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Council supports provincial grizzly experts

Ministry of Environment calls on VANOC to refine location of legacy trails

By Alison Taylor

Council is calling on Olympic organizers to heed the advice of provincial grizzly bear biologists in their bid to build recreation trails in the Callaghan Valley.

On Monday night council unanimously endorsed a motion in support of the Ministry of Environment’s position, which calls on the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Games to do a grizzly bear hazard assessment in the Madeley Valley to refine the location of the so-called legacy trails at the Whistler Nordic Centre, and, if need be, seasonal closures of the trails to ensure human safety.

“VANOC — please listen to what the Ministry of Environment bear biologists are saying,” said Councillor Eckhard Zeidler as he appealed to his colleagues to back up the ministry’s position at the meeting.

George McKay, VANOC’s director of environmental approvals, stressed this week that VANOC is listening to the feedback and it will dictate the final product.

“This process is about getting public feedback to help us design the project to minimize the impacts and I can assure you that adjustments to the trails, the locations, and the way that they’re developed is very much in the cards,” said McKay.

As he spoke Zeidler held in his hands a copy of the draft Sea to Sky Land and Resource Plan — a plan that shows the Callaghan Valley as part of a Grizzly Bear Recovery Area. The draft LRMP calls for recovery of grizzly bear populations and reductions in their mortality, with a higher priority given to completing work in areas that are being developed for the 2010 Games.

“This is the principle that we’re after,” said Zeidler.

He asked council to support a MoE letter, dated April 5, 2007 and sent to the Environmental Assessment Office, which outlines a clear strategy to mitigate the impacts any new trails will have on grizzly bears. The EAO will determine if VANOC will get approval to build the trails.

Tom Bell, regional manager, environmental stewardship of MoE, did not return phone calls from Pique Newsmagazine this week but in his letter to the EAO he states:

“The scientific evidence and information is clear that grizzly bears currently live in the Callaghan Valley… It is also clear that, based on spatial distribution of the sightings and DNA evidence, the proposed Legacy Trails network transects occupied habitat. MoE is confident that Grizzly bears currently use the footprint of the Trails Network, not just the perimeter around it.”

VANOC, however, has released its studies on the grizzlies, which say the 25 kilometre trail legacy can be built without significant impacts to the bears if VANOC and the Whistler Legacies Society follow through on management plans and mitigation efforts.

This week McKay said that its research shows no evidence of resident bears in the trail area.

“If you read (our research report) I think the conclusion (it’s) come to is the Callaghan Valley is part of a range, if you will, and one with poor habitat, and, in my mind, no apparent evidence, with respect to where we’re building the project, (of) any resident bears,” said McKay.

Zeidler said the 750 pages of VANOC research “boggles the mind.”

“The problem that we have is a failure to listen,” he said of VANOC, highlighting how the MoE takes issues with VANOC’s research, which suggests the Callaghan’s grizzlies are transient and not resident bears.

Bell wrote: “With respect, MoE strongly disagree with these (VANOC’s) interpretations of the evidence, particularly when the evidence is combined with recent Grizzly bear sightings in the area.”

Ministry biologists believe there is at least one family unit that is resident in the Callaghan for part of the year.

“I will leave it to the technicians to debate the point if they want to around residency versus transient,” said McKay

“Whether they’re resident, transient, in the area frequently or infrequently, we want to do the right thing and develop a management plan that anticipates being able to deal with them, so if there are any issues we avoid them right from the get-go.”

VANOC will be meeting with MoE staff on April 27 to discuss some of the feedback the ministry has submitted to the EAO.

In addition to a bear hazard assessment, which would address impacts on an individual bear scale rather than overall population levels, the ministry also supports the potential need for seasonal trail closures, a comprehensive education program, and a zero tolerance of attractants during construction and operations.

VANOC is proposing a network of 25 kilometres of trails adjacent to the $119 million Whistler Nordic Centre, which will host all the Nordic events for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The legacy trails are intended to complement the 22 kilometres of competition trails. They are considered critical to the long-term economic success of the Nordic centre.

“Without recreation trails, that $100 million investment… would likely become a white elephant,” said Keith Bennett, the municipality’s general manager of resort experience, in a report to council.

The centre will come under the purview of the Whistler Legacies Society after the Games, which will also oversee the long-term operations of the sliding centre and the athletes’ high performance centre.

Councillor Nancy Wilhelm-Morden said she had mixed feelings about the legacy trails and how critical they were to the success of the centre.

“I would really feel more comfortable if I saw the business plan,” she said.

Those plans are not public.

Council will send a letter to the EAO outlining its support for the Ministry of Environment’s position on wildlife issues put forward in the MoE’s April 5 letter.

The EAO public comment period is open until April 29. The website lists a series of letters from the public, several from cross country skiers, in support of the proposed legacy trails.