Feb. 08, 2012 - Issue #851: Jon Mick

The Castle under attack

Logging has started in the Castle mountain area despite citizen action

As the spring legislative session got under way this past Tuesday, Albertans were encouraged to participate in a phone-a-thon to call their MLA's to stop a logging project in Southern Alberta. It's only one attempt in a series of actions over the past two years to stop Spray Lakes from logging in the Castle Special Management Area—a designated special area meant to protect the forest from industrialization.

In the past year citizens have written petitions, made over 100 000 phone calls, and emails and letters have been sent to the Premier's office asking for the logging to stop and the Wildland Park designation to be given to Castle. But on February 1 logging by Spray Lakes Mills began in the special management area.

While the "special area" designation doesn't prevent industrial activity from occurring, it is intended to stop additional industrial activity from occurring after the designation is given. The "special area" designation was created in 1998 after years of consultation. Concluded in 2001 the process  created 81 special areas which are designed to preserve outdoor recreation opportunities and tourism and are protected from unnecessary vehicle use and road development. Castle Special Management Area has been designated as such since 1998 when an Alberta government press release declared the new designations to be "a major milestone in the preservation of Alberta's natural heritage for future generations."

Then early in 2010 the Minister of Sustainable Resource Development approved a plan for Spray Lake Sawmills to start clear-cut logging in July 2011. Just months before the decision by the minister of sustainable resource development, the Citizens' Initiative for Castle had been working for months on a draft proposal, which was submitted to the Minister of Tourism, Parks and Recreation on December 8, 2009. The proposal by the working group was for the Castle Special Place to become a protected area and designated as a provincial park.

In a response to the working group's proposal Cindy Ady, minister for parks at the time, stated, "I am very pleased to see that the Castle Special Place working group has successfully engaged the community and stakeholders in your process to explore how conserving this area could contribute to social, environmental and economic benefits to Alberta." It's a message that apparently failed to get through to the minister for sustainable resource development at the time, Ted Morton, and the subsequent minister, Mel Knight.

The working group, which was a self-selected group of interested members of the citizens initiative for Castle, had been working since 2008 to achieve the legislated status of WIldland and Provincial Park status for Castle.
 

The support for the Castle area has come from diverse sectors. Environmentally the Sierra Club prairie chapter has spoken out about the impacts tree removal will have on the grizzly population in the territory. The SouthWest corner of Alberta is part of the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem in the US's grizzly bear recovery effort. Alberta's grizzly bear status report found that the increased motorized access that is connected with logging lowers the positive effects of forest regrowth after logging that can sometimes stimulate the production of bear foods.  "Adding logging roads and clear-cutting on top of that will only make the drain in the sink that much bigger," says Dianne Pachal, Sierra Club Canada's Alberta Wild Director stated in a press release earlier this year. Bear biologist Wayne McCrory was quoted by the Sierra Club as saying that despite the laws protecting Castle, bears are still under threat: "More than a decade of special management in the absence of those laws hasn't worked to turn around the mortality sink."

Additionally, the watershed management in southern Alberta has been a controversial topic requiring special consideration. A 2004 watershed study on the Oldman river basin by the Guelph water management group found the Oldman River basin to be stressed by urban and rural contamination. According to the Alberta Foothills Network the Castle area provides one third of the annual water flow for Southern Alberta, including the Oldman River Basin and 70 municipalities.
Close to two dozen local businesses and tourist operators joined the protest against the logging project. The coalition of business owners showed up at the Lethbridge stop of Premier Redford's cabinet tour. "Alberta taxpayers will shortly be paying to pave the main access road in the Castle, including through the privately owned Castle Mountain Resort, only to have that road now go through clear cut logging," says Allan Brice of Alberta Fly Fishing Adventures.

A citizens consultation initiative to change the legislation, proposals to ministers, letters, petitions, phone calls and, in mid-January, four arrests after protesters refused to leave the proposed logging area after 20 days of action. The issue is now in court being heard by Court of Queen's Bench Justice Rosemary Nation, who concluded on February 3 that there should be court time to hear the arguments regarding closure of the Castle area for logging. Protesters are asking that the Premier use her authority under the Public Lands Act to shut down the logging project. Alberta Sustainable Resources Development can move the logging project to any alternative location according to the Forest Act without compensation to the company as long as they give 30 days notice. 

"This is an issue that has galvanized support for protection of Alberta's environment," says Sarah Elmeligi, Senior Conservation Planner with the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society. In a press release on February 7 announcing the phone-a-thon campaign during the opening of the provincial legislative session, she said, "We're all speaking with one voice. Is the Premier listening?"

The court case involving the four protesters who were arrested, as well as members of the SRD will be heard on February 24. While the court case proceeds the logging area is closed off from public access and the public is not allowed to block SRD and Spray Lakes Sawmills from continuing their clear-cutting operations.

More stories in front »

vueweekly.com comments: powered by Disqus