APPROXIMATELY 100 people attended an information meeting at Dorothy Lynas Elementary school NEWS photo Clady Goodman on Thursday night. The meeting was held to discuss the schaooi’s overcrowding problem. Creeks threatened in WV, ratepayers warn council Council examining current creek protection bylaw : WEST VANCOUVER creeks are being destroyed despite a municipal - creeks Appearing as a. delegation to West Vancouver District Council on Monday night, Fonseca and Helmer said they had first begun complaining to the municipality : about: the. lack of enforcement of “West Vancouver's’ creeks bylaw approximately two years ago. Since then the municipality has “produced a video and creeks in- ventory for West Vancouver, but Fonseca said much more had to .. be. done to preserve area creeks. WV. MAYOR Mark Sager... ‘council working to strengthen “bylaws |. “We ‘want-our creeks left in a natural state;”’ she said. - Fonseca ‘said natural vegetation in creek. beds must be preserved, and she demanded an end to the “practice of placing creeks in culverts. ‘She was particularly disap- pointed with council’s recent deci- sion to allow the culvert on Lawson Creek to be extended near the West Vancouver legion site. “We are destroying part of our heritage,’” said Fonseca, noting that Lawson Creek is named after West Vancouver pioneer John Lawson. Creeks, she said, are tied in with the quality of life in West . Vancouver. “We who protest the logging in the watersheds and building on farmland can’t look after our own backyard,’” added Helmer. She also complained about creeks being put underground. “Older homes were proud to preservation bylaw, Ambleside and Dundarave Elaine Fonseca and Jeanette Helmer. according to Ratepayers represcntatives By Maureen Curtis Contributing Writer have a creek running through their property,”’ Helmer said. “‘Iiow we build right over them.”’ Mayor Mark Sager said that council was aware of the weaknesses of the municipaliy’s current creeks bylaw and is work- ing to strengthen it. Ald. Rod Day said the decision to place Lawson Creek in a culvert at the legion site was com- plicated and tied in with such long-standing problems as area apartment zoning and parking needs. EL SS WEST VANCOUVER DISTRICT COUNCIL Ald. Pat Boname said the creek has already been culverted below that point for the past 30 years. “At that point, whether or not the creek is culverted doesn’t make much of a difference,’’ said Day. He said West Vancouver's new creeks inventory will help protect creeks involved in developments above the Upper Levels Highway. While Ald. Diana Hutchinson agreed with Helmer about the im- portance of creating trail connec- tors associated with creeks, Ald. Don Griffiths stressed the impor- tance of safety and getting creek water to the ocean safely. “It’s very nice to live near a babbling creek, but we have also recently seen pictures of the situa- tion around Los Angeles,”’ said Griffiths, referring to the prob- lems in California created by re- cent record rainfalls. . Schreck, Sunday, February 23, 1992 - North Shore News - 3 Group riled over Deep Cove school crowding MLAs, mayor meet with Dorothy Lynas parents A DEEP Cove elementary school parents’ group has criti- cized Education Minister Anita Hagen for failing to meet with the group on the issue of overcrowding at the school. But North Vancouver-Lonsdale NDP MLA David Schreck said it is physically impossible for Hagen to meet with all parents’ groups in the province. He added that he will deliver a brief prepared by the Dorothy Lynas Schoo! Association to Hagen on Tuesday. The parents’ group held an in- formation meeting at Dorothy Lynas school on Thursday night to inform the public about the overcrowding issue. The mecting also attracted West Van- couver-Capilano Liberal MLA Jeremy Dalton, North Vancouver District Mayor Murray Dykeman and North Vancouver District 44 School Board trustee Don Bell. Susan Berry, a member of the parents’ group, said she hopes the provincial government will ap- prove funding for the expansion of Dorothy Lynas school and the construction of a new elementary school in the Indian River area. Dorothy Lynas opened in 1990 and was immediately filled to its 400-pupil capacity. The school currently has five portable classrooms on its site. Berry said Dorothy Lynas’ cur- rent enrolment is 527. That figure, she said, is expected to reach 600 students by September, resulting in the need for three to four new classrooms. The school is projected to have over 700 students by 1996. “Even if we get four new classrooms we'll stil! have por- tables on the site. They need to build an annex or a new school,”’ said Berry. ‘‘There’s no way the education minister can find the time to meet with us, and that is By Surj Rattan News Reporter very disturbing.’’ She added that the school’s overcrowding is a symptom of “big development’’ in the district. The parents’ group has asked North Vancouver District Council to freeze further housing devel- opment in the Indian River area. Berry said she was disappointed in Schreck’s presentation to the group. “E don’t know what to think. I was very disappointed in David Schreck. On three occasions he said he was not the MLA for the area. Well just because he’s not the MLA, does that mean he can’t intervene on our behalf?”’ Schreck said he has faxed a memo to Hagen saying he will drop off a brief on dehalf of the parents’ group. “It’s totally improper to criti- cize the minister for not meeting with them, because it’s physically impossible. What’s needed is ra- tional arguments,’’ said Schreck. “We've got a situation at Dorothy Lynas where the school was total- ly inadequate when the school . opened. It’s no secret that the government doesn’t have any money.”’ Schreck also criticized Dalton, the Liberal’s education critic, for saying the provincial government should immediately proceed with the construction of the highway interchange project at Westview Drive. Schreck :said Dalton should focus his attention on educational concerns, Continued watershed logging recommended GVRD water committee calls for ongoing environmental studies WATERSHED LOGGING should continue in forest ministry-approved areas but should be subject to ongoing environmental impact studies, the Greater Vancouver Regional District (GVRD) water committee recommended Thursday. Environriental groups have lobbied for a moratorium on logging in the Capilano, Seymour and Coquitlam water- sheds, But the water committee made its recommendation fol-- lowing a meeting with Interna- tional Woodworkers’ Associa- tion (IWA) Canada president Jack Munro and IWA planner Claire Dansereau. The GVRD board will review the recommendation next Fri- day before a final decision is made on the watershed logging issue. Other options considered in- cluded: @an immediate moratorium; @ completing existing logging contracts without renewing those contracts until years of extensive environmental studies have been completed. logging By Cheryl Ziola Contributing Writer During her presentation on behalf of the IWA, Dansereau urged committee members to look beyond the two con- trasting alternatives being “hands off’ or ‘‘business as usual’? approaches. “The hands off approach — which means no logging — utilized in the °30s, ’40s and *50s resulted in increased fires, (water) turbidity and unstable forest,’’ she said, dismissing environmentalists’ claims that watershed logging has caused more water turbidity and tand- slides. She admitted, however, that current logging methods use too much ‘‘slashing and burn- ing.”” The IWA alternative, she said, is a ‘‘pro-active, low- level”? logging approach that would remove ‘‘unstable’’ forests considered susceptible to disease, landslides or forest fires. “Their removal prior to a catastrophic event is in a plan- ned and orderly manner com- bined with a sound reforesta- tion program,’’ Dansereau said. But some committee members were unclear on the definition of ‘‘unstable.”’ “What might be unstable to some might be a mature forest to others,’” argued the commit- tee chairman and Richmond Mayor Greg Halsey-Brandt. West Vancouver Mayor Mark Sager, who also sits on the committee, agreed. Dansereau assured committee members that independent ex- perts, not the IWA, would determine which forests are ‘‘unstable.’” Besides, she said, any logg- ing in watershed areas is ap- proved by the ministries of the environment, forests and fisheries. ‘North Vancouver “You must remember that each of those ministries has a competent staff that does not have timber production as its focus.’* Committee member and Pitt Meadows Mayor Bud Tiedman, who supported continued logg- ing, said he finds the whole logging debate ‘‘nonsensical.”’ The water committee is in danger of being manipulated by special-interest groups, he said. “There’s no compelling evi- dence to indicate that harvest practice has been detrimental to water quality. We are just running scared of political- interest groups.”’ Last November, Sager and District Mayor Murray Dykeman pro- posed unsuccessfully to the committee that watershed logg- ing be stopped at the end of 1991. All three North Shore mayors have said that water quality should be the top prior- ity of the GVRD.