Friends of Egmont
General Delivery, Egmont, B.C. V0N 1N0 Canada
info@ravagedegmont.com www.saveourwatershed.com
F O R M A L C O M P L A I N T L E T T E R
June 6, 2007
Cam Forrester, R.P.F., Consulting Forester
Tsain-Ko Forestry Development Corporation
6231 Sunshine Coast Highway, Sechelt, BC V0N 3A7
RE: Flawed public consultation process & meeting in Egmont, May 23, 2007
TRANSCRIPT OF 3 PARTICIPANTS COMMENTING ON TSAIN-KO'S PRESENTATION:
"I'm afraid from the presentation this evening that my community is going to be devastated. The legalities are of no concern to me because they mean nothing to me. You may be legally covered, but that does not mean to me that you will not devastate my community. What I've heard tonight makes no sense to me because it is not a concrete plan. I am hearing what I perceive to be empty promises, they are just empty words. In fact I don't even really know what it is that is going to be done. I'm afraid that I understand exactly what these people are wanting to say to you. They want concrete, practical reality, hard action answers to their questions and we are just getting smoke. That's my perception of it. So you may feel that you are operating with this community in mind and that you are going beyond the call of duty in your promises to consult us, but it doesn't actually tell us that we have any influence on what you do at all. And our influence is very, very important to us. And when I walk out of here tonight, I don't have any guarantee that you are not going to devastate my community for the next 20 years." - K.F., North Lake
"You can't expect this community not to respond, because those other logging operations can't even compare to what you are planning to do here. This is a home. This is a thriving, growing community. It is a community that has created its businesses based on the people who come to visit us. We have already had to deal with that mess over there. We sat in our homes and listened to trees falling day after day. They didn't take a break. They went straight at it for six months and never stopped. Seven days a week. So you have to understand the emotion that we feel in this community. You picked a really bad time to come here. Come back in seven generations when those trees over there have grown back and then maybe we will talk to you in a reasonable way without feeling strong emotions. We're not Salmon Inlet where nobody lives. We're not Deserted Bay where nobody lives. This is Egmont. This is Earls Cove. This is North Lake. This is people who have homes and this is where logging is going to happen."
- A.H., Egmont
"You know the patch where your logging road is going in, on top of the hill there? That's the patch that blew down approximately seven years ago. That was a pretty severe wind pattern identified in the past, and then in recent times with the blow down along Egmont Road and North Lake, you can see a similar path of wind direction in areas such as the Skookumchuck that came down and got smashed. Lots of other areas North of Egmont on the other side of the stream, got hit a few years ago, and so did Moccasin Valley. It is a continual area of wind coming in, so when you look at what is "wind-firm", how are you going to identify that 150 feet works when it blew that patch where your logging road and the hub is going in? I know it well because I've salvaged there." "
It's a huge patch." a Tsain-Ko consultant interrupted.
"No, it's not. You go to the back, you just get into it 200-300 feet and you are starting to get beyond where that patch took place. There is nothing inthat area that can be considered really wind-firm.The trees in there, the old growth fir are only 93 years of age." - D.D., Egmont
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Dear Mr. Forrester,
The community at large represented by the Friends Of Egmont, would like to thank you and the other Tsain-Ko Forestry Development Corporation consultants for coming to meet with us in our community hall on May 23rd.
It is unfortunate that although there was much participation at this public consultation meeting, the lines of communication and mutual understanding could not be opened between the representatives of the logging corporation and the 70 residents of Egmont, North Lake, Klein Lake, Ruby Lake, Earls Cove, Pender Harbour, Roberts Creek, Sechelt and Gibsons.
At the start of that meeting, Friends Of Egmont invited everyone in the audience to come to a strategy meeting, which was held five days later at the Egmont Community Hall on May 28th. About 50 people participated in a two-hour long discussion about how we felt as a community having now heard Tsain-Ko's presentation. The consensus among the group was of dissatisfaction with what Tsain-Ko is calling a "public consultation process".
Residents complained that from the start, this public consultation process has not been people-friendly. Tsain-Ko's announcement of a "public display" to be set up in the Sechelt Public Library and the museum in Egmont, was barely advertised in a couple of local newspapers.
We expected the display to show clearly where the logging operations would specifically take place, and how large the cut blocks would be. Instead, the "public display" of logging plans at the Sechelt Public Library consisted of two rolled-up maps lying on a shelf with no signs or explanation whatsoever. But even when the maps were spread out and displayed properly like they were in the Egmont Heritage Centre, the maps were so cryptic that many people complained that we still could not understood from the markings where or what would be cut or left.
This inadequate public display caused more confusion than answers and should not be classified as a part of a proper public consultation process. Therefore, Friends Of Egmont would like to complain that the process failed miserably in this first phase.
Unfortunately, the community at large, as reported in the radio and the newspapers last week, is disappointed with phase two, as well. The May 23rd public consultation meeting in Egmont was not conducive to exchanging information and therefore failed as another important part of a public consultation process.
Many people complained that the power-point presentations were difficult to follow because every slide seemed to contain a very large amount of small red text on a busy background photo. The text in red colour made it a challenge to read and follow the presentation. This is at odds with your message of good will toward the community Tsain-Ko plans to profit from, and we expected professionals such as Mr. Warren Hansen and Mr. Cam Forrester to know better when it comes to giving presentations.
The power-point presentations showed that in Tsain-Ko's list of priorities, first comes the financial gain they expect from this proposed venture, and this makes sense because the only reason for the existence of corporations is profit. However, it is a pity that profits pushes native rights issues down the list - and then way down the list is consulting with the affected community, followed by watershed strategies and finally as the least of Tsain-Ko's concerns is the displacement of wildlife. It's hard to see the sacredness of this land we all share, reflected in
these priorities.
Since Tsain-Ko is trying to come across as a corporation that is responsible and transparent in its dealings, it was a shock for us to realize that when the consultants finished their presentations, the audience was told that there would be no Q&A period. When we tried to voice our concerns as a group, the consultants told us that they would not answer any questions from the audience and we would have to approach them individually. Mr. Hansen put it this way, "I'm comfortable dealing with you on a one-on-one basis. That's how I deal with it."
Clearly Mr. Hansen prefers private meetings with individuals in the community instead of addressing the public as a group at the meetings, because although we had already contacted Tsain-Ko prior to the May 23rd meeting collectively as the Friends Of Egmont by sending them a letter on May 17th, Mr. Hansen still approached individuals to engage in private negotiations before the meeting. We feel that this shows a lack of respect to our community as a group.
We are extremely concerned with the fact that once Tsain-Ko pushes new logging roads into our 100 year-old rainforests, more than a dozen logging corporations are posed to come into this area to keep logging it.
This was made clear to us when at the public meeting Mr. Hansen said during his presentation, "So our watershed strategy is really for Tsain-Ko. There are other licensees in the area but that's not something that we can speak to, nor speak for them. So basically this watershed strategy applies to existing roads and cut-block development for Tsain-Ko only."
To illustrate this point, Mr. Hansen's employer Chartwell Consultants with a staff of 45 people, manages public relations campaigns for about that many logging operations. Therefore, whatever Tsain-Ko negotiates with Friends Of Egmont, other logging corporation have no obligation to respect the promises made and would log as they please. Our community's goal is to take a reasonable position that would apply to Tsain-Ko and to all other logging corporations, because this simple fact defeats the purpose of focusing on only one, and not all the other logging corporations.
Our community wishes to maintain healthy watersheds over the long term, and we are looking for tangible assurances that logging will not occur in our watersheds. But elements of the professional records of some of Tsain-Ko representatives at the public meeting raise serious doubts as to whether we and they speak the same language in regards to inflicting unacceptable damage to ecological integrity.
For example, under his previous employer, CANFOR, Mr. Hansen took part in the destruction of a large area on Dakota Ridge where logging had to be stopped after just two cut blocks caused massive slides and erosion. Needless to say, Mr. Hansen's assurances that logging in our area will not cause destruction, have come into serious question in our community.
Also of great concern to us for his professional legacy, is another one of Tsain-Ko's representatives at the public meeting, Mr. Ken Sneddon of Sechelt Creek Contracting Ltd. This company extracts wood with high efficiency, cutting each tree in less than a minute and using a minimum of human labour.
Mr. Sneddon has been hired by Tsain-Ko to log right up to the Skookumchuck Narrows Provincial Park - bizarrely referred to by Mr. Hansen during his whole presentation as "Egmont Park", the name of the one-acre field outside our community hall. Mr. Sneddon has also been hired to clear cut areas in Egmont, Earls Cove, salmon-bearing Earls Creek, Waugh Lake (Egmont's water supply), North Lake, Klein Lake, Ruby Lake, and into Jervis and Sechelt Inlets.
Friends Of Egmont was alarmed to discover that Mr. Sneddon's company is currently contracted by Columbia National Investments (CNI), the company that is being strongly criticized for the destruction of Wilson Creek, a watershed where 80% of Sechelt residents get their drinking water.
Photographs collected by a group of Sechelt residents who are trying to save their own watershed, show the damage in the area. It is shocking to see the amount of logging debris that has been piled high on top of the running creek. Fortunately, the authorities have now started an investigation, after officials for the Sunshine Coast Regional District flew over Wilson Creek to witness first hand the damage reported by concerned Sechelt residents.
Although Mr. Sneddon did not officially do a presentation at the public consultation meeting, he did address us as a crowd on several occasions during the evening. Unfortunately, he insulted the audience when he said, "This license belongs to the Sechelt Indian community, and while I respect the notion that you guys live here currently, no doubt about that, maybe if we all take a breath, we might understand how some natives feel now." The audience reacted loudly and the meeting was immediately disrupted.
Friends Of Egmont would like to register a formal complaint on behalf of all residents of Egmont, including those of us of Sechelt or other aboriginal heritage, for Mr. Sneddon's inappropriate and insensitive comment, which at once usurped a proud people's right to speak for themselves, patronized the audience, and distracted mightily from the discussion of the proposals Tsain-Ko was asking us to accept.
Continuing with our comments regarding your presentation, Mr. Forrester, we must complain about your starting joke as also being insensitive to our community. "You all heard, why did the Canadian cross the road, right?" you asked, "To get to the middle. Maybe we'll get there." you replied to yourself. In our May 17th letter to Tsain-Ko, we made it very clear that Friends of Egmont will not compromise and try to "get to the middle". We demand a complete stop to Tsain-Ko's plans to clear cut the area and log in our watersheds.
We also felt that Mr. Forrester's decision to use as a background photo for his power-point presentation the view from Egmont of the abominable and enormous clear cut across the Skoockumchuck Narrows on what used to be beautiful forests climbing up Earls Range Mountains to meet with snow-covered peaks above, was insensitive and confrontational. These mountains were our pride and joy, and our million dollar view. The image mocked us with its destruction, while the red text told us of more to come.
Why did neither Mr. Forrester nor Mr. Hansen include in their presentations the computer-generated slides of "before and after" photos of the areas Tsain-Ko plans to log here? If they had, it would have helped us get a sense of what the views would be like after Tsain-Ko logged the mountains we know and love, overlooking magnificent lakes and inlets, covered in beautiful 100 year old cedars, fir, spruce and hemlock, important habitat for so many species of wild animals and native plants.
Clearly it would have been a shock for us to see your computer-generated photos of what those beautiful mountains would look like if Tsain-Ko goes ahead and clear cuts this area. Nevertheless, the very fact that this graphic information was never presented to us at the meeting is not right and this should be remedied immediately. Therefore, the Friends Of Egmont formally and respectfully request that you please mail us copies of the before-and-after photographs currently in the possession of Tsain-Ko.
Regarding the presentation at the public meeting by another consultant for Tsain-Ko, Mr. Brian Carson - he was introduced to the audience as a "hydrologist" and calls himself the "Water Guy", but we have been informed that he is actually a geologist, not a hydrologist. Therefore, Friends Of Egmont requests that you clarify this concern with Mr. Carson's credentials. If this is true, that he is a geologist and not a hydrologist, it would raise yet another red flag for our community in regards to Tsain-Ko's credibility and public accountability.
Friends Of Egmont feels that Mr. Carson was not there to be helpful. He told us that in a list of possible disasters that could happen to our watershed, he places "logging" in 7th place. We feel that it would have been nice of him to tell us what the other 6 concerns higher on the list are. Instead, he told us not to be concerned with logging operations in this area and only worry about (a) the possibility that a truck might drive accidentally into one of our lakes; and (b) housing developments.
If we further pursue Mr. Carson's argument, then it is logical to conclude that we should be concerned with logging operations indeed, because Tsain-Ko's plans call for what we calculate to be approximately 2,000 logging trucks (weighing about 80,000 lbs loaded with timber) driving by our lakes for the next five years. If just one of those trucks, or any of the skidders, tankers and other heavy equipment used in logging operations, should fall and rupture close to our watershed, the water supply for an entire community would be destroyed - and no amount of compensation would bring that back.
This grave possibility should raise red flags for everyone involved, but especially for Mr. Carson who is the one issuing the warning in the first place. How he considers logging to be so low on his list of concerns for our lakes is beyond us. An issue that consultants did not raise either, is our community's concern with the enormous damage logging trucks cause on public roads. The combined massive weight of all the trucks rolling down the only road we have into Egmont is something we must seriously reconsider. Even though the provincial government just spent over $500,000 to repair a small part of our road, it still has no shoulders and the repairs have not stopped the erosion in some key stretches of the road. If Tsain-Ko, followed by other logging corporations run thousands of truck-loads up and down our roads, this will cause great damage. These roads were not built to support the amount of weight and volume that heavy equipment uses in logging operations.
Furthermore, the mud, stones and logging debris that will be deposited on our roads will make the 6 km trip into Egmont a hazard and an ordeal for all residents (and visitors alike) robbing us of the wonderful experience it now is to drive home through our beautiful rainforest, where we regularly see woodpeckers and eagles, as well as deer and elk feeding next to the road.
The fact that Tsain-Ko feels it is acceptable to leave a buffer zone of "one-tree length" from the road as view, is totally absurd and we expressed that at the consultation meeting. Many of us are familiar with such buffer zones in other areas and we know that they do not work because you can see right behind those few trees flanking the sides of the road, acres and acres of destruction left there after clear cut logging operations devastated the area.
Furthermore, Tsain-Ko did not address climate change concerns we raised. Unusually strong storms left this community without power and telephone for weeks during this past winter. Thousands of trees fell when 100 Km winds reached the forests. The thin line of trees by the road Tsain-Ko is proposing to leave, will never withstand the forces of nature, which scientists predict will become greater as the earth continues to warm.
Mr. Carson also warned us of the problems and destruction that housing developments bring to an area and its watersheds. However, once again following the logic of his own argument, it is well known that logging operations carried out close to residential areas are always followed by housing developments. Therefore, Mr. Carson once again contradicts himself when he recommends we stop worrying about logging in our watersheds, and start worrying about developers, when it is clear that logging comes first, and development follows closely thereafter. That is extremely worrisome to our community, now on the edge of being invaded and destroyed starting this fall.
No consultant was interested in discussing our concerns with the displacement of wildlife and the ever expanding housing developments of this area. It is clear to us that if our community does not stop the proposed logging around the lakes, it will only be a matter of time before the area contains more houses and people.
How will this wild ecosystem be able to survive and maintain the clean air and what's classified as the best drinking water in the world? It is alarming for us to hear other experts who oppose logging in watersheds, tell us that within two years of Tsain-Ko logging ours, we will need to chlorinate the water in Waugh Lake, something completely unacceptable to us.
If Mr. Carson was not being paid by the logging industry, we wonder if he would have come to the public meeting to help us save our watershed and stop the logging. Surely he must be aware that NASA and other scientists are predicting that within the next ten years there will be a major shift in weather patterns, and when Greenland or Antarctica melt, as is predicted to happen within a few short years, the Sechelt Peninsula will become an island and sea levels may increase 20 or more feet.
The good news is that are our watershed would probably be able to survive the flooding. The bad news is that if the forest that surrounds Waugh Lake is logged, it is probable that the increasing summer temperatures and water demand would quickly dry up our lake after first becoming unusable, stagnant and polluted.
At the public meeting, there was no attempt by the consultants to even try to reply to the concerns we raised in our May 17th letter to Tsain-Ko. Granted that Mr. Hansen did show one slide, which acknowledged Egmont residents' concerns with the views of scarred hillsides across the Skookumchuck Narrows, but he did not offer any comments, solutions or even mention the fact that clearcuts in this area have already affected recreational tourism opportunities, even though we explained in our letter that these proposed logging operations will most certainly aggravate the economic situation in Egmont and the surrounding areas.
Although this is obviously a flawed and biased public consultation process, the Friends Of Egmont representing 140 residents of this area and the lakes, plus many concerned visitors who have signed petitions, would like to submit this formal complaint letter as part of our group's submissions to Tsain-Ko and the Ministry of Forests.
Please find enclosed copies of our petitions containing almost 600 signatures of people opposed to your plans to log this area. These signatures were gathered in less than two weeks. You can tell by the signatures that the vast amount of people walking around Egmont are tourists from all over the world and closer to home, as well.
We know that Tsain-Ko has also received numerous phone calls, post cards, e-mails, and letters from around the planet, all opposing your plans to log our watersheds. Associations of kayakers who love to surf the Skookumchuck Rapids, are incensed by Tsain-Ko's proposal and are now organizing campaigns that include proposals for producing documentaries and a larger information distribution.
Closer to home, Friends Of Egmont is aware that Tsain-Ko has also received a letter from Sunshine Coast Bed & Breakfast, Cottage Owners Association in support of our plea to stop logging in this area. The Egmont Cove Property Owners Association that holds 28 licenses to draw water from Waugh Lake to supply residents of Egmont with drinking water, wrote in their letter to Tsain-Ko dated May 17, "Our Association would like to advise your firm of our ongoing objection to any logging practices being carried out in and around our watershed areas.Water is far too important to jeopardize for the small short term economic gain realized by your logging in the area."
We hope all this correspondence will be dutifully handed over to the Ministry of Forests and that the Minister will realize that plans to log this area should be abandoned immediately. In turn, Friends Of Egmont will forward this letter to other appropriate Ministers who should be made aware of the pending disaster if Tsain-Ko does not abandon plans to clear cut this area and our watersheds.
To be fair, we did consider as a group proposing to Tsain-Ko that we would help work out a longer tenure to allow for the corporation to selectively log. But then we decided not to do that, after we realized that (a) what the government calls "selective logging" looks just like clear cutting to us. That clear cut across from Egmont is classified by government as a "managed forest", and nothing could be further from the truth. And (b) commercial loggers such as Mr. Sneddon's corporation are not set up to log in a fashion that is acceptable to us.
The other reason why this public consultation process has becomes a farce is timing.
Many of us have contacted our MLA Mr. Nicholas Simons who's job is to deal with the provincial government on our behalf. Mr. Simons has already received copies of many emails going to Tsain-Ko, plus some phone calls from his constituents. His assistant attended our public meetings, but timing is the problem here because Mr. Simons can't raise this issue in the Legislature since it just closed for the summer, and Tsain-Ko plans to start logging in the fall.
Therefore, it has become very clear to us that this public consultation process isn't going to serve our community. Instead, this process was strategically put in place to serve the logging corporation.
Finally, we would like to make our position as a group very clear to you, and all of those involved in this controversial venture, that we strongly oppose your proposals to log in our watersheds or to clear cut anywhere in this recreational area.
We are hopeful that Tsain-Ko will listen to our plea, show good faith to residents and visitors to the Skookumchucks area, and therefore avoid physical confrontation in the fall.
Once again, we'd like to remind you to please forward to us the photographs of the areas you plan to log and the ones using computer generated cut blocks to show the magnitude of the proposed logging operation. As well, we would also like to request that you please send us a copy of the Forest Stewardship Plan.
Many thanks for your attention to this matter.
Sincerely,
Friends of Egmont
cc.
- Mr. John Rees, Director for Electoral Area A, Sunshine Coast Regional
District
- Mr. Nicholas Simons, MLA Sunshine Coast
- Mr. Bob Simpson, Opposition Forest Critic
- Provincial Government
- Media
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