onan 3 - Sunday, May 13, 1990 - North Shore News Hiker spends cold night on mountain RESCUE TEAM SAVES INJURED MAN AFTER HE FALLS DOWN BLUFF A SEARCH party called in to rescue a 37-year-old Rich- mond man who injured himself Thursday night after tumbling down a rocky Mount Seymour-area bluff sang fireside songs through a cold and wet night to keep the man company until a helicopter arrived to evacuate them early Friday. George Coyne and a 14-year-old Vancouver youth had been hiking up from the Deep Cove lookout on the perimeter trail located on the east side of the mountain. The pair made it to the bridge crossing at Scott-Goldie Creek, but wandered off the trail. Coyne subsequently slipped in the snow By MICHAEL BECKER News Reporter and was injured when he fell off a bluff. According to North Shore Rescue Team (NSRT) searchmaster Gerry Brewer, Coyne dispatched his hiking partner to alert officials for help. But said Brewer, ‘‘In the in- tervening period he unwisely decided to go downstream a steep creek for about 600 feet of eleva- tion — presumably to do a self- evacuation.”’ The NSRT was called in at ap- proximately 8:45 p.m. About 22 rescuers, including an RCMP dog section and members of the North Vancouver Unit B.C. Ambulance Service, assisted in the search and rescue effort. With the aid of a tracking dog, Coyne was located at 10:30 p.m. in a steep canyon area by Scott- Goldie Creek. He was treated for hypothermia, and rescuers, who would have had to hoist Coyne up 400 feet of steep cliff in total darkness to evacuate him, set up camp for the night. A Squadron 442 Labrador helicopter evacuated the patient by 6:30 a.m. Friday. Searchers and equipment were out of the wilderness by 7:15 a.m. ‘*We kept the patient warm and sang songs,’ said Tim Jones, North Vancouver unit chief of the B.C. Ambulance Service, who, with the assistance of B.C. Am- bulance Service and NSRT member Richard Foster, camped overnight creekside with Coyne, search and rescue specialist Bruce Brink and NSRT member Bill Sigriest. “lt was pretty wild — tight g0- ing in, tight going out. The terrain was very, very treacherous for any kind of extrication. (The) 442 Squadron did a hell of a job. They did an excellent job of getting the patient and us out,’’ Jones added. Coyne, who may have suffered fractured ribs as a result of the fall, is listed in good condition at Vancouver General Hospital. Golf course threatens ancient trees BUT CYPRESS RIDGE DEVELOPERS SAY CEDARS TO BE SAVED CHARGES THAT the proposed Cypress Ridge golf course will threaten a rare stand of old-growth yellow cedar trees have been denied by developers and their consultants. The 27-hole championship golf course, which will be the subject of a West Vancouver District Council public hearing Monday night, will be built on a 350-acre site off Cypress Bowl Road just below the ‘They could be sacrificing those rare trees for a white elephant. ’’ — West Vancouver resident Paul Hundal Cypress Bowl recreation area on Hollyburn Mountain. The $16 million course is already being used as a selling point for the new Deer Ridge condominiums situated further down the road near the Upper Levels Highway. According to West Vancouver Mayor Don Lanskail, most of the municipally-owned golf course site is covered with second-growth trees, The stand of yellow cedar, which is also known as cypress, is in the northern part of the course noted for its old growth trees. ‘*There’s no question that some are well over 500 years old,’’ said Parents of From page 1 until che following January. But the WVSB has now agrecd to take a second vote on the issue. Gerry Humphries, spokesman for the parents’ committee, said he has no quarrel with the dual-entry program. But he said *‘November-December children’ should be allowed to enrol in kindergarten in the previous September, even if the education ministry refuses to hand over the funds for those children until the folowing January. Humphries said his committee has become increasingly frustrated with some WVSB trustees because they are forcing the committee to deal with the education ministry on its own. “We are being asked by the board members to phone the By MAUREEN CURTIS Contributing Writer West Vanccuverite Paul Hundal. Randy St>!tmann, of the Western Canada Wilderness Committee, has also sooken out against the removal of :he old trees. But Frank Sojonky, a partner in Cypress Ridge Golf Ltd. and a partner in the nearby cross-country and downhill Cypress Bowl Recre- ations Ltd. ski resort, has made assurances that special interest trees will be flagged and saved if possible. The golf course's fairways will take up 60 to 70 acres of the 350- acre site. According to plans for the course, an equal or greater width forest separaving the fair- ways will be left virtually un- disturbed. But Hundal said cutting down trees around individual cypress would leave the rare trees open to being blown down. According to Dr. John Worrall of the U.B.C. Forestry Depart- ment, the cypress in the Cypress Ridge area constitute one of the last accessible stands of cypress in the Lower Mainland. “The best (stands) were raped and pillaged in the early °70s,”’ said Worrall. Cypress is in demand in Japan and good quality specimens fetch about $5,500 per truck load. “But this is not a unique eco- system. These trees are part of a band that runs in patches in either direction,’’ said Arnie Dohlen, of Hugh Hamilton Forestry Consui- tants, who has Geen working on the site since last fall. While conceding that some trees will have to go, Sojonky said reve- nues from the wood would go to the municipality and not to the de- velopers. NEWS photo Paul McGrath STANDING NEAR one of the future Cypress Ridge golf course fair- ways, environmentalist Paul Hundal holds the plans for the proposed golf course on Hollyburn Mountain. Local hikers Jeanette Helmer and Elaine Fonseca gaze up at one of the many large cedar trees they fear may be doomed by the development. ‘*Keeping as many trees as possible will make the golf course more attractive and more en- vironmentally sound,’’ said Bob Culbert of Talisman Land Resource Consultants, the com- pany that coordinated the November-December children want ministry to get answers. That is totally unacceptable,’’ said Hum- phries. ‘‘That’s where the frustra- tion is coming from. We have al- ready made our contact with the ministry and we are satisfied with their answers."* Humphries said the WVSB claims it would be illegal for it to allow ‘‘November-December children’’ into kindergarten in September because the B.C. School Act states those children must wait until the following January before entering kindergarten. But Humphries pointed to the North Vancouver District 44 School Board, as well as school boards in Burnaby and Richmond who have all allowed *‘November-December — children’* into kindergarten in September, even though the funding for those children will not come through un- til January. Humphries also pointed to an April 20 letter from West Van- couver-Howe Sound MLA John Reynolds to WVSB chairman Jean Ferguson in which Reynolds states that, according to Education Minister Tony Brummet, it is up to local school boards to decide when to enrol children into kindergarten. “*‘Mr. Brummet goes on to say that no specific funds can be set aside for school districts which choose to admit these students be- fore the designated entry dates,”’ Reynolds states. Humphries said the Reynolds’ letter ‘‘clearly indicates that the ministry is allowing a choice.’’ **1 don't think you gain anything by attacking people, but we are “I don’t think you gain anything by attacking people, but we are mystified by the board’s Stance.”’ — parents’ committee spokesman Gerry Humphries mystified by the board's stance,”’ said Humphries. ‘*We had the un- derstanding that the board was elected by us to look after our best interests.”’ But WVSB's superintendent of schools Doug Player said the Talisman technical environment study of the area. Lanskail has said he is ‘‘more than satisfied’’ with the preparatory work done by the de- veloper. “Environmental studies are still going on,”’ said Lanskail, who ad- ded that municipal staff are monitoring the planning and con- struction phases. The proposed golf course, located at an elevation of about 2,000 feet, will have a relatively short season (about 150 days). And that abbreviated season has raised concerns from some West Vancouverites that the develop- ment will not te economically viable, “They could be sacrificing those rare trees for a white elephant,’’ said Hundal. Norecol Environmental Consul- tants, commissioned by the municipality to review the Talisman report, also questioned the economic feasibility of the course because of the high devel- opment costs involved. But the development company disagrees. “With the explosion of golf,’’ Sojonky said, ‘‘we thought that this course would be very timely — and probably less risky than a ski hill.” Sojonky said his company’s fa- miliarity with the area would be a great asset. And Lanskail pointed out that mountain golf courses have proved their viability in resorts such as Whistler and Banff. As stipulated by the municipali- ty, the general public will be given access to 18 holes two days per week and nine holes seven days per week. West Vancouverites will be given priority for golf club memberships. But, said Elaine Fonseca, who hikes in Cypress Bowl area, “Those yellow cedar are heritage trees and they should work around them. If they don’t get all of their holes, too bad.”’ early start education ministry is not offering school boards a choice of when to enrol the ‘‘November-December children,’’ who number about 23 in West Vancouver. “Not according to the school ct. Section 3 of the school act says children shall enrol on the fol- lowing date,’’ said Player, who added that the two issues involved in the dispute are funding and the liability of allowing ttose children into kindergarten in September. “*Those students are not funded (by education ministry) until January. If we take them in we are taking money away from programs and children who are legitimately there for children who are not le- gitimately there,"’ said Player. “There is also a liability issue. 1 can’t counsel the school board to break the law.”’