New hope for saving the Stein
South Western B.C.'s last major wilderness valley
After a meeting with the Lytton and Mt. Currie bands on Feb. 4, Dave Parker, minister of forests is recommending to cabinet that a seven month Stein "study period" take place.
The five hour meeting with Parker was open to the media for the first few hours. The forest minister said the media made it a "zoo." Progress came during the afternoon in closed sessions when Parker accepted the band's request for a logging moratorium. During the proposed seven month study period, there will be a search for alternatives to logging.
At the meeting the bands said that they would be willing to "develop the Stein... but not with logging or roads." The bands contended that if conservation measures were taken at the mills and in the clearcuts throughout the rest of the timber supply area, the extra wood would make up for the Stein timber.
The proposed study period will give time to substantiate a realistic economic alternative to logging the Stein. It will also provide a cooling down period in what is now a hot controversy.
During the meeting with the bands, the minister also indicated that the government would respect the report of the government-appointed Wilderness Advisory Committee which, almost two years ago, recommended that no road be built in the Stein Canyon without a formal agreement with the Lytton Band.
When asked point blank by a reporter in a press conference after the Feb. 4 meeting, "Are you willing to make a commitment that there will be no road in there without some kind of an understanding, a formal understanding, with the Lytton and Mt. Currie people?" Parker responded, "that's basically the point. I guess, if you will pardon the pun, that's the road we are on... The Stein was indicated today to have a number of historic, economic and spiritual values to the Lytton Band and I think, in the context of the future, it should continue to do so."
Six months ago the B.C. government made an announcement that the Stein would be logged, the road bulldozed up the Stein Canyon against all opposition. But the opposition grew until the Stein has taken on the same provincial and national importance as South Moresby did just before it was protected.
The "Save the Stein fight" however still has an urgency since the B.C. government has a history of provoking confrontation and reversing its decisions. South Moresby was saved and compromised several times before the final decision to establish the National Park Reserve. It was only continued letters and public pressure that won the day for conservation.
