Trail runs into roadblock

A Viewpoint By Lyn Jacob.

I apologize to the people of Powell River for not being able to continue the building of the Powell River Community Greenways section from Lund to Powell River. In the last election, I promised to work on the proposal for many reasons, including youth employment, healthy recreation, and opportunities to build a tourism industry around the incredible natural beauty. The vision of an Inland Lake or Willingdon Beach type of trail as an alternative transportation corridor from Lund to Saltery Bay was conceived with the direction, guidance, and cooperation of the ministry of forests (MOF) in the early 1990s. Over the next 10 years, cooperation continued with MOF finalizing the exact route, looking for a nice grade, linking with historic sites, beauty, nice trees, and wildness. Trailbuilders in the region deliberately followed a linkage strategy, connecting key sites and each others' trails together.

In 1998, we were stunned to find Wilde Creek being logged. That unique heritage site, the last piece of intact corduroy road in the area and part of the Greenways core route, had been originally brought to Greenways' attention by MOF officers. All of the trails in this area have been compiled and, in many cases, reclaimed with the help of older residents. This is part of our heritage. To say that new logging roads are going in where old logging roads used to be is not a convincing argument when other uses have been re-established in the meantime. These are being deliberately, persistently ignored.


Area residents want to connect with our history as well as with nature. This is more than "just recreation" with its pitiful budget. The Telegraph Trail route from Powell River to Lund was deliberately linked with the Greenways corridor routing, as part of a long-term alternative transportation corridor. The grade is great. Tourism consultants established that visitors to the region come here specifically for land-based, natural beauty and an intact feeling of "wildness," not to see a logging show.


But the contributions and work are being ignored, and possibilities for diversification toward a broader, as well as more sustainable, future are eroded as well. The route from Lund to Willingdon Beach is like a safe sidewalk between rural neighbours. The grade is not greater than seven per cent. No part of the community Greenways corridor is further than 0.5 km from someone's backyard. The places that the community cares about have been carefully linked together. As a result of 10 years of work, the corridor cuts across federal, regional district, provincial, and into municipal jurisdictions. Somewhere along the line, MOF changed its mind and dropped out of the project, only it didn't tell its partner, Powell River Greenways Society.

The year 2000 has seen the nicest sections being logged, after these many years of work, and MOF wouldn't even put the route on the maps. Now, elsewhere, every politician, environmentalist, and logging company is trying to make a plan just like the community Greenways. The Greenways corridor is on the block in relation to the Sliammon land claim, too, because MOF, as the lead agent, failed to transfer the community Greenways corridor and all the community's investment into it to the most basic of maps or agreements.

And, as for protecting it as a unique, irreplaceable area resource for recreation, diversification, and safe alternate transportation. Forget it. What I would like to see now is a public statement from MOF confirming its withdrawal from our project, just to make it official.


Lyn Jacob was a director of the former Powell River Greenways Society.
(From the R Peak: Saturday, December 30, 2000)