Clearcutting has already begun In part of the Bighorn Country west of Forestry Trunk Road. All of this area is a high-elevation sensitive site that must be off-limits to logging and other Industrial developments. Photo credit: Chris Brunn
THE WEST COUNTRY -PARADISE BEING LOST
Ten years ago, when we first began hearing rumours about a massive forestry project coming to Rocky Mountain House and the West Country, no one even vaguely imagined what was in store for our community and our forests. Our municipal councillors assured us there was nothing to worry about and even denied that a mega-mill was planned for our doorstep. This set the stage for the next ten years of deceit, abuse of public trust and destruction of our natural environment. The Sunpine saga began.
Local residents, unwilling to sacrifice their quality of life, health and safety, began a four-year-long battle to stop the building of a new mill near their homes. We spent tens of thousands of dollars on a court case. There were appeal board hearings, public meetings, demonstrations and petitions. In every case, the public overwhelmingly rejected the proposed mill site. Finally, with our legal appeal pending, the provincial government and Sunpine decided to change the mill's proposed location. The site may have been better, but the company's logging plans still stank!
Then, Sunpine proposed to build a mainline logging road through the heart of our treasured West Country. Over the next two years, government and industry representatives continued to deceive and mislead us. We were first assured by Sunpine and the municipality that the mainline logging road was only a vague concept. During one tense meeting they claimed that it would never be built if there was public concern. The next day we learned that Sunpine had already applied for stage one approval of the road.
Outraged, we demanded a public process. Local circulation of a petition garnered over 300 signatures in opposition to this road. Fewer than 10 people supported it. Then Minister of Alberta Environmental Protection, Ty Lund's, own professional foresters and biologists said that "there was no need for the road" and that there were "viable alternatives to it" which would cause a minimum of environmental damage instead of the "horrendous and ongoing damage" the proposed mainline road would cause.
Despite the overwhelming public and professional opposition, it continued to be business as usual. The Forestry Superintendent in Rocky Mountain House approved the road, and then retired. He resurfaced as Ty Lund's campaign organizer and was rewarded with an appointment to the Alberta Natural Resources Conservation Board, which rules on critical environmental issues for the entire province.
In winter the West Country's wild forests are a beautifulsight to behold Photo credit: Chris Brunn
Two reviews of this road decision (in court and by the Provincial Ombudsman) confirmed that the process regarding its approval was seriously flawed and grossly inadequate. Now, four years after the road has been built, the courts are forcing the government and Sunpine to do the proper environmental assessments...but too late for remedial actions to repair much of the damage already done.
When, in 1992, the government signed over the West Country to Sunpine Forest Products to be clearcut, it guaranteed in law that the West Country's prime value, as far as government was concerned, was "timber production." Every other resource value provided by the forest takes second place to fibre production. We now have an industrial tree farm. The Friends of the West Country have taken hundreds of photographs of the ongoing clearcut destruction. We have worked tirelessly to show the massive environmental, economic and social abuses this Forest Management Area (FMA) designation has generated.
When the original FMA was signed in 1992 the annual allowable cut in the region was less than 350,000 cubic metres (about 10,000 truck loads a year). Even then, the sustainability of this level of cut was questioned. But this wasn't enough for greedy Sunpine and its government supporters. First, in 1995, without any public review or input from the forestry officials in Rocky Mountain House, Minister Lund granted Sunpine an additional 60,000 or so hectares of public land to be clearcut. Then he almost tripled the cut to 1,200,000 cubic metres annually and made the increase retroactive for four years, all without any public review!
Today Sunpine is still not satisfied. It wants more land to clearcut. Sunpine has already begun to log west of Forestry Trunk Road and, we've learned, has secret plans to clearcut up to the Banff National Park boundary. If they are not stopped, nothing will be left!
Without massive public opposition the Bighorn Country, where Sunpine is greedily expanding, and the West Country as a whole are doomed. The Alberta government and the forest industry see our forests only as sources of fibre and predict that as industry moves into more intensive forest management, production will increase 30 to 50 percent province-wide. Is this the legacy we Albertans want to leave our children?
- Steve Haupt, President of Friends of the West Country
