Locals hope to save area near park from logging
Friends of the Seven Sisters to press case in their meeting with forests minister
A small northwest B.C. environmental group hopes a renewed call by the B.C. Forest Practices Board to institute formal consultation on logging cutblocks will help them get the B.C. government to act on their concerns about proposed logging adjacent to Seven Sisters Provincial Park.
Nancy Pedersen, a member of Friends of the Seven Sisters, said they realize it is likely too late to stop planned logging adjacent to the park but hope it will be the last timber harvesting that takes place.
The Friends of the Seven Sisters, most of whose less than one dozen members live in the area of the Seven Sisters Park, want to protect permanently a large bite-shaped area originally left out of the park boundaries when they were created in 2000.
The 39,000-hectare wilderness park and protected area — nearly 100 times larger than Stanley Park in Vancouver — is named after the Seven Sisters mountain range, visible from Highway 16, about 75 kilometres by road from Terrace.
Stopping logging in the remaining area adjacent to the park would protect visual qualities important for tourism and further preserve the wilderness attributes of the Seven Sisters area, including for recreation and mushroom picking, said Pedersen.
The Friends of the Seven Sisters will press their case in a scheduled meeting in early January with Forests Minister Doug Donaldson.
The minister’s Stikine riding is in northwest B.C. but does not encompass the Seven Sisters Park.
In a written statement on Friday, B.C. Ministry of Forests spokesman Brett Lowther said Donaldson would be available for comment after he meets with the group.
At least six logging cut blocks have been mapped out near the Seven Sisters Park, including two that are adjacent to the park boundary that total about 50 hectares.
There is legislated public review and comment for forest stewardship plans — a broad regional plan that describes how a company will manage for harvesting timber and other values — but no consultation required for individual logging cutblocks.
The company that holds the timber cutting rights and is seeking permits to log from the B.C. government is Vancouver-based CanWel Building Material Group Ltd., which holds timber rights in other areas of B.C., runs logging and trucking operations and owns wood treating plants.
CanWel did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Earlier this month, the Forest Practices Board recommended the B.C. government make a number of improvements to the Forest and Range Practices Act.
Among its recommendations was that the government enable public consultation on forest roads and cutblocks, noting that forest stewardship plans do not indicate where or when forest development will occur. The public cannot tell how forestry activity may affect them until they see ribbons hanging on the trees, the board said.
Another recommendation was to strengthen district managers’ authority to intervene where proposed activities put local environmental and community values at risk.
Currently, district managers must issue cutting and road permits if they meet basic requirements under the Forest and Range Practices Act, even if the proposed activities pose a risk to local values.
The Forest Practices Board noted the improvements have been recommended in previous reports, but government has never implemented the recommendations.
The Liberals, who made sweeping changes to forestry legislation when they first came to power 16 years ago, which were considered friendly to forest companies, were ousted by the NDP in last spring’s election.