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Children’s Educational Forest on Haida Gwaii (Queen Charlotte Islands) Threatened by TimberWest Forest Corp’s Logging Plans

Jan 14 2016/in Announcements

Here is a media release and action alert from the Mount Moresby Adventure Camp on Haida Gwaii, where a forest that is central as a learning centre for the children and youth of Haida Gwaii is threatened by planned logging by TimberWest (whose managing agent for their Forestry Licence there is Teal-Jones):

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Children’s Educational Forest on Haida Gwaii (Queen Charlotte Islands) Threatened by TimberWest Forest Corp.’s Logging Plans

The BC government is one step away from approving a permit allowing Teal-Jones, a Surrey based logging company, to log a 16 hectare area on behalf of TimberWest Forest Corp. It is an area that more than 1,300 Haida Gwaii students have used for 10 years as an outdoor classroom to learn about the natural sciences, outdoor education, leadership, and forest stewardship.

The Mount Moresby Adventure Camp Society programs are part of the school curriculum in the Haida Gwaii School District, and most youth on the islands attend the camp’s Outdoor Education and week-long Forest Stewardship Programs. Local educators and parents are calling on the province to halt the logging plans that would be devastating for the future of the most highly used outdoor education facility for youth on Haida Gwaii.

Angus Wilson, Superintendent of Schools, explains the importance of this outdoor classroom to the youth of Haida Gwaii: “Mount Moresby Adventure Camp has been an integral part of the curriculum for all School District 50 learners. So important, in fact, that students return to it several times in their career for the combination of scientific, cultural, physical and social learning that it provides. To lose this safe, organised, and just plain fun resource would be a deathblow to Haida Gwaii student’s outdoor education opportunities.”

Dave McLean, a high school teacher in Masset says, “Students have told me that it [the camp] was one of the most significant, most defining events that happened in their high school years.”

“We live in a resource-based community, and we are supportive of the logging industry,” explains Toby Sanmiya, executive director for the camp. “We have a good relationship with Taan Forest, a local Haida-owned logging company, and we collaborate with them to deliver forest stewardship programs to our youth. We aren’t trying to stop logging, we are just asking them [TimberWest] to relocate this one cutblock.”

“The outdoor classroom that is the forest next to Mt. Moresby Camp is one of the few advantages our isolated schools have compared to schools with access to science centres, museums and industry tours,” explains Lorrie Joron, teacher, and former principal at George M Dawson Secondary. “They need this hands-on real-life experience.”

Speak up for the youth of Haida Gwaii and for this integral part of our islands!

Send an email to:

Honorable Steve Thompson, BC Minister of Forests, Lands, and Natural Resource Operations: steve.thomson.mla@leg.bc.ca

Cc your email to:

Honorable Christy Clark, BC Premier: premier@gov.bc.ca

Honorable Mary Polack, BC Minister of Environment: mary.polak.mla@leg.bc.ca

John Horgan, NDP Opposition Leader: oppositionleader@leg.bc.ca

Harry Bains, Opposition Critic for Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations: harry.bains.mla@leg.bc.ca

Jennifer Rice, MLA for the North Coast constituency: jennifer.rice.mla@leg.bc.ca

Please tell the above politicians that you want them to commit to:

Preserve this vital part of outdoor education for the youth of Haida Gwaii
Not approve the cutting permit for this one 16 ha cutblock.
Relocate TimberWest’s cutblock to an area of equivalent timber value

***Be sure to include your full name and your home mailing address so they know you’re a real person! Thank you!

For more information, contact Mount Moresby Adventure Camp at:

Toby Sanmiya (250) 626-9048

Old Growth Walbran – Shaw TV Victoria

Jan 10 2016/in News Coverage

Check out the news report by Shaw TV on the endangered Central Walbran Valley! TJ Watt and Ken Wu from the Ancient Forest Alliance talk about their goal of legislation to protect all of BC's endangered old-growth forests and to ensure a sustainable second-growth forest industry, and Dan Hager of the Port Renfrew Chamber of Commerce talks about the local business community's interest in seeing the Central Walbran protected for tourism.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N29hAzW4zJQ

BC Hydro orders protestors off land near Site C dam

Jan 9 2016/in News Coverage

FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. – Members of a small but defiant group are pledging to keep protesting the Site C hydroelectric project in northeastern British Columbia, despite being ordered off the land.

They set up a camp on Dec. 31, when BC Hydro and Power Authority issued an eviction notice while pressing ahead with land clearing for the controversial $9-billion dam.

The Crown corporation gave protesters 24 hours to leave the area known as Rocky Mountain Fort, on the south bank of the Peace River, just a few kilometres south of Fort St. John.

It warned that BC Hydro personnel will remove all contents of the camp and deliver it to RCMP but such action had not been taken by Monday afternoon.

Verena Hofmann, a Peace River Valley resident who was at the encampment over the weekend, said contractors appear ready to begin logging a three-kilometre region that is First Nations territory.

“We've just heard that equipment has started up. It looks like they are intending to keep on cutting,” she said on the phone from Fort St. John. “Treaty 8 First Nation people are holding their ground and are not moving from the site, so things are intensifying and changing quickly.”

Hofmann said demonstrators believe BC Hydro has no right to force them off the land in the midst of ongoing legal challenges involving Site C.

Several court cases raise major concerns about the potential impact of flooding from the creation of a new lake on the Peace River and the surrounding valley during construction of the dam.

She said upward of about five people at a time are occupying the west side of the mouth of the Moberly River in rotating shifts. First Nations people and other landowners are staying in a small cabin that was flown to the bank, as well as a hunting tent, she said.

It takes about 30 minutes to walk or less by snow machine to reach an area where contractors are set up, she said.

“There is no physical structure blockading BC Hydro's construction, it's individual people approaching them and reasonably and respectfully pleading with them to cease construction.”

Local people are trying to protect the land – significant because it contains swaths of old-growth boreal forest – until court proceedings run their full course, Hofmann said.

She said the group has asked that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau reassess the environmental approval granted for the project by the former Conservative government, in conjunction with the B.C. government.

A spokesman for Site C project said the utility will continue to monitor the situation and is evaluating “all options.”

“BC Hydro respects the right of all individuals to peacefully protest and express their opinions about Site C in a safe and lawful manner,” Craig Fitzsimmons, the manager of communications and issues management, said in an email.

“We are hopeful this can be resolved. We are in discussions with the protesters and local authorities to allow us to resume construction activities.”

The Rocky Mountain Fort was established in 1794 by the North West Company as a fur trading post and is the site of the earliest settler post in mainland B.C.

The dam will be the third on the Peace River, creating an 83-kilometre-long reservoir that's slated to power up to 450,000 homes a year.

BC Hydro announced in mid-December that a consortium of three companies will be paid about $1.75 billion to build the largest components of the Site C development over the next eight years.