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How you can help protect Glade
water sources & Updates
Stewardship is sacrificing in the present to protect the future.
Herb Hammond, Forest Ecologist
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UPDATE: A Forest Practices Board Complaint Investigation is underway (October 2018):
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AND: We proceed with Legal Action!
In an effort to be heard, the Glade Watershed Protection Society (GWPS) has filed court documents which were served to Atco Wood Products, Kalesnikoff Lumber Company, and the Interior Health Authority Tuesday January 22, 2019: these court documents are an application for injunctive relief and it is scheduled to be heard on February 4, 2019. The injunctive relief is a request that logging be legally deferred until the Judicial Review of the IHA’s decision has been made, and/or until the Forest Practices Board Investigation is completed. |
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Photo: ©S.Risk
UPDATE for Court Injunction Application: Feb 22, 2019
Rossland BC Court Feb 4, 2019
Our lawyer, Lilina Lysenko was the first to speak. She called for “a cautionary approach - time, before logging commences for the forest to be properly assessed by a possible revisit of Section 29 (initiated by the GWPS) and for the Forest Practices Board investigation to be finalized.” Ms Lysenko asked for an injunction to defer logging until investigations have been finalized. She was arguing that irreparable harm would be done to our water and our community if logging went ahead.
Atco and Kalesnikoff lawyers presented their statements: “They only want to stop logging. They are not really concerned about their water. We have spent $150,000 of unrecoverable dollars planning, 50% of logging takes place in watersheds in the Kootenays. It’s sustainable, and, whatever happens can be fixed…their water is already non potable, irreparable harm would be done to our companies in terms of financial losses, we have bent over backwards to accommodate them…”
Glade WPS believes that before clear cutting begins in the Glade watershed there needs to be a true assessment of possible impacts especially as it relates to the quality, quantity and flow of water in Glade Creek, the source of Glade drinking water. Whereas the Apex professional reliance report, commissioned by ATCO and KLC in 2016 gives the go ahead to cut timber; due to a lack of water data that report is incomplete, flawed by omissions, and is an unsound blueprint for road building and clear cutting in our watershed.
The hearing lasted for over 3 hours on Monday and Justice Tammen gave his decision on Thursday, Feb 7 at 9:15 in the Rossland courthouse.
Decision Dismissed! Justice Tammen laid out the background and arguments by the lawyers, which led him to his decision of dismissal. And although we have received nothing in writing yet, Kalesnikoff’s lawyer asked for damages.
Rossland BC Court Feb 4, 2019
Our lawyer, Lilina Lysenko was the first to speak. She called for “a cautionary approach - time, before logging commences for the forest to be properly assessed by a possible revisit of Section 29 (initiated by the GWPS) and for the Forest Practices Board investigation to be finalized.” Ms Lysenko asked for an injunction to defer logging until investigations have been finalized. She was arguing that irreparable harm would be done to our water and our community if logging went ahead.
Atco and Kalesnikoff lawyers presented their statements: “They only want to stop logging. They are not really concerned about their water. We have spent $150,000 of unrecoverable dollars planning, 50% of logging takes place in watersheds in the Kootenays. It’s sustainable, and, whatever happens can be fixed…their water is already non potable, irreparable harm would be done to our companies in terms of financial losses, we have bent over backwards to accommodate them…”
Glade WPS believes that before clear cutting begins in the Glade watershed there needs to be a true assessment of possible impacts especially as it relates to the quality, quantity and flow of water in Glade Creek, the source of Glade drinking water. Whereas the Apex professional reliance report, commissioned by ATCO and KLC in 2016 gives the go ahead to cut timber; due to a lack of water data that report is incomplete, flawed by omissions, and is an unsound blueprint for road building and clear cutting in our watershed.
The hearing lasted for over 3 hours on Monday and Justice Tammen gave his decision on Thursday, Feb 7 at 9:15 in the Rossland courthouse.
Decision Dismissed! Justice Tammen laid out the background and arguments by the lawyers, which led him to his decision of dismissal. And although we have received nothing in writing yet, Kalesnikoff’s lawyer asked for damages.
Before trying legal avenues, the GWPS, GID and the Community of Glade tried many other things to bring attention to our valid concerns. Below is a list of them:
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PETITION
Sign this petition to the Honourable Mr. Heyman, Minster of the Environment and Climate Change:
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The Glade Community Watershed in West Kootenay is slated for logging now, with licenses being held by two companies. There is no time to wait as trees are being cut in many Community Watersheds and more are slated for logging. Contracts are in place and roads are being built. Community Watershed groups have no legal voice, no legislated processes that have meaningful impact. There is no reasonable means to hold forest professionals and government agencies accountable for their damage to watershed.
BC Community Watersheds Need Protection! The history of legislation of BC water tells a story of industry gaining control of water and trees as commodities, leaving water users responsible for damage inflicted through industrial activity in Community Watersheds. This has to stop now and it is you and I who will do it. Our message is simple and clear: An Immediate Moratorium on Industrial Logging in BC Community Watersheds. Citizens of BC have the right to clean, safe water. And in order to have that, we need to protect the forests that help to produce and protect the water. |
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HOPE locates itself in the premises that we don’t know what will happen and that in the spaciousness of uncertainty is room to act. When you recognise uncertainty, you recognise that you may be able to influence the outcomes – you alone or you in concert with a few dozen or several million others.
Hope is an embrace of the unknown and the unknowable, an alternative to the certainty of both optimists and pessimists. Optimists think it will all be fine without our involvement; pessimists adopt the opposite position; both excuse themselves from acting. It is the belief that what we do matters even though how and when it may matter, who and what it may impact, are not things we can know beforehand. We may not, in fact, know them afterwards either, but they matter all the same, and history is full of people whose influence was most powerful after they were gone.” Rebecca Solnit |
Seen on Hwy 6 near New Denver, BC (HMcS)
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How you can help...
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Glade Creek 06.2016 ©C.Hecker
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Addresses
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ATCO WOOD Products
Rebecca and Scott Weatherford, President & CEO, ATCO Wood Products Box 460, Fruitvale BC V0G 1L0 ATCO Wood Products Ron Ozanne, Forestry Manager Box 460, Fruitvale BC V0G 1L0 Ron.ozanne@atcowoodproducts.com KALESNIKOFF Lumber Company Kalesnikoff Lumber Company, Woodlands Manager, Tyler Hodgkinson 2090 BC Hwy 3A, Thrums BC V1N 3L8 tylerh@kalesnikoff.com Kalesnikoff Lumber Co. Ltd. Ken Kalesnikoff PO Box 3000 Hwy 3A Thrums BC, Canada V1N 3L8 kenk@kalesnikoff.com GOVERNMENT Honourable John Horgan, Premier Office of the Premier Parliament Buildings Victoria, BC V8W 9E1 premier@gov.bc.ca MLA Andrew Weaver, Leader, Green Party of BC Parliament Buildings Victoria BC V8V 1X4 250 387 8347 Andrew.weaver.mla@leg.bc.ca Honourable George Heyman, Minister of Environment & Climate Change Strategy, Parliament Buildings Victoria, BC V8V 1X4 ENV.Minister@gov.bc.ca Honourable Doug Donaldson, Minister of Forests, Lands & Natural Resource Operations Parliament Buildings Victoria, BC V8V 1X4 250 387 6240 FLNR.Minister@gov.bc.ca MLA Katrine Conroy, Kootenay West 2, 1006 3rd Street Castlegar, BC V1N 3X6 katrine.conroy.mla@leg.bc.ca MP Richard Cannings, South Okanagan-West.Kootenay 301 Main Street, #202 Penticton, BC V2A 5B7 richard.cannings@parl.gc.ca MP Wayne Stetski, Kootenay Columbia Ste. 501-310 Ward Street Nelson, BC V1L 5S4 Fish & Wildlife Branch Dan Peterson, Director Po Box 9391, Stn Prov Gov't Victoria BC, V8W 9M8 dan.peterson@gov.bc.ca Dr. Trevor Corneil (Chief, Interior Health Authority) 505 Doyle Avenue Kelowna BC V1Y 0C5 trevor.corneil@interiorhealth.ca 250-469-7070 Ext: 12791 |
Regional District Central Kootenay
Aimee Watson, Chair Regional District Central Kootenay Box 590 202 Lakeside Drive Nelson, BC V1L 5R4 a.watson@rdck.bc.ca Ramona Faust, Director, Electoral Area E Regional District Central Kootenay Box 1, Procter, BC V0G 1V0 r.faust@rdck.bc.ca Andy Davidoff, Director, Electoral Area I Regional District Central Kootenay 1657 Hwy 3A Castlegar, BC V1N 4N5 a.davidoff@rdck.bc.ca Interior Health Authority Renee Ansel, Small Water EHO Interior Health Authority 2nd Floor, 333 Victoria Street Nelson, BC V1L 4K3 Renee.Ansel@interiorhealth.ca Rob Birtles, Small Water Team Lead Interior Health Authority 3090 Skaha Lake Road Penticton, BC V2A 7H2 Forest Practices Board Dave Clarke, Executive Director Forest Practices Board 1675 Douglas Street Victoria, BC V8W 2G5 dave.clark@bcfpb.ca Doug Wahl, Manager, Audits & Investigations Forest Practices Board 1675 Douglas Street Victoria, BC V8W 2G5 doug.wahl@bcfpb.ca 250-213-4723 Regional Forestry Garth Wiggill, Director, Strategic Initiatives, Nelson, Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations 1907 Ridgewood Road Nelson, BC garth.wiggill@gov.bc.ca Tara Decourcy, District Manager Kootenay Boundary Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations 1907 Ridgewood Road Nelson, BC V1L 6K1 tara.decourcy@gov.bc.ca Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Regional Operations Kootenay Boundary Paul Rasmussen, Exec. Director 1902 Theatre Rd., Cranbrook BC, V1C 7G1 Tel: (250) 426-1700 Other West Kootenay Eco Society 507 Baker Street, #206 Nelson, BC V1L 4J2 Auditor General of BC Carol Bellringer, PO Box 9036 Prov Gov’t Victoria BC, V8W 9A2 bcauditor@bcauditor.ca Castlegar News Unit 2, 1810 8th Avenue, Castlegar, B.C V1N 2Y2 1-250-365-6397 Email: newsroom@castlegarnews.com Office of the Ombudsperson Mr. Jay Chalke 2nd floor, 947 Fort St., Victoria, BC V8V 9A5 250 356 1559 |
