Environmentalists in Victoria say they will fight a forest company's plans to sell to developers a large strip of valuable oceanfront land on Vancouver Island's scenic west coast.

In January 2007, B.C.'s minister of forests, Rich Coleman, agreed to a proposal by Western Forest Products to sell off more than 28,000 hectares of temperate rain forest close to the West Coast Trail. 

Coleman has said repeatedly he will not reconsider the decision.

About 300 people packed a meeting in Victoria Thursday night, where they heard an emotional call to action from veteran protest organizer Vicki Husband to preserve public access to the prime forest land.

Husband told the crowd she fears there's nothing to stop urban sprawl from spreading west up the coast of the island from Victoria.  

"If this goes ahead what quality of life are we going to have? Forty-five kilometres of urban sprawl from Sooke to Port Renfrew?" she said.

"Is that the vision of the future that we want," Husband said. "I used to talk about a death by thousand cuts. This is a thousand cuts all at once. We have to stop it." 

Fellow organizer Garth Lenz questioned why the company didn't have to put up any cash or parkland in return for being able to develop the land. He said a developer has already picked up a piece of prime waterfront land at Jordan River, one of Vancouver Island's most famous surf breaks.

"This is a place where we can take a stand together and stop this incredible injustice and betrayal of the public trust," said Lenz.

The crowd pledged to fight the development plans and passed a resolution urging the Capital Regional District to slap a moratorium on development outside the urban area.
 
New Democrat MLA John Horgan said he hopes the minister will reconsider the plans. "I'm hopeful that the government will hear loudly and clearly that this action shall not stand."