Environmentalists
push for watershed
logging moratorium

THE WESTERN Canada Wilderness Committee (WCWC)
wants North Vancouver Distric! Council to support its call
for a five-year moratorium on logging and road building in
the Capilano, Seymour and Coquitlam watersheds.

Mark Wareing, a registered
professional forester with the
WCWC, alse called for an in-
dependent public inquiry into the
impacts of past and projected
road construction and clearcutting
on water quality and ecosystem
health during his delegation ap-
pearance at Monday night's
district council meeting.

Referring to the Greater Van-
couver Regional District’s
(GVRD) proposed $500-miltion
water filtration plant to correct
turbidity (siltation) problems in

44 /t is only in very
recent years that more
research has come to

light and a fuller
understanding as to what
the ecological and
economic impacts of
traditional forestry
are.

— Mark Wareing
WCWC registered
professional forester

Vancouver’s drinking water,
Wareing said, ‘‘The WCWC takes
the position that there is an ex-
cellent chance that those half
billion tax doliars can be saved if
the damage being done by the
GVRD through its logging pro-
grams is stopped now, if the ex-
isting damage is repaired, and if
the watersheds are allowed to heal
for a period of at least five years
before any sort of logging or
roadbuilding is contemplated
again.’’

In January, the GVRD released
a report that found that its cur-
rent logging practices in the wa-
tershed areas did not adversely af-
fect the quality of Lower
Mainland drinking water.

Ald. Rick Buchols said that
council was in the difficult posi-
tion of trying to understand two
opposing viewpoints in a scientific
argument.

“What is it that these wicked
GVRD people are trying to do,
and why are they trying to do it,”
asked Buchols.

“They come to us and seem
very sincere and very well resear-
ched that they are doing the right
thing. Why do you feel that they
are attempting to rape and pillage
and destroy our watershed?*”

Wareing replied that he was
sure there was no malicious intent
on the part of the GVRD.

“It is only in very
years,’ he said, ‘that

recent
more

Martin Millerchip
Contributing Writer

NORTH VANCOUVER
DISTRICT COUNCIL

research has come to light and a
fuller understanding as to what
the ecological and economic im-
pacts of traditional forestry are.”’

Wareing said that comparing
the number of slides in logged and
roaded areas with the number of
slides in unroaded, unlogged areas
is like comparing apples and
oranges, because only 16 per cent
of the loggable land base has been
cut so far.

Wareing distributed a report
just released by the WCWC that
quoted Prof. Doug Golding, in a
report commissioned by the
GVRD, on the results of experi-
mental clearcutting above
Jamieson Creek in the Seymour
watershed.

According to Golding, ‘‘Only
19 per cent of the Jamieson Creek
watershed was logged, a much
smaller percentage than is normal-
ly taken in coastal areas. The
results of the post-logging study
(1984-88) show no significant
hydrological changes resulting
from the harvest. The GVWD can
be fairly confident that their
forest management creates no
deleterious effects.”’

But Wareing also displayed an
aerial photograpt! of a late
November mudslidt: originating in
the same experimental clearcut
area above Jamiesou Creek.

Ald. Janice Harr‘s asked if the
logging roads were desirable for
fire-fighting access.

Wareing, who worked locally
for eight of his 17 years with the
provincial forests ministry, said
that during that time there were
“thundreds of lightning «trikes in
the watersheds,’’ but thar none of
them went beyond half a hectare
because of the dampness provided
by continuous forest cover.

Continued Wareing, ‘‘They
don’t build the roads primarily to
fight fire. Once they’ve built ‘hose
roads, they then come in and
clearcut and that creates areas of
logging slash which then are lcft
to dry in the hot summer’s sun
and which constitute a far greater
fire hazard than the unlogged
forest.”

‘Basically there seems to have
been a gross over-reaction to the
fire hazard problems in the wate:-
sheds,’’ concluded Wareing.

Council will consider Wareing’s
Presentation at next week’s
mecting.

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Second Class Registration Number 3885

Friday, February 15, 1991 - North Shore News - 3

NEWS photo Mike Wakefteld

PREMIER BILL Vander Zalm toured North Vancouver-based Vancouver Shipyards Co. Ltd. on
Thursday morning. While Vander Zalm was at the shipyard to inspect the work that is taking
place on ferry construction and repair, most of the media who were waiting for him were more
interested in the alleged conflict of interest surrounding the sale of Fantasy Gardens, an issue

Vander Zalm refused to address.

Logging in watershed to
receive public scrutiny

NORTH SHORE residents
will have their say in clear-
ing up the issue of water
turbidity and the continued
practice of logging in local
watershed areas.

Ey Michaei Becker
News Reporter

The Greater Vancouver
Regional District (GVRD) water
committee voted Tuesday in favor
of a public review of the con-
troversial issue. The three North
Shore mayors are saembers of the
water committee.

The review process will begin
March 7 with a public pres-
entation tentatively located at the
Robson Square conference centre
in Vancouver.

Said committee member and
West Vancouver Mayor Mark
Sager, ‘*It will be to explain what
is being done and why.’*

Sager said the mecting will be
followed by water committee con-
siderations of written submissions
from the public.

**And, depending on public in-
terest and input, there will be
regional meetings on the issue,”
he added.

The Western Canada Wilderness
Committee maintains that logging
activity in the Lower Mainland
watershed areas is compromising
water quality. The group is calling

North Vancouver District Mayor
Murray Dykeman ...would sup-
port the consideration of a
moratorium.

for a five-year moratorium on
logging and road construction in
the Capilano, Seymour and Co-
quitlam watersheds.

GVRD water committee deputy
chairman and North Vancouver
District Mayor Murray Dykeman
said a North Shore public review
meeting could take place as early
as April.

“I expressed some concerns
about the opportunity for indi-
viduals to come in and sit down
and just talk. I was assured that
would be the format,’’ he said.

Dykeman said he would support
the consideration of a

moratorium,

“Tt think that we could well be
looking at some moratorium con-
cept to measure further the impact
of logging. If turbidity creates a
problem of higher chlorination
levels because of our closeness to
the source, | want to look at the
impact of logging on high water
levels. The green rings on the bot-
tom of your sink are an indication
of what we are dealing with.”’

Added Sager, ‘*} think all of us
are concerned with the turbidity
of water. This is so new to me, I
have at Jeast a degree of objectivi-
ty. I'd really like to hear as much
as possible from all people. If
there’s an indication that logging
practices adversely affect water
condition, then that’s (a
moratorium) an easy decision for
me.”"

Water committee member and
North Vancouver City Mayor
Jack Loucks also expressed con-
cern over water turbidity, but he
is cautious about linking logging
with water quality.

Said Loucks, ‘‘The reasons
seem to be slides, they don’t seem
to be logging. The logging seems
to be to prevent future problems.
The old forests are most prone te
disease and if they are diseased
they are prone to fire. So what
they hope with the replanting of
trees is to cut down on disease
and at least lessen the chances of
a forest fire —- and most impor-
tantly, preserve the quality of
water."*