Mt. Elphinstone: a history of people in conflict with government policy
1983 Logging on Mt. Elphinstone causes disastrous flooding in neighbouring residential area during heavy rains.
1985 B.C. Ministry of Forests (MoF) sets up a short-lived Elphinstone Local Resource Use Plan (LRUP) process that excludes community involvement. MoF continues to issue logging permits on Mt. Elphinstone.
1990 MoF plans to spray herbicides in clearcuts within Mt. Elphinstone domestic watersheds. Local residents successfully blockade the attempt.
Mt. Elphinstone produces pure water.
1991 MoF resurrects the Elphinstone LRUP process. MoF refuses to participate in public meetings. Community members form a Concerned Coast Residents group and submit a silviculture plan to the LRUP. MoF rejects their proposal and continues to allow industrial logging on Mt. Elphinstone.
1992 MoF opens the LRUP process to local input and makes assurances "that nothing will happen" without the "sanction" of the LRUP committee.
1993 MoF advertises Mt. Elphinstone cut blocks and continues to allow road-building and logging without LRUP committee support.
1993 MoF places arsenic-treated structures in Flume Creek—the source of water for more than thirty licenced water users in the Elphinstone area.
1994 Concerned Coast Residents, Elphinstone Electors, Roberts Creek Community Association and Forest Watch members re-state their concerns regarding clean water, biodiversity and sustainable jobs to the LRUP committee. MoF allows huge clearcuts (two square kilometers) on Mt. Elphinstone.
1995 Western Canada Wilderness Committee (WCWC) publishes and distributes 20,000 copies of an Educational Report outlining the Elphinstone Forest Watch eco-forestry proposal. MoF continues to allow industrial logging on Mt. Elphinstone.
1996 B.C. Government establishes another planning process, the Lower Mainland Protected Area Strategy (PAS). Government's hand-picked PAS committee meets behind closed doors and refuses to hold public hearings. B.C. Federation of Naturalists submit a proposal to PAS calling for the protection of 1,500 hectares on Mt. Elphinstone based on the area's high biological values. PAS recommends to the B.C. Government protection for only three small patches (140 hectares) of the biologically rich Mt. Elpinstone forest. Just prior to a provincial election, the NDP Government announces this tiny 140 ha park and commits to establishing a Sunshine Coast Local Resources Management Plan (LRMP) process to resolve other land issues.
1996 The NDP win the provincial election. No Sunshine Coast LRMP is established. MoF allows logging of an area on Mt. Elphinstone that was the world's best habitat for a critically imperiled species of mushroom, Tricholoma apium.
1996 Two capacity-crowd public meetings, sponsored by Concerned Coast Residents, endorse a report by the Elphinstone Plan Committee calling for no logging and no new roads in a 1,500 hectare proposed protected area on Mt. Elphinstone. Endorsers include Elphinstone Electors, Roberts Creek Community Assn., SCRD Regional Directors from Areas D, E, F and the Sechelt Indian Band, Concerned Coast Residents, Forest Watch, Elphinstone Living Forest, Tapwater Coalition and Granthams Landing Water Improvement District.
1997 Concerned Coast Residents meet with local MLA Gordon Wilson and the Forest Minister urging increased protection of Mt. Elphinstone, better forest management and a more fair public planning process. Still no Sunshine Coast LRMP is established. Government hires consultants who review the Elphinstone LRUP process and recommend major changes. MoF rejects the recommendations, shuts down the LRUP and unilaterally produces a plan that calls for logging all of Mt. Elphinstone's provincial forest lands and replacing the existing forest with fibre plantations.
1998 Logging continues on Mt. Elphinstone. Still no LRMP.
1999 Ministry of Transportation and Highways punches an excavation road four meters wide and one km. long into the 140 ha. Mt. Elphinstone protected area to a gravel test pit. Logging continues on Mt. Elphinstone. Still no LRMP.
1999 MoF approves a 1.5 kilometer long road into a key habitat area within the 1,500 hectare proposed Elphinstone park. Concerned citizens form a new group, Elphinstone Defense Coalition, and blockade the building of the new logging road on Mt. Elphinstone for five intense weeks.
2000 MoF continue with its management plan for the 8,000 hectare Mt. Elphinstone area that includes logging and road-building operations inside the proposed park area. Elphinstone Living Forest holds well-attended public meeting and re-dedicates its efforts to achieving an ecoforestry-based community forest tenure on Mt. Elphinstone and a 1,500 ha Mt. Elphinstone Class A Provincial Park.
"Our friends, neighbours and relatives are forest industry workers. We don 't want to fight with
them. We want to protect our homes, our families and the quality of life that we all enjoy, which
includes our environment 's diversity of living things. This is not an argument between people, it
is a conflict between people and the policies and practices of the provincial government."
- Member of Mt. Elphinstone Living Forest
