Public entry
limited to
GVRD tours

ENVIRONMEN TAL
ACTIVISTS are. pushing for
more public access to local
watersheds.

By Michael Becker’
pat ES a
News Editor

3

On Sunday morning a group of
seven broke aws wy from a Greater
Vancouver. Regional. District-sane-
‘tioned bus tour of the Capilano
“Watershed .to view an. area’ of ~
clearcut and draw attention to recent
‘old-growth logging in local water-

', sheds. ‘ .
“. Said |, Society Promoting
Environmental Conservation
(SPEC) president: Paul Hundal, 38,
“] was uutraged by what I saw, We
“saw the logging road was cut into
clay banks. I found ‘all-of the slash -
‘and clearcut a perfect. cxample of why logging
creases the fire hazard.” ;
» Added Hundal, “They should allow public interest: -
groups to give their own tours. Their (GVRD) public.
fours are one-sided. We'll look for other Opportunities
“to bring people in there.”
GVRD tour leader. Doug Smart, a harvest technol-
ogist with the GVRD, said the public tours began in
1991, “To try to allow the public into the watersheds
‘and give them some exposure, to watershed manage--
ment.” ;
Watersheds are. otherwise. basically oft- limits to
: the public. The watershed is patrolled 24 hours a day’
by GVRD: security guards.
’. But Hundal, ina Jegal opinion to SPEC board
member Irwin Oostindie, advised that according to
his ‘review of the Greater. Vancouver Water District, Act..
‘express’ authority (is) given to the GVWD (Greater Vanetaver
ater District) to restrict-access to the watersheds.or remove
M people’ from t the watersheds as long as they are not depositing
an injurious or offensive materials into the water, damaging or

interfering with the supply or distribution of water, or causing

the contamination of the water in ways specified by the act tsuch
as bathing of washing.”

The GVRD justifies its logging program within the 1 water-
sheds as a means of decreasing fire hazards and the likelihood
of damaging bug infestations, especially i in hemlock trees.

Logging is on hold for the time being as the district conducts
an ecological inventory of its three watersheds. Smart said the
new, ‘Seymour. watershed management ‘plan could be available

for public re review later this year, The Capilano and Coquitlam *

Firemen
nab two
in chase

the bush.

hank.” said Gisby.

“The young fellow in the pas-
senger seat said he had to relieve
himself in the bush.” said Gisby

Gisby walked Loth boys over to

“When he was: finished,
two of them started off down the

watersheds are currently under study and will not be ready for
another year. -
Smart said the GVRD is in the process of renegotiating with

the province on how wate sed management practices, will be

carried out in the future.
Stands of trees have been thinned and clearcut since 1966
ander the GVRD’s sustained yield program.
Smart said that ‘until recently. forestry management theory

“saw old stands of first-growith trees as dying and decadent. a fire -

hazard to be harvested to allow for new growth. Smart said this
jtheory.is now getting a second look, Thinning the forest is one
‘technique being supported.
, “What was considered the way to do things five to* 10 years
iago is being looked at.” Sman said. |
Although options for forestry management | within the water-

Fron page 1: : : i

the

nizations will speak at the meeting.

ANGRY NEIGHBORS PACK MEETING ee

Dykeman and nwo representatives from community orga-

. NEWS photos Michael Becker

LEFT: ENVIRONMENTALISTS |
perch atop the remains ofa”
massive tree cut in the Cap
watershed. Clockwise: Kyla
ves (standing), .:° Elwyn.
Patterson, Monica Richardson,
Bree Weliwood, Pau! Hundal
and Joe Terry visit the stump.
Above: . Wellwood,’ Hundal, |.
Patterson and Terry, are driven a
down the mountain in a water-
shed security pickup truck. |

sheds. range from letting nature’ take:
its course to full-scale’ commercial
logging, the GVRD. is tending to a"
. “proactive approach"’’ of: iargeting ©.
“hazard™ stands.. Said Smart, “The
plan now is to larget specific stands at risk.” -..
-.. The GVRD considers Douglas’ fir, red cedar and
Cypress at higher elevations, the preferred s species to be
regenerated within the forest. |
Logged trees have been sold on the open market hy
auction, generating on average $10 million a year for
GYVRD general coffers. The annual allowable cut untif
the recent moratorium was 180,000 cubic metres...
‘According to Smart the last major fire losses in
local watersheds occurred in 1990. “Generally speak-
ing: we've been pretty lucky i in these past fi five yearsy:
Smart said.
'”. The’ official GVRD} bus “tour, of the Capitano
“reached the key stop of Rodgers’ Lake’ when the envi- ;
ronmentalists aboard the bus eft the tour.’Seven ran up:
the logging road. The destination: cutblock 163, logged :
two years ago about two kilometres up the road. |
. According to SPEC board member trwin Qoxtindie cutblock
163 was one of the last stands containing old-growth trees to go
down. Although a stable stand of predominantly cedar trees, it -
contained an undergrowth of hemlock, a possible bug infesta-
tion hazard, according to the, GVRD. ‘
SPEC had requested access to the cutblock in 1994 to View
what they say is an example of “proactive” management. .
The group was unsuccessful in its bid.- B
Hundal was allowed to. view the site in. 1992. before it was.

“cut.

Hundal pointed out ‘slumping clay banks, which although
seeded with’ grass by: the GVRD. were giving way. ‘Said’
Huadal, “You're _ getting the part of the tour that they don’t
want you lo sec,” nota ‘

First alert through media.

strained by. rules rekiting to human rights and freedom of
information.

‘ According to Yard. in order to release information...
“There has'to be violence connected with the previous

TWO WEST Vancouver firefight. |
ers returning froma house fire on
Monday ended up hot on the trail

of (wo suspected car thieves.

* By Anna Marie D "Angelo
pe i NE
_ News Reporter

West Vaticouver’ District. Fire
“Department Lt’ Ken Gisby and
ee firefighter Clark Brolly were trav-
jelling ina fire wuck blocked by’a
‘stalled car in -the”’5$00-block of
Marine Drive. =."

“dt. Gisby got out and saw the igni-
tion of the Volkswagen Jetta hang-

“ing from the steering column.

2 The -young fellow. behind the
_ steering wheel looked very. young,
well below the age of ‘having a dri-
-Ver's licence,” s said Gisby. :

’ The driver as 13. His pal was
HB
+ Brolly, who. was driving y the fire

truck, called the West Vancouver
Police while Gisby told the pitir to

“remain in the cur’ While they wait-
“eds one (of. the}. teens made a

« Gisby caught up to the 15-)
old and grabbed hia by the arm.

The driver jumped over a picket,

fence and was gone.
“Well, it was all in the line of a
fireman's duty,” laughed Gisby.
“It's got to be a first for me.”
The 13-year-old. driver was
caught by police a.short time later
near. the 2600-block of Marine
Drive, said West Vancouver Police
Sgt. Barry Nickerson. .
Nickerson said the pair. had

“walked away" from a, wilderness

camp at Porteau Cove that mom-
ing. ‘The teenagers were participat-
ing in a court-ordered two-week
wilderness outing.

Police say that. two bicycles

were stolen by the puir before the

car. was taken near Fisherman’s |,

Cove. ° i :
Nickerson said the 13-year-old
ran to one of the stolen bikes after
escaping from the firefighters, -
Police “are

erty and theft over $5. 000.
The teens cannot be named as

stipulated — by < the. Young
Offenders*Act.

recommending :
charges of poss ssing stolen prop- ;

Meanwhile, 200 ‘North Shore’ residents jammed a
Block Watch meeting at North Vancouver District: Hall
Friday to share congerns for the safety of their children.

Most agreed that a system that protects the rights of a:
_convieted pedophile at the expense of neighborhood safe-
ty needs changing.

“We, as parents, have a right to know who is living next
dvor to us, Who decides what we have a right to know in
order to protect our children? Does he have to kill a child
in North Vancouver before he becomes important?” asked
one emotional mother.

‘The news that Owens, a former Vancouver Island resi-
deni, was living at the Canterbury Crescent honie. of
Daniel Bristow in the Upper Highlands: area of North
Vancouver caught the neighborhood : by. surprise and

_ resulted in a flood of calls to the RCMP Friday.

Bristow has been convicted of sexual assault.
Angry residents asked why jthey: had to: team of
Owens’ move to: North Vancouver through the ‘media,

rather than through the police,

And their frustration increased when RCMP Supt. Gil
Yard explained, that, as: court officers, the police: were
unable to discuss details of Owens’ case.

__. Residents" desperate for details . of -Owens* modus
operandi were reduced to sharing: information. gleaned
from newscasts’ that day, °.

_- Yard told the meeting that while the police can occa, |
sionally release information as to the whereabouts: of 5

known offenders, it can only happen when there i is per

ceived threat lo public safety. 2 i
io He later explained to the News that the RCMP j iscon= :.

record and what is perceived as an immediate and consid-’
erable danger to the public. Thar’ ’s my meron of the -
niles as they come down to me.”

fard told the residents that, as a parent, he shared their
converns but that he had confirmed his interpretation of
Owens’ right to privacy with legal advice.

However, that did*not satisfy many at the’ meeting,
including the vice-chair of the Parents Advisory Council:
of Canyon Heights elementary school. L
-“What do you have to do to pose 4 danger to the rest of

“society?” she asked.

“I'm sorry, E cannot buy that argument tha this i is not.
serious enough that ‘the information should have, come —
from the police. Any. system which allows this to ‘happen

- ds in serious need of change.” : :

“Yard acknowledged that change is frus uingly slow’,
but said “politicians do respond to public pressure.” ;
Buta local man, whose children attend preschool cight

* houses away from where Owens is staying, told the meet-

ing that “the responsibility in the final analysis doesn't rest
with the government of Canada, it rests with us.” ‘
He later told the News that a group of local residents: -

"plans “'to go over there and let this person know that we're
“not the least bic comfortable with him being i in our com-
munity. : i

“We're going to’ make sure that he’s’ not the least bit’
comfortable either and the sooner that he is out of there:
the happier we both will bes? 7. :

He emphasized that he was talking © vigilance, not
vigilantism,” a theme. that Mayor Murray Dykeman’-
reinforced, : a