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Blackwater Creek residents launch logging protest

Locals set up camp near logging site to make their voices heard

By Clare Ogilvie

Protesters are gathered near Birkenhead Provincial Park to try and stop a logging operation.

N’Quatqua elder, 64-year-old Laureen Jack is hoping for a peaceful protest as band members and non-natives in the community try and protect a 31-hectare piece of land, about 85 kilometres north of Whistler.

They claim it has been used for thousands of years to harvest medicinal plants, rare pine mushrooms and animals.

“People are marching to save this piece of land because this is very important land for our people here in N’Quatqua,” said Jack, who has lived in the area all her life.

“For thousands and thousands of years our people have thrived using this land that keeps us alive. We go there to harvest food. It supplies us with many of our needs.”

One of the top concerns is how the logging will impact a patch of pine mushrooms. Though there are several, Jack said the one in cutblock #002 is popular because it has an easy slope to walk on and is near the road.

  It is estimated that the mushrooms bring in up to $100,000 to the area.

“If this is cut off a lot of people will be starving here,” said Jack. “That is what sustains our population in this area.”

The highly prized pine mushroom can take up to 80 years to grow when it finds perfect conditions, so it is likely that logging will mean the end of mushroom harvesting in the area for at least 100 years.

“It is so heartbreaking to see all this happening just for a handful of money and for just a handful of people to benefit from it,” said Jack.

According to a Ministry of Forests and Range fact sheet, logging within high yield mushroom sites in the block will account for approximately 0.5 per cent of the production potential. Out of the 31 hectares only about 17 hectares will actually be logged; the rest is either in reserve, under retention, or part of a wildlife tree patch.

Though N’Quatqua members make up some of the protesters B.C. Timber Sales (BCTS) has reached a working agreement with the N’Quatqua Band that acknowledges limited harvesting within the provincially recognized Blackwater Pine Mushroom Management Area (BPMMA).

No one from the band would comment on the protest or the logging agreement.

In the long-term, BCTS, the Squamish Forest District, and the N’Quatqua Band have agreed to participate in a joint sustainability study that addresses N’Quatqua interests within the BPMMA.

BCTS has also signed a memorandum of understanding with the N’Quatqua agreeing not to develop any new blocks, other than those already approved, within the band’s area of interest until the results of the sustainability study are reviewed.

“In general nobody has been in favour of harvesting,” said Jerry Kennah, timber sales manager of the Chinook Business Area for BCTS.

“…Because of their concerns we went back and we did special mapping of the area to map out the most productive mushroom picking areas, the more moderate production areas and the low ones and we tried to do our planning around that.”

Kennah said BCTS hopes to have their mushroom expert walk the cut blocks again this summer with residents and continue to work to address concerns.

Meetings with Band Chief Harry O’Donaghey and council, as well as a public meeting on the logging plans, were held in D’Arcy, said Kennah.

When asked why logging had to take place in the area when so many people were opposed Kennah said: “We have to spread the logging out across the landscape. We have to deal with small blocks and a whole myriad of issues.

“There are thousands and thousands of hectares put into protected areas and parks or that have other constraints on it, whether it be visual constraints or special spotted owl management areas, or special riparian areas, so we have got to stay away from those. Once you start netting all those out you get down to what is the workable forest and this is part of the workable forest.”

Kennah said the area does not have a watershed issue and full environmental studies have been done.

“…We look at individual species of wildlife if they are listed as being protected,” he said. “There are none there on this particular block.

“It is right alongside a highway so it is not exactly pristine wilderness. Harvesting actually enhances habitat for bears and deer by producing more berries and other species for them.”

The logging rights were sold to Lizzie Bay, which hopes to start operations this week.

As part of the protest the Blackwater Stewardship Group has also gathered close to 500 signatures from people who, “oppose the disruption of the fragile ecosystem and pine mushroom grounds of the Blackwater region…”

And it has invited scientists from the Western Canada Wilderness Committee (WCWC) to help study how the area would be impacted.

According to WCWC staff scientist Andy Miller the forest, while not pristine, is important for grizzlies, wolves, cougars and other animals as they roam between Birkenhead Provincial Park and the Cayoosh Range.

The area, which was selectively logged for telephone poles 40 years ago, has also hosted spotted owls, he said.

“I will be spending many nights over the next week or so prowling the roads at night hoping that we get a call back (from a spotted owl),” said Miller.

“Right about now (the forest) is just starting to mature again and come back into an old growth condition so its value to wildlife is just about to peak.

“It is just about to get into a place where it can reclaim its glory and now it is going to be reverted back to a dead zone for another 50 years as a result of this logging.”