Editor: Re: Public land management
I am writing to our Alberta Government in hopes that you, Premier Notley, will embrace change and take an increased interest in the management of the Province’s public lands. The Foothills are a highly valued resource that need to be managed for long term multiple uses - for all the people of Alberta.
These Green Zones deserve a much improved long term management strategy based on updated science and regional data in support of progressive government action.
Decades of mismanagement by an out of sight, out of mind government must be replaced by refreshing, positive and progressive thinking. Times have certainly changed since the 1930s, when forward thinking meant setting aside multi-use green spaces based on watershed protection for Albertans, and downstream use of the mountain headwaters.
General use guidelines with industry favoured rights, and essentially self-regulated use is no longer appropriate. Recreational use of these public lands has dramatically increased, due to explosive growth in population. It is now time to thoroughly and carefully manage and protect these spaces for present and future generations.
Your NDP government was elected on a mandate of change, with more emphasis on the good for the people of Alberta. I applaud your movement on climate change, and the need for economic diversification, but there is also an urgent need for enhanced public land management.
I reside in the Ghost River Valley, and have seen dramatic impacts on the public landscape over the past decade. Spray Lakes Sawmill clearcut logging of a huge area over the next two years is both inappropriate and unacceptable. The Spray Lakes Sawmill operations appear focused on efficiency and economics rather than long-term sustainability.
Get it all, and get out quick appears to be the approach, without any regard for the long-term repercussions of their actions. It’s happened all over B.C., and there is no reason to think it won’t happen here; making a profit now, providing a few short term jobs, and selling out or closing the Cochrane mill (perhaps in as little as five years?).
Short-term corporate gains leave long term pain for the people of Alberta and our public lands.
The need for Alberta industry to diversify is an excellent concept, but not at the expense of our public lands. Enlightened long-term management must become a much higher priority for your new government. Many are calling for a moratorium on clearcut logging in the Ghost River Valley to allow your government time to thoroughly review the situation, and ensure updated, proper management of this truly significant public land base.
Issues of profound year round recreational use and abuse, future flood mitigation and ecological integrity need to be resolved rather than ignored for a few short-term jobs.
An updated, ecologically sensitive management plan, specific to the Eastern Slopes generally and the Ghost River Valley specifically, needs to be implemented. The Eastern Slopes need to be managed for water, not just timber. Appropriately managed, this area will sustain many long term jobs for Albertans.
The recreational development potential is enormous, but needs to be adequately managed (and regulated) to ensure the Ghost River’s long-term viability. Think of the enormous recreational and economic diversification well managed use of these green spaces could be. Tourism could be the new light at the end of the tunnel, which means more long-term jobs for a diversified Alberta.
The time for change and progressive management of our public lands is now. Your NDP government was elected on a mandate of change, with more emphasis on good for the people of Alberta. With respect to the management of our Eastern Slopes watersheds, no such change is yet forthcoming. We see a minister of forestry and agriculture relying on the same old guard PC emplaced bureaucrats who have a toxic symbiotic relationship with a forestry monopoly managing this landscape, with timber fibre as the top priority.
In Banff/Cochrane, and all along the Eastern Slopes, we elected NDP MLAs with the expectation that there would be a paradigm shift in the management and managers of this landscape. If you, Mrs. Notley, fail to change the managers and restructure the priorities on the Eastern Slopes, we may as well have left the old regime in place.
It has also come to my attention that our neighbours of the Stoney-Nakoda Nation have a long outstanding land claim on a part of the SLS B9 cut block. Surveyed in 1915, and staked with IR (Indian Reservation) markings, the survey markers are still visible today. SLS is in the process of clearcutting the B9 cut block, and the designated IR 142 A forest. It is imperative that a moratorium be applied to clearcut logging in the Ghost River Valley, pending resolution of the land claim issue.
A great deal of background information on the Ghost River Valley, and the many issues at stake, is available at www.stopghostriverclearcut.com. I trust you will give careful consideration to many of these concerns, and act on this pressing issue.
Rod Wallace,
Ghost River Valley
