SAVE the BIGHORN COUNTRY
Seen from the air, the vast extent of clearcutting that has occurred over the last few years in the Sunpine FMA in the West Country. Photo credit: Chris Brunn
"We want to legislatively protect this area as the Bighorn Country. If Calgarians have a Kananaskis Country for their future, it is only fair that we Central Albertans have a Bighorn Country for our future." states Dr. Timothy Grier of the Friends of the West Country.
He points out that two-thirds of Alberta is prairie. Calgary, the closest big city to the Rocky Mountains, has the legislatively protected Kananaskis Country available for its recreational use. Kananaskis also acts as a buffer for Banff National Park. Because the Rocky Mountains veer to the northwest, Edmonton is far from the mountains. But Red Deer, halfway between these two big cities, is only a short 60 miles to Rocky Mountain House, where the mountains come into view.
Rocky Mountain House and the community of Sundre, located 40 miles southwest of Rocky Mountain House, sit on nature's border between the prairies and the forested foothills. This region has long been known as the West Country. Sunpine Forest Product's Forest Management Area begins at these towns, in the closest part of the West Country, and extends west to Forestry Trunk Road. This road separates the productive forest lands to the east and the sensitive, low-productivity, high-elevation forests to the west.
The area between the Forestry Trunk Road and Banff and Jasper National Parks, bounded by the Sheep River watershed and the Red Deer River to the south and the Brazeau River to the north, has been used for years by recreationalists, guides and outfitters. It's called Bighorn Country. This area must have protected area status like Kananaskis County does to the south.
Sunpine is worried that discussions about the fate of the Bighom Country, where they want to expand operations, and their management of their FMA lands in West Country will involve people outside of local communities. They are counting on residents in Rocky Mountain House and Sundre being more concerned with current forestry jobs than protecting recreational and eco-tourism opportunities for the future.
The West Country is world renowned for its world-class pristine trout streams. Photo credit:
But these forest lands belong to all Albertans, including those living in Red Deer. If Sunpine is allowed to continue industrializing and trampling the wilderness values of the West Country, the entire region's scenic values, tourism opportunities and natural biodiversity will be lost forever and the local economy will lose out.
Alberta Government studies reveal that, on a hectare per hectare comparison, Alberta's provincial parks and wilderness areas contribute about the same amount to the economy as do agriculture and forestry. Proposed and existing protected areas within Bighorn Country would contribute about 77.7 million dollars of economic activity annually and around 1,756 person-years of employment. There are at least 30 ecotourism operators, guides and outfitters who already depend on the wildlands of Bighorn Country.
In the year 2020, when the World Bank predicts that most clearcut logging of oldgrowth frontier forest will have ceased (the supply gone), there will be over two billion tourists and a huge international tourist market.
These tourists do not want to visit or spend their money to see clearcuts, oilwell heads and gas flares. They, like most native Albertans, want the opportunity to see a brook trout breaking the surface of a clear mountain stream, glimpse a grizzly bear grazing in an alpine meadow, and enjoy the sight of orchids blooming on a rich oldgrowth forest floor.
The Friends of the West Country and Western Canada Wilderness Committee encourage you to join with us in embracing and making the Bighorn Country a legislated protected area that excludes industrial resource extraction--protecting a treasure for all Albertans, all Canadians, international visitors and future generations. Bighorn Country needs your support now.
"The `West Country' is regarded by residents of Red Deer, as by all Albertans, as an important
recreational, economic and environmental asset in which they have a direct stake"
-Gail Surkan, Mayor of Red Deer
