Canada's foremost national park candidate under attack
Nowhere in Canada is there a national park candidate of greater qualifications than Whistler's wilderness, the 500,000 hectare proposed Stoltmann National Park. No other National Park candidate is undergoing such a brutal assault as this one is from clearcut logging.
The Stoltmann Wilderness encompasses the largest valley-bottom ancient rainforest in the southern region of the Coast Mountains. Its diverse habitat sustains the most southerly grizzly bear and moose populations on the Pacific coast of North America.
This park candidate's breathtakingly scenic mountains and valleys already have several spectacular multi-day hiking trails. It borders on Whistler, the most successful year-round resort community in North America, Canada's candidate to host the 2010 Winter Olympics.
Whistler's Village Council has applied to the Provincial Government for a Community Forest Tenure (CFT) over the forests surrounding the village. WCWC supports Whistler's proposal because the CFT would provide a locally-controlled buffer to the proposed National Park. Community control of the forests immediately adjacent to the Village would protect Whistler's water supply, and would generate more local jobs from tourism and woodworking than are currently being generated. As an example, Whistler would be in a position to set up a local log market where logs cut in the CFT would be offered to the highest bidder, garnering greater revenue for the community and attracting labour-intensive value-added wood products manufactures.
In stark contrast to Whistlers proposed CFT is Interfor's Tree Farm License 38 (TFL). Interfor has the right to log 250,000 cubic meters of timber per year or about 7,150 logging truck loads from this TFL which comprises nearly the entire Squamish River watershed. The local community of Squamish has no say in how the TFL is managed or where the timber is manufactured. As a result, trees cut there are manufactured into lumber outside Squamish. In addition, Interfor does not competitively bid for the right to cut timber and none of the direct profits from the sale of the logs goes to the local community of Squamish.
Clearly, a combination of Community Forest Tenures and National Park designation will create more jobs and revenue in the tourism and timber industries than does the out-dated system of forestry corporation-held TFLs.
The Stoltmann Wilderness is only a three hour drive from Vancouver, a city that consistently ranks in the world-wide top ten tourism destinations. Vancouver's,International Airport is a key gateway to North America from Asia. Vancouver's cruise ship facility is the largest on the Pacific coast of North America.
No other national park candidate has as high conservation, recreation or tourism values as does Whistler's Wilderness - the proposed Stoltmann National Park. Yet Interfor, under a license issued by B.C.'s provincial government, continues to relentlessly deface more and more of this priceless national treasure.
A NATIONAL PARK NEAR WHISTLER WILL CREATE MANY NEW JOBS AND GREAT WEALTH
Theoretically, logging the Stoltmann Wilderness supports about 30 local logging jobs -- at least until the big trees run out. In comparison, according to a study sponsored by the Banff/Lake Louise Chamber of Commerce, a National Park there creates an economic bonanza of tourism dollars and jobs. This 1990/91 study revealed that Banff National Park generates a whopping $614 million per year for the local economy!
The federal government could easily compensate Interfor for its logging rights in the Stoltmann --estimated to be 60,000 m3 per year or about 1,700 logging truck loads of logs. Based on past compensation deals, including the recent average cash compensation value of foregone logging rights to establish parks on Vancouver Island, Interfor's cutting rights within the proposed Stoltmann National Park could be purchased by the federal government for less than $10 million.
Failure to create the National Park means a tremendous loss of economic opportunity that far, far outweighs the short term profits that a few gain from the logging of this potential "golden tourism-egg-laying goose"!
