Schedule a lands east of E&N land grant North & South of Port Alberni.

Reasons not to remove these lands from TFL:

• These lands have extremely high UWR (Ungulate Winter Range) values and other wildlife values (UWR areas should be removed from negotiations).
• Government has long recognized the superior quality and productivity of Blacktail Deer habitat in the central mountainous areas of Southern V.I.
• This high quality dry Douglas Fir-Hem, South facing slope Deer Winter Range habitat, has been liquidated on all private forest land on the South Island (lands not in a TFL)
• 9 years of study by I.W.I.F.R. have proven the need for UWR. Yet MB has logged the study areas used by I.W.I.F.R. with full knowledge of how critical these areas are.
• These lands have been managed by Crown for over 20 years to protect critical wildlife habitat. All this work, and wildlife homes will be lost if TFL restrictions are removed.
• The public has used these lands for recreation for over 20 years. Most people assume they are crown lands.
• These lands contain high value recreation areas.
  Many lakes some of which are on crown land, surrounded by private lands, (Labour Day lake &Father Son Lake). These lands are very important to people for:

1. Alpine Mt. hiking areas
2. Cameron Valley has extremely high use by snowmobiler’s
3. Fishing, hunting, and outdoor use
4. Mushroom, Salal picking is a common use of these lands
5. Access to south end of Strathcona Park is through these private lands.

• These lands also contain habitat of the Vancouver Island Marmot. (TFL removal would hinder inventory, and relocation projects)
• There are 3 known nest sites (7 known nests) of Red listed Queen Charlotte Goshawk. Many years of inventory and monitoring of these birds has been done on these lands.
• These lands contain unprotected forest ecosystems not found on Vancouver Island Crown Land. i.e. Rare East Coast Douglas Fir ecosystem.
• These lands contain at least 5 community watersheds:

1. China Cr.
2. Rogers Cr.
3. Cold Cr., Lacy Lake
4. Cameron R.
5. Stamp R.

• Many other forms of wildlife have their habitat needs protected indirectly by the protection of U.W.R. Many of these species we have not yet recognized as being important. This makes UWR doubly important.
• These lands also contain high value fish streams. The Stamp R., Ash R., systems alone have been identified as one of the most productive systems on Vancouver Island.

This page was last updated on Thursday, August 17, 2006 18:10.
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