Clark allows logging in carbou habitat

[maryjane48]

The letter from Peter Baird of Canfor in the April 13 edition of KTW (‘Canfor believes it can log responsibly’) contains mostly soothing nonsense. I would find his claims amusing if the logging of the Clearwater Valley did not have such serious consequences for residents and the endangered mountain caribou.

Baird may believe Canfor has hired “independent third-party experts,” but did he really check their credentials? The expert who wrote Canfor’s study on the mountain caribou is an expert on owls, not even a distantly related species.


Baird may believe Canfor has hired “independent third-party experts,” but did he really check their credentials? The expert who wrote Canfor’s study on the mountain caribou is an expert on owls, not even a distantly related species.

Large areas of the Clearwater Valley outside of Wells Gray Park have been designated under the federal Species at Risk Act as critical habitat for the endangered mountain caribou.

However, Canfor is forging ahead, applying for permits to clearcut in this critical habitat, despite the area’s caribou herd being down to just 121 animals. Canfor’s expert on visual-impact assessments made serious errors on the computer modelling for the large clearcuts that are now prominent on the west side of the Clearwater Valley.

Canfor’s hydrology expert overlooked several key factors in his report that were discovered by the Upper Clearwater Referral Group in 2016 and brought to the company’s attention.


Twenty years ago, 1st Canyon Creek flooded and washed out the highway to Wells Gray Park, trapping hundreds of tourists and residents for five days. Three other washouts have occurred since, all blamed on the 1980s logging on Trophy Mountain, and the cost to taxpayers has been $11 million.

The site plans for Canfor’s next four blocks on Trophy Mountain are readily available, but the studies on mountain caribou, hydrology and slope stability have restricted access.

[Terris]

Wow...

I went through this entire process a few years back for a recreational tenure.

The Species at Risk Act was, then, a major component of the process and planning and our area was once deemed a caribou habitat whose population was extirpated although...

It was evident upon exploration by a Heli ski company that there were still a few Mountain Caribou in the region. I knew it, they know it...

By then the money had been spent by the company and the government essentially made a decision based upon a Biologist hired by the heli ski company because $$$ talks...

This has been typical of government (ie. Liberal/Socred, Donald Trump) policies whereby they privatize the related ministry science positions...

Good bye Mother Nature...

[maryjane48]

well i thi k i could live with a beli ski lodge if they kept the footpri t with in reason but to allow logging is a big area and i just cant understand how our nature is bipartisan . why are now rightwingers saying we love you christy but this is wrong .

[Terris]

This particular recreational tenure includes the right to cut new runs in areas proven to have had a historical mountain caribou and this same area has been infiltrated extensively by logging since the 90's. The loggers virtually have paved the way for this development.

PS: I was a logger for 12 years and this is business as usual for a government trying to add value to Crown lands.

Nothing new here except the players...

[bob vernon]

I wish the phoney tears being shed over the decline of some species would just dry up. We live in a democracy where the majority rules, and the majority of people couldn't care less what happens to caribou, spade foot toads, or some tiny owl that lives underground.

The last male white rhinoceros is too old to mate with the only two surviving females. They're doomed to extinction in a few years. Mankind has seen fit to use its habitat for some other use. Likewise the caribou in BC is doomed. We need the land it lives on. Doesn't the Bible say that God gave man dominion over the animals. We're just dominioning like He wants us to do.
Harvest on Christy.