Use real science to provide solutions in Castle debate

LETTERS

Alberta has found itself with an environmental minister with a personal agenda to stop logging in the Castle. That’s how it started, Castle provincial parks, shutdown the logging leases, let other commercial ventures run there course, no new leases. Other activities common to the area are permissible in the new Castle Provincial Park.

Then Alberta gets hit with “science,” ideological environmentalist, individuals and groups with personal agendas. We hear, “Close Alberta’s eastern slopes to motorized recreation! What are we going to do as the population of Alberta grows? It’s got to be stopped now!”

Photos of water-damaged trails in the Castle is yesterday’s news. New OHV bridges and trail restoration, following the 2013 floods, are already in place.

Real science provides solutions. Real science knows selective logging is an important part of forestry management. You log it or burn it. Logging provides economic value to the community, burning not so.

Real science develops well-managed multi-use back-country roads. Not all OHV trails should be closed to trucks. Back-country roads were built for trucks in the first place.

The population of Canada is a drop in the bucket compared to the U.S. The folks to the south have been in this battle for decades. They have learned to hold the ideological environmentalists at bay and use real science to provide solutions.

The volunteer stewardship of the Crowsnest Pass is possibly the best in Alberta. It would be a shame to shut them down.

Check out U.S. Forest Services, Water Road Interaction Field Guide.

Dale Smith

Coutts