August 4th Logging Protest

'Concerned Citizens of the Sunshine Coast' will hold a logging protest this upcoming Saturday at the bridge spanning the mouth of the Chapman Creek. They ask all citizens throughout the coast who want to see a stop to logging in watersheds to join the protest for whatever time can be spared. Get your family together to make signs and exercise a right denied to many citizens of the world - the right to peaceful protest. If we don't use it, we, too, may lose it.

Saturday, August 4th, 2007
11:00 am - 1:00 pm
Chapman Creek Bridge

(The bridge is located just before Davis Bay when heading north from Gibsons and just after Davis Bay when heading south.)

Support the Chapman Creek Five

It's party time in Roberts Creek! This Saturday night, the Robert's Creek Community Hall welcomes the Sunshine Coast to a benefit concert and dance to raise funds for the Watershed Legal Defense Fund. There will also be a Live Services Auction with the opportunity to bid and out-bid on such items as 'A night at a beautiful B&B.' 'Two hours of with an Accountant.' 'Two hours of quilting lessons for beginners (yeah, Three Ducks on a Roof in Egmont!). The event is also a celebration of the uniting of the Coast from Port Mellon to Egmont over an issue that affects us all - logging in our watersheds. Here are the details:

"Winning the Watershed Benefit"
Saturday, July 28, 2007
7:30 pm
Roberts Creek Community Hall
featuring
The Billy Hillpicker Band
Trudy Diening Groupl with Graham Ord & Blaine Dunnaway
Dance 10 pm - midnight with Fat Fish Creek

The Chapman Creek Five lost their bid to block Western Forest Products' injunction in the BC Supreme Court on the 17th. You can read the Coast Reporter story here or you can read the details on the 'Protect Chapman Creek Watershed' website. The next hope to prevent WFP from moving ahead with its logging rested with the SCRD assuming the role of a Board of Health. It did so on early this week and accepted public submissions on both Monday and Tuesday. As a result of these exemplary submissions, the SCRD in this adopted role issued a 'stop work' order against WFP; however, the motion was too late. After punching through the logging road into the watershed, WFP headed straight for the watershed portion of its cutblock and brought the trees down. You can read the details here. We are all waiting to see what decisive action the SCRD undertakes next.

The concert

Thank you, Joe Stanton and Dennis Jensen for coming to Egmont and putting on a great performance. Thank you, George and Ambrose for the organizing and hall set-up and the really great birthday cake for Joe. Thank you, to the residents from Ruby Lake, North Lake, Waugh Lake, Egmont, Jervis Inlet, Earls Cove and our American boating guests from the government dock for dropping in to listen to some great music. Thank you, for your generous donations and your signatures on our petition. Now, put on those buttons before you head down the road and help spread the message!

Without water, we...die

Chapman Creek supplies 80% of the Sunshine Coast's drinking water. Current industrial activities threaten the quality of this valuable resource. Did you realize that:

• Western Forest Products is currently constructing new logging roads into the Chapman Creek watershed to begin logging immediately
• The Medical Health Officer considers that the logging and road building underway are a threat to our drinking water supply
• CNI holds a gravel mining permit as well as logging rights in the Chapman watershed
• Road building, logging and mining in our watershed will increase turbidity and bacteria counts in the water, change the hydrology of the watershed, will destabilize stream banks and surrounding hillsides, and threaten the creeks salmon stocks
• Alarming, our watershed has no real protections
  

Confirmed speakers include:

Paul Martiquet - Medical Health Officer for the SC
Nicholas Simons - local MLA
Barry Janyk - Mayor of Gibsons, SCRD Director, Gibsons
Dan Bouman - Exec. Director, SC Conservation Assoc.

For more information call 604-886-5730

Sponsered by Concerned Residents of the Sunshine Coast
Endorsed by:
Western Canada Wilderness Committee
Sunshine Coast Conservation Assoc.
SC Water First Society

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The Friends of Egmont encourage everyone to show their support and attend this meeting. The whole peninsula must unite if we have any hope of protecting the watersheds on the Sunshine Coast. FOE is organizing rides, so if you need a lift email us at info@ravagedegmont.com or call George at 604-883-2299

Let's party and make some noise!

Dear friends of Egmont and the Watershed,

Join us on Saturday, June the 16th for a picnic, as Joe Stanton celebrates his birthday with us, performing in the field across from the Community Hall. We will be celebrating not only Joe's birthday, but all the hard work put forward by so many folk over the past month (some much longer).

The day will be a chance to listen to some great music, have a barbecue (BYO), discuss what we have achieved, and all our ideas for the future. Everyone is welcome - an all ages event. If it rains we'll move into the community hall.

For more information call George at 883.2299 ... 8-)

Field Road Demonstration

Four of us headed down to Sechelt today to offer our support for the citizens at that end of the coast who are protesting CNI's logging on their Chapman Creek watershed. We met up at the end of Field Road and I arrived just ahead of the police. They, apparently, wished to make sure we behaved ourselves and, most importantly not impede the flow of traffic on Field Road and Highway 101.

Organizers were extremely happy with the turnout and expressed their gratitude for support from Egmont. We all made our way down Field Rd and then divided and positioned ourselves at the four corners of Field and the Highway. We asked for a show of support from the passing motorists and a great many obliged; the noisiest being BCHydro workers. Way to go, guys!

I thought this demonstration would offer a good opportunity to get our own message across down at that end of the peninsula and made some small cloth banners that we could pin to our shirts both front and back. The message on the front read "Egmont says NO to Tsain-Ko." The message on the back read "NO Clearcuts on Egmont's Watershed." We also took our petitions and petition cards and passed them around to those attending the demonstration. There were many there who were not aware of the logging threat we face. Well, they know now and we have asked them to spread the word and show their support for us. We also invited them to attend the June 4 meeting at our Community Hall.

Joining Forces

Ours in not the only area with logging issues. As you are all aware, CNI has completed its work logging around Wilson Creek and is moving onto Chapman Creek. There has already been one vocal rally against this logging and another is planned for Tuesday, May 29th. Anyone who can attend is asked to meet at the top of Field Road in Wilson Creek at 11:30 am. Representatives from this action group came to our Information Meeting on the 23rd to show their support and we should repay their generosity. Remember, it is very true that "squeaky wheels get oiled" and governments do take notice of protests; more so, if a government is hosting the Olympics.