CHRONICLE OF STOLTMANN CONFLICT
Centuries-old redcedar in Magic Grove - Sims Valley - summer 1997 Photo credit:
8,000 BP until today - The Squamish Nation, Lil'wat Nation and other First Nations sustainably use the lands and waters of the area now known as the Stoltmann Wilderness.
Mid 1950s - Industrial logging advances into the mid Squamish River Valley.
1961 - BC government grants Tree Farm License (TFL) #38, an exclusive right to cut trees in most of the Squamish Valley, to Empire Mills Ltd. Squamish First Nation was not consulted.
1982 - Weldwood Ltd. buys TFL #38 from Empire Mills. The BC government grants Weldwood a 25-year extension to its license without consulting the Squamish First Nation.
April - 1994 - Randy Stoltmann, well-known writer, conservationist and mountaineer, completes a report advocating the preservation of a 260,000 hectare wilderness area that encompasses the Upper Elaho, Sims, Clendenning (all within TFL #38) and Upper Lillooet Valleys.
May - 1994 - Randy loses his life in a tragic mountaineering accident.
January - 1995 - To commemorate Stoltmann's life and work, WCWC renames his last wilderness proposal the Stoltmann Wilderness and vows to protect it.
February - 1995 - International Forest Products Ltd. (Interfor) buys TFL #38 from Weldwood. WCWC protests the sale because it increases corporate concentration in the coastal forest industry and asks that the Stoltmann area be removed from the license. The B.C. government allows the license transfer to Interfor without consulting the Squamish First Nation.
July - 1995 - With Squamish First Nation permission, WCWC begins surveying a hiking trail route in the Upper Elaho Valley. WCWC volunteers discover spectacular groves of ancient Douglas fir and redcedar (the finest remaining in the Lower Mainland) and the "Elaho Giant" a Douglas fir with the third largest circumference ever reported for its species in Canada.
October - 1996 - After a secretive parks planning process during which no public meetings were held to get public input nor First Nations consulted, BC's NDP government announces it will protect only 20 percent of the Stoltmann Wilderness, most of it rock, ice and scrub. The lush rainforest of the Upper Elaho Valley is to be logged. WCWC vows to fight on.
November - 1996 - Volunteers finish WCWC's 30 km. Elaho to Meager Hiking Trail. The route takes hikers through groves of ancient trees, up to a lake-studded alpine plateau then down to the Meager Hotsprings for a relaxing steaming soak at the end of the three day journey.
May - 1997 - With Squamish First Nation permission, WCWC sets up a rainforest research station at Lava Creek in the Upper Elaho Valley. The station is funded through artwork generously donated by local sculptors and painters and sold at a WCWC auction.
Interfor felled it and the rest of Magic Grove in October 1997 Photo credit:
July - 1997 - For six weeks Interfor loggers blockade the only road into the Stoltmann Wilderness, preventing WCWC access. Interfor crews begin aggressive clearcut logging operations. RCMP refuse to remove the blockade. WCWC takes the RCMP to court.
August - 1997 - On the day the judge is to rule, the loggers remove their blockade and abort the judgment because the case is moot. Behind the loggers blockage, Interfor clearcuts the spectacular firs and cedars of Sundown Grove and the beginning of WCWC's trail. A ring-count of one fir stump shows that the tree was 1,150 years old when it was cut down. "Persons unknown" dismantle and steal WCWC's research camp from deep in the wilderness, removing it by helicopter and dumping it at the RCMP station in Squamish. RCMP never lay charges.
September - 1997 - WCWC volunteers clear a new trail entranceway and volunteers pack the research station back into Lava Creek piece-by-piece.
October - 1997 - Interfor loggers cut down Magic Grove in the Sims Valley. Ring-counts of redcedar stumps reveal some trees were 800 years old when cut (see article page 5 about bear denning tree).
November - 1997 - Interfor cuts a logging road through Grizzly Grove, a beautiful stand of redcedar trees on the west side of the Elaho.
January - 1998 - WCWC doubles the size of its proposed Stoltmann Wilderness protected area to 500,000 hectares and calls for National Park Reserve status and Federal Government- First Nations co-management agreement pending settlement of native land claims. New areas of the expanded Stoltmann park proposal include the Pemberton Icecap, Soo River Valley and the Upper Bridge River Valley. Some conservationists now call it "Whistler's Wilderness".
July - 1998 - Interfor cuts down most of Grizzly Grove, leaving only a small fragmented cluster of trees. Growth rings reveal the grove's redcedars to be about 800 years old when cut.
September - 1998 - With Squamish First Nation permission, WCWC contracts two biologists, Cam McTavish and Wayne McCrory, to survey the Upper Elaho Valley for grizzly bear habitat. Their report says the Elaho is home to a small and threatened population of grizzlies. They recommend an immediate halt to further logging and roadbuilding until the government develops and implements a grizzly bear conservation plan.
November - 1998 - Interfor cuts down Serenity Grove, a beautiful stand of thousand-year-old Douglas fir trees just south of Lava Creek obliterating a section of WCWC's hiking trail.
July - 1999 - Interfor's road builders reach the Lava Creek canyon and begin constructing a bridge across it, which puts Lava Grove, a magnificent stand of ancient Douglas fir trees, at immediate risk. WCWC uses its research station at Lava Creek as a "Millennial Tree Research Camp" for volunteers to document the area's big old trees. A core sample from one Douglas firs reveals it to be about 1,300 years old - amongst the oldest living trees of their kind!
August - 1999 - Upset by seeing grove after grove of ancient trees fall, several environmental activist groups, including PATH (People's Action For Threatened Habitat), FAN (Forest Action Network) and FOE (Friends of the Elaho), begin a civil disobedience campaign by peacefully blocking the road builders. Twelve people are arrested and charged with Contempt of Court for defying a court order not to interfere with Interfor's logging road building.
By November a muddy logging road has obliterated all signs of the ancient tree. Photo credit:
September - 1999 - A mob of about 70 loggers beats up eight environmentalists camped in the Upper Elaho Valley. One of those assaulted is WCWC's Millennium Camp Coordinator, James Jamieson. A civil suit is launched against Interfor and the men involved in the attack.
October - 1999 - Liberal Member of Parliament Charles Caccia defends his Private Members' Bill C-236, an Act to amend the National Parks Act (Stoltmann National Park), in the House Commons. The bill is hotly debated, with Reform Party MP John Reynolds its harshest critic. Bill C-236 dies without a vote, as is customary for Private Members' Bills.
November - 1999 - Interior completes roadbuilding north of Lava Creek and shuts down work for the winter. WCWC closes its Millennial Tree Camp as snow is too deep for travel.
February - 2000 - Squamish Crown Council lays criminal charges against five Squamish area men in relation to the September attack on conservationists in the Upper Elaho.
April - 2000 - Interfor holds its Annual General Meeting for the first time outside of Vancouver, in the Squamish Nation Totem Hall in Squamish, BC. There, Interfor's CEO Duncan Davies announces his company wants to talk to all groups in an effort to resolve the Elaho conflict. Davies promises a temporary hold on logging North of Lava Creek to allow for talks to occur.
May - 2000 - Interfor does an about-face and announces they will begin logging the
ancient forest north of Lava Creek. WCWC calls on conservation groups worldwide to mount a "Boycott
Interfor" campaign. WCWC volunteers move back into the Millennium Tree Camp at Lava Creek. Four
environmentalists involved in the 1999 blockades plead guilty to civil contempt of court charges
and receive 21 to 51 day jail terms-- the longest such charge ever handed out in B.C. The trial
continues for eight remaining environmentalists who plead not guilty.
- Betty Krawczyk, a 71 year-old great-grandmother, already facing charges stemming from the 1999
Elaho blockades but compelled to protest the loggers' violence and continue her efforts to save
the Stoltmann Wilderness, is once again arrested for standing on the logging road and defying the
court order not to interfere with Interfor's logging operation.
June - 2000 - Justice Vickers of the BC Supreme Court, based on evidence presented by
Sierra Legal Defence Fund Lawyer Angela McCue acting on WCWC's behalf, strikes down the 1999
court-ordered injunction granted to Interfor that resulted in the arrest of a dozen
environmentalists. In a strongly worded judgement Justice Vickers, referring to the beating up of
environmentalists by loggers and the lying and destruction of evidence by Interfor employees, says,
"The court must denounce vigilante actions, misrepresentations and lies in the strongest possible
way".
- Interfor begins logging north of Lava Creek in cutblock 102-51. FOE (Friends of Elaho) activists
peacefully stand in the way of the loggers and halt logging.
- Betty Krawczyk receives a jail sentence of 67 days (a new BC record) for her second blockade
despite the fact that the court order under which she was arrested had been struck down. The trial
concerning her first arrest continues.
- WCWC launches its 12-day "Wedge to the Ledge" trek. Six volunteers use two wheel barrows and a
32 ft. voyageur canoe to transport two large wedges left as waste-wood from 1000-year-old trees in
Interfor clearcuts in the Upper Elaho and Sims Creek valleys to the Victoria Legislature, 260 km
away. Along the way, the Wedge Trekkers meet with Forest Service officials, the Mayor of Squamish
and, finally, in front of the Legislature with BC Forest Minister. But Premier Dosanjh refuses to
meet and discuss the fate of the Stoltmann Wilderness.
- BC Ministry of Environment confirms a photo taken in the Upper Elaho is a spotted owl - an
endangered species. They also confirm a nesting pair of northern goshawks with chicks in approved
cutblock 102-51north of Lava Creek.
July - 2000 - Interfor gets a court order against environmental protesters interfering with its logging of cutblocks 102-51 and 102-52. Justice Pitfield orders Interior to not log around the goshawk nest until after September 1. A large RCMP contingent moves into the Upper Elaho Valley. Friends of the Elaho continue actions to block logging. RCMP arrest four "tree sitting" protesters. RCMP maintain permanent encampment at Lava Creek supplied by twice daily helicopter trips. Interfor begins aggressive logging north of Lava Creek. Conservationists report hearing spotted owls but, as logging progresses, the owls cease their nightly calls.
August - 2000 - One Whistler, a local business and government organization, releases an
economic study prepared by Grant Thornton International. The study looks at the economic benefits
of a Stoltmann park and says that up to 730 jobs could be produced through the "preservation and
tourism" use of the Stoltmann - far more jobs than in logging it.
- The B.C. Council of Tourism Associations invites government, First Nations, conservationists,
Interfor and tourism representatives to meet in September to try to reach a negotiated settlement
regarding the Stoltmann Wilderness.
