To The District of Maple Ridge and the Katzie and Kwantlen First Nations:
Please accept this document as the official invited response of Western Canada Wilderness Committee to the call for comment on the future sustainability plan for Blue Mountain being crafted by the District of Maple Ridge, The Katzie and Kwantlen First Nations, and others. The sustainability plan was inspired by the fact the that BC government has offer the Katzie and Kwantlen Nations a forestry license to promote logging on Blue Mountain. The Nations and the District would prefer a community forest license, and the sustainability plan is intended to inform community forest planning.
The Wilderness Committee congratulates the Katzie on Kwantlen Nations for their visionary ideal of creating sustainability/management plans for their territory. The Wilderness Committee feels strongly that economic opportunities that arise from this planning exercise should be directed principally toward generating cultural and spiritual development, employment, and revenue for the Katzie and Kwantlen Nations. W e also feel strongly that if logging activity is decided to be a component of this management plan for Blue Mountain, that such activity occur in a new and revolutionary way using only single tree selection logging and on only a small area of the mountain. This could be a unique opportunity for the Katzie and the Kwantlen to showcase to the world a unique set of smart, visionary, diverse, and sustainable land use practices that are consistent with their ancient cultural and spiritual beliefs.
Andy Miller (staff Scientist), who crafted this response with Joe Foy (National Campaign Director), has particular knowledge of many of the subject areas in this document. Andy has degrees in Wildlife Biology and Forestry. He conducted his MSc in Ecotourism and partially completed his PhD in Ecoforestry at the University of Alberta. He has extensive experience working with First Nations to develop sustainable logging and protected area proposals. Joe Foy has many similar skill sets and has extensive on-the-ground knowledge of Blue Mountain and the surrounding area. The Wilderness Committee has also worked extensively in support of the Blue Mountain – Kanaka Creek Conservation Group and is a supporter of the Katzie and Kwantlen Nations.
We would like to call attention to the fact that Blue Mountain is a long-standing park proposal, the specifics of which can be viewed at www.wildernesscommittee.org. We feel that turning the entirety of Blue Mountain into a multiple use protected area, under the complete and/or co-management of the Katzie and Kwantlen Nations, could generate revenues far exceeding that of logging, and that it would help create a long-term sustainable economy for surrounding communities.
Western Canada Wilderness Committee is Canada’s largest citizen funded environmental organization with over 30,000 current members and 40,000 additional donors. The Wilderness Committee has an extensive local support base in the Maple Ridge area.
