As
logging in the Castle region is set to begin, environmental groups have
launched a campaign asking retailers and consumers to spurn wood
products from that part of southwestern Alberta.
Canada's "battles in the woods" flare up in Prairie headwatersNanton News - Apr 26, 2011
A market action against clear-cut logging in the southern headwaters of
the Prairie Provinces has been launched by local and national
conservation groups, with international ones adding their names to the
grassroots action. It focuses on the Crowsnest ... Article in Calgary Herald March 07, 2011 Businesses want better protection of lands in the Castle wilderness Article in Lethbridge Herald March 03, 2011 Tourism Warning CLICK HERE FOR THE Tourism & Recreation Industry
Advisory Background: The Logging o The Beaver Mines Lake - Castle Falls logging license is in the core of the Castle Special Management Area, in amongst four of the five Provincial Recreation Areas there: Beaver Mines Lake, Castle Falls, Castle River Bridge and Lynx Creek. o As none of the Crowsnest Forest (headwaters of the Oldman River Basin), including the Castle has been assigned to private companies through Forest Management Agreements, all of the timber management decisions rest with the Government, including what is logged or set aside. Thus, as with the Whaleback Special Place announced in 1999, the province can cancel the license. o According to Spray Lake Sawmills’ new five-year General Development Plan (2010-14) approved by SRD April 2010, logging the license will total two logging seasons (i.e. short-term jobs) and amounts to 5% of the total timber for the mill over that five-year period. (Summary Table at http://www.spraylakesawmills.com/Woodlands/ForestManagementPlanning/GeneralDevelopmentPlans/tabid/274/Default.aspx ) o The company has maintained at public open houses that they won’t be making any profit to speak of from logging the Castle Special Management Area. o Logging trucks will haul through the community of Beaver Mines.
The Special Place o The government added the Castle Special Management Area as one of Alberta’s 81 Special Places to the province’s protected areas network in 1998. Decision at http://www.sierraclub.ca/sites/sierraclub.ca/files/1998_decision.pdf o Government still maps it as a protected area and Special Place. http://www.tpr.alberta.ca/parks/managing/establishing.asp#special o Once part of Waterton Lakes National Park, it is the province’s most biologically diverse area and an extension of the park’s internationally renowned landscapes. . It includes habitat for 223 species listed as rare or at risk of extirpation in Alberta. o The current, Cabinet-approved land-use plan (Castle River Sub-regional Integrated Resource Plan, 1985) says the highest priority of the area is watershed protection, tourism and recreation. (PDF page 23, doc page 16 at http://www.srd.alberta.ca/ManagingPrograms/Lands/Planning/documents/IntegratedResourcePlan-CastleRiverSub-Regional-1985.pdf o The whole “protected area” is also a Forest Land Use Zone, originally described by the government as “designed primarily to protect areas containing sensitive resources.” http://www.srd.alberta.ca/RecreationPublicUse/RecreationOnPublicLand/ForestLandUseZones/Default.aspx o Much of the logging license area has been zoned since 1985 by the province as Critical Wildlife or General Recreation (Castle River Sub-regional Integrated Resource Plan). Maps on poster at http://stopcastlelogging.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/loggingposterwmapsaug_10_10_print.jpg Tourism & Legislated Protected Areas Alberta Government objective is to expand the tourism sector 10% by 2011-12. Legislated protected areas are an important part of that sector, including for adjacent rural communities.
[1] Alberta Tourism, Parks and Recreation. 2006. Value of Alberta Parks … priceless. http://www.albertaparks.ca/pubsandmedia/2006_value_of_alberta_parks.pdf [2] Alberta Tourism, Parks and Recreation. 2008. Tourism Works for Alberta. http://www.tpr.alberta.ca/tourism/research/docs/EconomicImpactAlberta2008communications.pdf |
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