Time ticking for trails

I met with The Peak recently to provide an update on the experience of the Powell River Greenways Society before the nonprofit community-based group decided to close.
A Viewpoint By Patricia Keays.

One big reason the group closed was because individuals and non-profit societies were moved from one person to another in the ministry of forests (MoF). There was no accountability for taking input from consultation into account: even when we did meet with them: and no follow-up or communications from them until we found out that our community Greenways corridor has not been transferred to MoF maps as promised since 1998. As well, licences have been given for logging near it, across it, around it, through it, section by section, on Malaspina Peninsula where the route is actually "walkable" and sited at seven-per-cent grade from Lund to Willingdon Beach.

Over 10 years, area volunteers and project staff spent hundreds of thousands of hours and dollars working toward a vision of community greenways and an accessible corridor that could be a "path to the future," as a National Geographic article in the early 1990s phrased it. I've had occasion to read the November 19 newspaper from Sechelt which covers a protest of Gordon Wilson's office there about promises made with regard to Mt. Elphinstone protection: promises that are not being met. The quotes from forestry district manager Greg Hemphill are particularly "alarming": not my word, originally, but those of the chair of the Forest Practices Board when it had the following to say about the ministry more in other parts of the province: "The board also singled out British Columbia ministries of forests: environment lands, and parks: and mines and energy: in being 'ineffective' and 'uncoordinated' in their efforts to enforce the code" ("Board criticizes Royal Oak for logging violations," by Drew Hasselback in the Financial Post).

"In submissions to the board, the ministry of forests defended its actions, saying enforcement actions are largely dependent on the willingness of loggers to apply them. Board chairman Bill Cafferata said the government's view of enforcement is "alarming" and demanded the province deal with the...situation immediately." That was at Kemass. In Sechelt and in Powell River, community members have been saying the same things and communicating the same messages to both the MoF district manager and the member of the legislative assembly, Gordon Wilson, who is now the minister of forests. We need coordinated action and accountability in the Sunshine Coast Forest District now.

Finding out that people in Sechelt are struggling with the same situation and dealing with the same problems prompted me to write this letter and follow up prior efforts to get the wider community informed about the demise of the Powell River Greenways Society. Anyone who walks on or cares about trails in the Powell River area or management of the public resource base is urged to phone Gordon Wilson and Greg Hemphill and tell them so.

The five-per-cent clawback associated with resource harvesting licences needs to be applied immediately to the consolidation of a decent strategy for management of this region, starting with Malaspina Peninsula before the heart is cut out of it and delivered on platters to narrow special-interest groups. The forests minister must get the district manager and his minions to stop before their failure to coordinate and deliver on promises made to the communities: in both Sechelt and here: affects us permanently.

If neither of them are up to it, then our next stop is the premier. We need a political solution to public forest mismanagement in this region, not a technical or implementation-level pretense of one.


Patricia Keays is a director of the Powell River Greenways Society, whose members recently decided to disband the organization.
(From the PR Peak: Saturday, December 2, 2000)