Date: Wed, 20 Sep 2006 21:00:02 -0700
From: Scott Frederick <scott451@gmx.net>
Subject: [KCUTS] New parks policy: Log, build and burn
Hello Kootenaycuts,
New parks policy: Log, build and burn
By Tom FLETCHER
Sep 20 2006
The B.C. government not only wants to build new lodges in provincial
parks, it wants to log and start forest fires. In fact it's already
doing so.
Manning Park has been much in the news lately, threatened by two
lightning-sparked fires. Singled out by former Manitoba premier Gary
Filmon in his report following the 2003 wildfire season, Manning has
become a pilot project for the forest and environment ministries.
Since Filmon's post-mortem on the interface threat that broke open at
Barriere and Kelowna, the pine beetle has only added to the dry fuel
load built up by our long-standing mindset that every fire should be
put out as quickly as possible.
Environment Minister Barry Penner tells me we can expect more logging
in Manning Park, beyond the fuel break that's now being cleared on the
eastern side. Trees have been taken out around the lodge and several
popular camping areas, such as Lightning Lake, where beetle-killed
trees have to go before they become a hazard to visitors.
The value of the wood is part of the equation. Work at Lightning Lake
last year was done at a net cost of $160,000 after the marketable logs
were sold, and Penner is hoping the larger eastern firebreak will be
self-financing.
So how do people react to seeing all these stumps in provincial parks?
If they're told it's due to the pine beetle, they accept it, Penner
says, but he's not so sure the public is ready for what needs to be
done.
Forests Minister Rich Coleman agrees, saying this summer's fire scare
has raised the bar on what preparations are needed to protect Manning.
"We may have to get more aggressive on that," Coleman said. "The
challenge is that people love their parks in B.C. so they want them to
stay with the natural side of things."
The fires aren't always set just to relieve wildfire danger. Last
week, parks staff were successful in their third attempt at setting a
fire in the high country of the Snowy Protected Area, south of
Keremeos.
Penner said the area would naturally see grass fires every few years
that would keep brush and trees down on the grazing areas used by
California bighorn sheep. But as in so many other parts of the
province, decades of fire suppression have had unintended
consequences.
Even in the desert climate of the south Okanagan, fires aren't always
easy to set. Parks staff tried last fall and this spring, and finally
succeeded in clearing 200 hectares of bighorn habitat.
While struggling to protect buildings in and around parks, Penner is
persisting with his plan to build more park accommodation. A dozen
parks have been identified, including Elk Lakes in the Kootenays,
Foch-Giltoyees in the Skeena region, Fintry in the Okanagan, Golden
Ears in the Lower Mainland, Cape Scott on northern Vancouver Island
and Wells Gray in the Cariboo.
NDP environment critic Shane Simpson raised the alarm when he came
across an environment ministry invitation to chopper prospective lodge
operators into remote Cape Scott and Wells Gray. Images of
cigar-chewing Texas grillionaires being whisked in for an exclusive
tour of their next high-end resort forced the government to defend the
controversial plan again.
Penner said the helicopter tours were offered as the only practical
way to give people a chance to see these remote areas during their
summer peak. He insisted that Manning Park lodge and many other
facilities draw people to parks without damaging them.
If this is a nefarious B.C. Liberal scheme to set up luxury resorts
with heliports, it's a bit of a bust so far. Nobody went.
Beetle denial?
NDP forests critic Bob Simpson points to an alarming new study out
from the University of Northern B.C. last week.
Researchers flying with nets found beetles up to 800 metres in the
air, drifting on currents that would take them over the Rocky
Mountains. While the forests ministry maintains the beetle has been
stopped in the Peace, east of the Rockies, there's more concern now
that it could race across Alberta as it did in B.C. If so, it has a
continuous forest ecosystem all the way to Quebec.
Simpson says the next big federal pine beetle aid package is more
likely to go to Alberta than B.C., because the war is over here.
He also accuses Coleman of failing to understand the true depth of the
beetle problem. At a recent meeting in the Cariboo to present the
latest beetle kill projections and set timber cutting areas, Simpson
asked what age of trees the projections are based on. Sixty years and
up, came the answer, and "everybody in the room started laughing."
The beetle population is not only exploding, it's evolving, even
attacking trees less than 20 years old, he said. And similar bugs are
starting to take off in stands of spruce around Horsefly and Likely,
but the ministry is not yet mapping infestations in spruce, fir or
balsam forests.
Bark beetles are the canaries of climate change.
Money for mayors
When it comes to interface fires, municipalities likely have a bigger
job than provincial parks when it comes to creating firebreaks. It may
be a hot time for government ministers at next month's Union of B.C.
Municipalities convention, as the surplus-heavy B.C. Liberals meet
community leaders who feel they've been left holding the chainsaw.
Tom Fletcher is B.C. bureau reporter for Black Press newspapers.
tfletcher@blackpress.ca
http://www.vicnews.com/portals-code/list.cgi?paper=36&cat=48&id=732150&more=
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Only 970 organising days until the next BC provincial election.
Best regards,
Scott mailto:scott451@gmx.net
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