Logging plan draws ire in Bragg Creek
Hundreds of worried Rocky View County and Calgary residents turned out to an open house to voice their displeasure for a proposed clearcut west of Bragg Creek, Jan. 26.
The project will help mitigate the risk of fire in the area and help promote sustainable forest growth, according to Alberta Sustainable Resource and Development (SRD).
The area is home to numerous species of wildlife and cross-country skiing and snowshoeing trails, a point of chief concern for Sustain Kananaskis.
“Nineteen out of the 21 official trails are going to be impacted,” said Peter Tucker, group spokesperson. “We have to apply as much pressure as we possibly can to get SRD to dialogue. We have to get them to see there’s so many people affected by this they’re going to say, ‘OK, we need to step back and talk about this.’”
According to SRD, it’s time for the forest to be logged.
“The forest in southwest Alberta is a fire regime,” said Duncan MacDonnell, SRD spokesperson. “It’s designed by nature to burn every 80 to 125, 150 years. That’s how that forest renews itself. It needs fire.”
The last major fire in the west Bragg Creek area was in 1910 and MacDonnell said it’s healthy to have staggered growth.
“You want 10-year-old forest, next to 60-year-old forest, next to 30-year-old river. You want to break up the landing and get some containment lines in there that the fire can’t sweep through,” he said.
Alberta SRD must sign off on Cochrane-based Spray Lake Sawmills’ (SLS) plan before it gives the group permission to log the area, however. The mill has the contract to harvest the timber.
“The harvest plan has not been approved yet, and that could take some time,” said MacDonnell. “We’re the ultimate forest manager.”
Tania Edmunds lives in west Bragg Creek and said she can’t understand why the specific areas to burn were chosen.
“Why can’t they go further in the bush where it’s not affecting recreational users?” she said. “I understand forestry has to happen, but I don’t understand why they are doing it in such a beautiful area. I’m puzzled by it.”
Dean Cockshutt has lived in the area for 20 years and said his anxiety comes from not knowing how the trail will be naturally restored.
“Spray Lake Sawmills says they’re returning them to functional, but that word has a different set of criteria than what users have,” he said, adding his former haunt of McLean Creek has turned into a “water-filled clay trench with zero aesthetic value,” after clear cutting in the area made the trail unusable.
In another room, where residents were packed shoulder-to-shoulder, Redwood Meadows’ Bernie Panchuk questioned Rick Arthur, an SRD wildfire prevention officer about the cutting blocks.
“I’ve seen clear cutting in B.C. before. It ruins the forest,” he said. “The rain season here in June is pretty bad. This river floods all the time. There’s no way the water is going to be held back and that is bothersome, too.”
“I think it’s the best option,” said Arthur. “We have to be more effective and more efficient.”
Arthur said creating fires guards simply doesn’t work and it’s crucial to protect the two most important pieces inside any Alberta forest — people and communities.
“It’s about reducing risk to human life and the community itself,” he said.
“The water coming out of the forest is second to none and I’d say that says something about the forest management plan. We do need disturbances for healthy water plans.”
Gord Lehn is the manager of SLS and said the area doesn’t belong to just one group.
“It is a multiple use zone,” he said. “What it means is we have to try and find how to balance the needs of everybody and live together.”
The forest is growing abnormally and SLS is looking to mimic “natural disturbance patterns.”
“Provincially, this sustainability department is a joke,” said Calgary resident Cathy Steiner. “It’s a misnomer and an insult. They’re not expecting people to really react.”
But for Edmunds, fires are part of the deal when living in the area.
“I’m prepared to take that risk,” she said.
SLS must replant within two years of any clear cut, SRD said.
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