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Cathedral Grove
The whole story here
Cathedralgrove.se or here
Cathedralgrove.com
Weyerhaeuser
would never log Cathedral Grove! Would they?
Please help to seal the deal to protect Cathedral Grove. The
public has been working hard for the past 7 years to protect the sensitive
ecosystem from the very people who are supposed to protect it, mainly BC
Parks. No parking lot has been built to date due to the persistence of many
people locally, provincially, nationally, and internationally. A two-year
camp and tree-sit prevented destruction but the government may still move to
build their parking lot. So please help build some pressure for a final
stance.
CATHEDRAL GROVE’S FUTURE STILL IN QUESTION
By Richard Boyce
May 2, 2007
For the second time BC Minister of Environment, Barry Penner, announced in
the Legislature that Cathedral Grove Provincial Park has been expanded.
However, the numbers do not add up! Penner stated that the original park was
136 hectares. The addition, with the inclusion of land purchased by Nature
Trust, is 144 hectares. Penner concluded that a total of 301 hectares is now
protected as a class “A” provincial park.
Doing the math you will realize that the old and new add up to 280 hectares,
which leaves 21 hectares unaccounted for out of 301 hectares. It just so
happens that 21 hectares is the size of the piece of land that was purchased
by BC Parks to build a parking lot. This piece of land was excluded from
the protection provide by the BC Parks act and has been the center of public
contention for its protection. In the fall of 2005 Minister Penner
announced that he had postponed plans to build a parking lot at that
location.
I have been in touch with the Minister’s office several times since this
recent announcement but the public relations people cannot seem to come up
with an answer for my simple questions about the numbers of hectares. They
do not have an answer to the question; “Will a parking lot be built in
Cathedral Grove Park?” Scott Fraser, MLA for Alberni-Qualicum, will raise
these questions in the legislative assembly while the government meets in
Victoria.
Flanking Cathedral Grove to the south and east, the Cameron valley has been
entirely logged leaving behind a large farm of small trees which has been,
protected by the recent park expansion. However, a large stand of giant old
growth Douglas fir trees that grows between the highway and railway and
cliffs to the west is scheduled for logging by Island Timberlands. A wide
logging road has already been pushed into this pristine forest and
helicopter logging dump sites have been prepared and are ready to extract
the old growth trees on the slopes above. In the past few years heavy
logging has decimated the forest on the tops of these slopes above Cathedral
Grove.
Due south of the park I walked high above the Cameron River, along the top
of the cliff that drops off into Cathedral Canyon. Looking down upon the
tops of ancient Fir and Cedar trees reaching for the light I could see their
branches adorned with a multitude of lichens, their trunks covered with
moss, and the tiny gardens of ferns crown this lush canopy. This is an old
growth forest in every respect with trees of multi-ages, multi species, and
multi-heights. These trees flourish on the rich soil deposits that have
settled between the massive stone boulders that have been carved off the
cliffs by the constant flow of the river that has flowed here since the last
ice age.
Ribbons have been run through the tree farm that grows along the hill that
rises above the steep cliffs of the Cathedral Canyon. It is apparent that
Island Timberlands plans to build roads to access key points along the top
of the cliffs to allow for log dumps. These sites will allow helicopters to
fly the old growth trees out of the Canyon to be loaded onto logging trucks.
Alberni-Qualicum MLA Scott Fraser E-mail: scott.fraser.mla@leg.bc.ca Office:
Room 201 Parliament Buildings Victoria, BC V8V 1X4 Phone: 250 387-3655 Fax:
250 387-4680 Honourable Barry Penner Minister of Environment and Minister
responsible for Water Stewardship and Sustainable Communities Phone: (250)
387-1187 Fax: (250) 387-1356 PO Box 9047 STN PROV GOVT Victoria BC V8W 9E2
E-mail: env.minister@gov.bc.ca
MORE INFORMATION ABOUT PROTECTION
Actually, a provincial park isn’t about protecting the environment its about
recreation for people and providing access to public space.
SUMMARY OF PARK AND PROTECTED AREA DESIGNATIONS
“A Class A park is Crown land designated under the Park Act or by the
Protected Areas of British Columbia Act whose management and development is
constrained by the Park Act. Sections 8 and 9 of the Park Act are the most
pertinent in this regard, and direct that a park use permit must not be
issued respecting an interest in land or natural resources “unless, in the
opinion of the minister, to do so is necessary to preserve or maintain the
recreational values of the park involved.”
In terms of protecting the environment, a step up from the status of a
provincial park is protection under The Ecological Reserve Act
“The purpose of this Act is to reserve Crown land for ecological purposes,
including the following areas: (a) areas suitable for scientific research
and educational purposes associated with studies in productivity and other
aspects of the natural environment; (b) areas that are representative
examples of natural ecosystems in British Columbia; (c) areas that serve as
examples of ecosystems that have been modified by human beings and offer an
opportunity to study the recovery of the natural ecosystem from
modification; (d) areas where rare or endangered native plants and animals
in their natural habitat may be preserved; (e) areas that contain unique and
rare examples of botanical, zoological or geological phenomena.”
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