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Lil’wat Nation secures land use legacies

Land use deal with province the final piece of LRMP process

It took several years of negotiations, but last week the Lil’wat Nation signed a land use agreement with the province that will protect almost 800,000 hectares, more than half of the band’s traditional territory.

The agreement, coming less than one year after the Squamish Nation and In-SHUCK-ch finalized their own land use agreements, also represents the final step of the Sea to Sky Land and Resource Management Plan (LRMP).

The agreement was signed at Millennium Place on Friday, April 11 by Agriculture and Lands Minister Pat Bell and Lil’wat Nation Chief Leonard Andrew.

For Andrew, it was a reason to celebrate.

“We’re very happy with the final piece, it’s been a long time coming in dealing with our territorial lands,” he said. “Prior to this a lot of dealings have taken place without the Lil’wat Nation, so this is a big step forward. And it proves something — we can work together and negotiate with our neighbours and government. Where we take it from here, it’s really up to us.”

Andrew was especially proud of the establishment of six conservancies in the territory that will be protected from logging, mining, and other forms of resource development.

“That means a lot to our people, those are the very areas we wanted to protect from the beginning, and now we have an agreement in place that does that. The whole plan is very good, but those areas in particular are something we can be proud of.”

One theme that came across from all the speakers was the improved relationship between the Lil’wat and various levels of government.

“It’s changed tremendously in the past few years,” said Andrew. “We all made a commitment, whether it’s through protocol or talks, that we would work with each other. Whatever local government, or provincial government agency, if they’re in our area we will work with them.”

He also credited the Olympics for leading the Lil’wat to sign a protocol with the Squamish Nation, and for opening up economic opportunities for both First Nations, including forestry operations and land development.

“Now, with the LRMP agreement today, that will open up more doors for future dealings we’ll have with the Squamish Nation,” said Andrew.

The land use agreement encompasses almost 800,000 ha, from Garibaldi Provincial Park in the south, to Clendenning Provincial Park in the west, Ts’yl-Os Provincial Park in the north and the Stein Valley Nlaka’pamux Heritage Park in the east.

The six new conservancies created by the plan total 39,000 ha and include areas in the Callaghan Valley, 100 Lakes Plateau, Upper Soo Valley, Upper Birkenhead, Twin Two and Cerise Creek areas. The size of the Duffey Lake Provincial Park will be doubled, from 2,095 ha to 4,048 ha.

The conservancies prohibit commercial logging, mineral exploration and development, and hydroelectric power generation. The conservancies are similar to parks, but allow First Nations cultural activities, including hunting, and First Nations tourism initiatives.

The agreement also establishes 204,000 ha of wildland zones where more activities are allowed. The wildland zones don’t allow commercial logging, hydroelectric power generation or new road construction for forestry or exploration. However, sustainable forestry is permitted, as well as approved mining and geothermal activities.

In addition, 47,000 ha were designated as cultural management areas, where all activities will be acceptable provided they meet management directions in the agreement.

As well, there are 59 Lil’Wat Spirited Ground Areas that total approximately 8,850 ha that include village sites, archaeological sites, spiritual places, gathering areas, campsites, and training areas important to the Lil’wat Nation.

Protection for environmentally sensitive areas and old growth forests is also part of the agreement. As well, there are provisions to create a cultural education facility at Owl Creek, opportunities for First Nations commercial recreation ventures, and a commitment to work with the province to create land use zones in the Ure Creek watershed.

According to Bell, more than half the land base is now under some form of protection, but also makes allowances for economic development and the regions growing population.

“This area is under a severe strain as a result of its proximity to the Lower Mainland and three million people… and this is one of the fastest growing areas of the province,” he said. “What this does is provide a high level of certainty to all stakeholders in the region, and it’s a big reason why land use plans are so important for British Columbia. You have to understand what’s available for different types of use, environmental, recreational or commercial, and the construction of this plan respects all of those key areas.”

One of the areas the plan protects is the upper Soo Valley, which is of particular interest to the Association of Whistler Area Residents for the Environment (AWARE). In 2003 AWARE put forward a plan that would protect the Upper Soo as an Olympic legacy and offset the Olympic development in the neighbouring Callaghan Valley.

The concept was adopted by most of the stakeholders at the Sea to Sky LRMP planning table, but was rejected by the Olympic organizers because protecting land was outside their mandate, and by the province because the LRMP process was under direction not to create new protected areas.

Councillor Eckhard Zeidler, the former AWARE director who suggested the legacy, celebrated the Lil’wat agreement on Friday.

“The process has taken six long years and all of us are very, very happy,” he said. “To my mind it’s absolutely an Olympic legacy, only because without the Olympics coming I’m not sure we would have been able to present this kind of plan and move it forward as far as we did. The area is known as the Soo, that’s S-u-7 as the First Nations call it, that’s what they’ve always called it, but in my mind anyway it will be the Olympic Wildlife Refuge.”

When asked if there was still an opportunity to make the Upper Soo an Olympic legacy, Zeidler said it was possible but said it was out of his hands.

“(The Vancouver Organizing Committee’s) job is to put on an extraordinary Olympic Games, which means building certain physical legacies. But what I’ve learned in the last few years is that legacies come from the Games that have nothing to do with the organizing committee — legacies that happen when people come together around the excitement and around the opportunities and make their own legacies happen. This is something that the Lil’wat should be proud of.”

Zeidler recalled a meeting that the proponents of the wildlife refuge had with First Nations on the top of Lesser Ring Mountain in the Upper Soo.

“One of the Lil’wat councillors got out of the helicopter, looked out and exclaimed ‘now I know why our ancestors were so happy,’” said Zeidler. “To me that sums up why we put all that work into protecting this area, and what happened today made it worth it.”

Johnny Mikes was hired by AWARE to represent the environment at the Sea to Skry LRMP table during negotiations, and was also impressed by the Lil’wat land use plan.

“The LRMP meetings with the stakeholders were really just a preliminary step for all the government-to-government meetings with First Nations and the province, and we’re seeing the culmination of that today,” said Mikes. “It’s a great step, and a great achievement for everyone who participated.

“There’s a lot of great stuff. The conservancies are excellent, the amount of wildlands is excellent, and the cultural management areas put forward by the Lil’wat are really good. There are a few things we would have liked to have seen, like a plan for (run of river independent power projects) that was a recommendation from the LRMP that didn’t’ get in there.

“But overall we’re happy. We were told in 2002 that the LRMP couldn’t create any more protected areas, that all of the protected areas were done in the 1990s in the Protected Areas Strategy… but now we have new protected areas in the Squamish and Lil’wat land use plans, wildlands, the floodplain management plans for sensitive valley bottom wetlands through the corridor. Those are just a few examples, but a lot of good things came about through the LRMP and were built upon by First Nations.”

According to Pemberton Mayor Jordan Sturdy, there is nothing in the Lil’wat plan that would impact his community or backcountry recreation for residents.

“There’s nothing that really jumped out at me as a particular concern, and more important than anything else is to provide some stability, consistency and certainty to land use planning in the area,” he said.

There is a small amount of Crown land in Pemberton’s proposed boundary expansion that would be subject to the plan, but Sturdy is confident that any issues can be resolved with negotiation.

Details of the Lil’wat Land Use Plan are online at www. Ilmbwww.gov.bc.ca.