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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.
In addition, there is a petition for a Judicial Review of the s.29. Since the IHA decided not to initiate any investigation, essentially abdicating all responsibility of their office, we are asking the court to review that decision.
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.
In addition, there is a petition for a Judicial Review of the s.29. Since the IHA decided not to initiate any investigation, essentially abdicating all responsibility of their office, we are asking the court to review that decision.
Before trying legal means, the GWPS, GID and the Community of Glade tried many other things to bring attention to our valid concerns. Below is a list of highlights:
- The GWPS has held public meetings in our community, we hold weekly GWPS meetings (everyone welcome), update the community by various means, updated and interfaced with the Glade Irrigation District (GID), and created an online Avaaz petition, and organized and held Glade Markets to encourage community involvement.
- Organized letter writing campaigns: one was about our concerns to KLC’s draft FSP, another was to IHA (134 letters) to support our s.29 submission, another petition was sent to both licensees stating our objections to conventional logging. A Community Questionnaire was organized and collated.
- GWPS collected signatures from the general public, 200+ who stated they were opposed to conventional logging in domestic use watersheds and were in support of the Glade Community
- We have networked with industry members, scientists, watershed groups and alliances, environmental groups, RDCK Directors and others
- A s.29 investigation under the Drinking Water Protection Act was submitted to Interior Health Authority in relation to the proposed logging in Glade Creek (2016). After a year the IHA decided there ‘wasn’t enough evidence’ to initiate a s.29 investigation.
- In addition to GID water data collection, the GWPS initiated more data collecting on Glade Creek. Costs for this work are supported by GID and GWPS. When asked if development could be halted until we had collected the relevant data that is missing from the hydrologists report, the licensees refused.
- Dr. Martin Carver was retained, who answered the question ‘Is there a Threat to Glade Creek Water?’ in the affirmative in a 8 page professional opinion letter (Jan 2017)
- The GWPS has held meetings and written numerous letters to our regional, provincial and federal representatives for their support. We worked with MLA Conroy to try and secure an application for a Community Forest, based on the principles of an Ecosystem based conservation plan.
- Interfaced and communicated extensively with licensees, attending all meetings and attending three field trips; one with KLC and two with Atco. We keep requesting a community meeting, but neither licensee is interested in holding one.
- Papers and submissions were sent to the government. I.e. a 29 page discussion paper to KLC and ATCO and government officials and a Professional Reliance Review document. All of these documents are available for review and are on our website.
- The GWPS met with the District Manager of Forests in an attempt to get that public office to advocate on our behalf to defer logging until sufficient water data had been collected to inform the community of the actual state of our water.
- The GWPS has corresponded with the Forest Practices Board and researched their reports and complaint investigations. In October 2018 a Forest Practices Board Investigation Complaint was submitted. (see above)
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 |
