Parks in Trouble
“Multiple use” policies in the past led to multiple abuses of our recreational lands and protected areas. Is this the future for BC Parks?
Photo credit: Foy Family, c. 1978From Allison Lake to Yard Creek our provincial parks are struggling to survive. Below are some of the threats parks face. For more info visit: www.saveourparks.ca
Logging
In April 2004, Premier Gordon Campbell opened up some BC Parks to logging. In part, Campbell’s decision was based on Gary Filmon’s “Firestorm 2003” report which recommended logging in parks as a response to extreme forest fires in 2003. Filmon is the former Manitoba Premier who allowed commercial clearcut logging in vast tracts of Manitoba’s provincial parks, including Duck Mountain where 61% of the park is open to timber extraction. Unfortunately, Campbell’s decision to log in parks is premised on the erroneous notion that logging in parks can stop wildfires and the spread of the mountain pine beetle, which is responsible for some of the dry, dead standing trees in BC’s interior forests.
Mountain pine beetles are indigenous to BC and, like fires, are a natural part of the interior forested ecosystem. Scientists largely attribute the current beetle epidemic to climate change, which has reduced the winter cold “snaps” needed to kill beetle larvae. Mismanagement of forests has further aggravated the situation. Intense reforestation and fire suppression have resulted in over-crowded stands of trees that compete for scarce nutrients, water and light which weakens their defences.
A BC Liberal Government will vigorously defend the Crown’s ownership of provincial land and resources
2001 Election Promise
The catastrophic fire season of 2003 was also attributable to climate change and decades of misguided fire suppression policies that radically altered the landscape of BC’s interior forests — creating dense undergrowth and ground fuel build up all of which contributed significantly to last year’s fire season. Historically, low intensity fires, which typically burn every 5 to 20 years, help to control flammable ground cover and the density of these forests thereby reducing the likelihood of intense fires.
Logging in BC’s parks won’t stop the spread of pine beetles. An area over twice the size of Vancouver Island is already infested, and while logging may reduce the intensity of fires in the drought-stricken interior, it will do far more environmental damage than good. Logging will cause serious harm to our parks through new roads and cutblocks, soil erosion, stream damage, loss of biodiversity, and the destruction of wildlife habitat.
Logging in parks is a short-sighted way to raise funds for our under-funded parks system. It also sets a dangerous precedent to allow commercial logging in BC’s public parks. Already Manning, Silver Star, and Mt. Robson are all slated for logging this year, and Chilko Lake, Tweedsmuir, Wells Gray and a host of other parks are also being eyed.
In early 2004 the BC Liberal government used a legal loophole to log near Cayuse Flats in the Silverdaisy area of the Manning/Skagit Park complex. This is one of the BC government’s designated spotted owl management zones. Hikers visiting the park were shocked to find stumps and logging slash where forests had once stood. Photo credit: WCWC file photo
Controlled burns in our smaller parks and a scientifically guided “let it burn” wildfire policy in our large wilderness parks will help rebalance the situation. To truly remedy the problem the provincial government must tackle global warming.
McParks?
Bill 84, the Parks and Protected Areas Statutes Amendment Act is a deceptively bland piece of legislation. Introduced on November 18, 2003, Bill 84 weakens the BC Park Act on several fronts by giving the minister broad discretionary powers to decide if a tourism development within park boundaries is “consistent with or complementary to the recreation values of the park involved.”(8)
The sweeping nature of this amendment raises concern about the type of developments that a minister could consider consistent with park recreational values. On the slippery slope towards privatization could all-terrain vehicles, motor boats, waterslides or McDonalds be considered complementary to park values?
Disturbingly, the legislation also allows for directional drilling under parks. No provisions or safeguards are made for the potential fragmentation of habitat or the impact on wildlife, nor are there safeguards to mitigate the impact of seismic lines or water contamination from mining tailings.
A final affront are the changes to boundaries of seven provincial parks including the approval of an 11 km oil and gas road in the heart of Graham-Laurier Provincial Park, reducing the park by over 1,000 hectares.
Significant Projects?
If you went out on the street today and asked 100 people if they had heard of the Significant Projects Streamlining Act (SPSA) chances are that 99 would not have. That this far-reaching Act passed so quietly should be of concern to all British Columbians since the SPSA is draconian legislation that enables the cabinet to replace any local, regional or provincial law, without prior notice, if a project is considered “provincially significant.”
Any perceived constraints such as environmental laws and health safeguards can be quashed and the public has no right to challenge the decision.
The implications for parks are ominous; currently the BC Park Act prohibits industrial development within park boundaries. Now logging, mining or hydro developments in parks can be approved through the discretion of a cabinet minister(9).
Running roughshod over local governments and contrary to the basic principles of democratic governance, the legislation takes a chainsaw not only to the integrity of the BC Park Act but to all environmental safeguards across the province.
