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Logging plan is mystifying to resident

The question is why is any industrial activity or boundary adjustment allowed in our Provincial Parks?

Re: Logging plan could help Agassiz-Harrison emergency route (Thurs. Apr. 3, 2014)

I fail to understand why the local councils contacted Forest Lands & Natural Resources Operations Minister Steve Thomson suggesting the logging road through Sasquatch Park would serve as an evacuation route from Agassiz-Harrison? Maybe for Harrison as we have only the Hot Springs Road to exit our town but Agassiz has #7 highway both East and West as well as # 9 Highway.

However I am still confused. In January 2014, I was part of a Chilliwack Field Naturalists’ delegation that met with Tamihi Loggings’ Seabird Island First Nation Representative concerning the Boundary Adjustment Proposal. It was my understanding, because the route through Ruby Creek is not passable, they were requesting the boundary adjustment.  Can someone enlighten me, please?

In addition, if the Parks Branch would let Seabird Band haul logs and equipment without a boundary adjustment– i.e. not remove the road from Parks Branch jurisdiction and not transfer it through a Cabinet Order in Council to FLNRO’s care- then Seabird would only seek permission to haul.

I hiked in Sasquatch Park on Sunday.  Part of the circuit around Hicks Lake has become a rocky, haul road. I witnessed a small boy hiking with his family fall down and cry. The old dirt road was soft! The sound of chain saws whining and trees falling spoiled the sound of my day. This is not the road Seabird Band is requesting but another area of the park in use by BC Hydro for twinning the transmission line from Nicola to Coquitlam.

The question is why is any industrial activity or boundary adjustment allowed in our Provincial Parks?  The BC Parks Branch website tells me Class “A” parks, such as Sasquatch are dedicated to the preservation of their natural environments for the inspiration, use and enjoyment of the public. Are we now to see our parks whittled away hectare by hectare by road removal for industrial purposes?  Logging and hydro are not the only interests. Mining, gas and oil are waiting their turn too! And of course are two local councils for the evacuation road.

The whole situation mystifies me!

Janne Perrin

Harrison Hot Springs, BC