, no development could occur on the whole of Meares Island. This essentially granted an injunction in favour of the Nuu-chah-nulth, which was the first time in British Columbia's history that the province had been overruled on a land claims issue.[citation needed] According to Ecodefense, opponents of logging have spiked thousands of trees on Meares Island.[2]
^Dave Foreman; Bill Haywood, eds. (1993). Ecodefense: a field guide to monkeywrenching (3rd ed.). Chico, CA: Abbzug Press. ISBN0-9637751-0-3. OCLC29216159.
