Early-morning action is anti-loggers' first blastGulf Islands Driftwood
Tuesday, January 04, 2000By Mike Levin
The standoff between Texada Land Corporation and Salt Spring anti-logging activists is about to reach its first flash point.
Faced with a Direct Action Committee blockade of its south-end logging operations early this morning (Wednesday), Texada officials said they would be surprised if extensive civil disobedience actually happened.
“I would be absolutely stunned if they did something so short-sighted. But if that’s the course they choose to take, then we are prepared for it,” director Derek Trethewey said Monday. “They cannot stop the logging so it would only be a temporary hassle.”
On-island operations manager Brent Kapler said he had no plan to deal with a possible blockade because “I can’t see it happening. But if it does, we’ll have to play it by ear.”
The goal of the committee’s protest is simply to make a point, not break the law, said organizer Robert Osborne.
“We plan on blocking one truck for the time it takes for an official, probably a policeman, to ask us to leave,” Osborne said. “It is a message to (Texada’s) owners and the provincial government that we could stop the clear-cutting.”
Local RCMP sergeant Paul Darbyshire said he plans to attend the 8 a.m. protest but will have a low-key presence.
“We will just stand by and keep the peace,” Darbyshire said.
Most citizens groups facing off with Texada have never questioned the right of the company to log their land. Their biggest concerns are about the rate of harvest and the timing.
“We just want them to slow, or delay, so we have time to prioritize and appraisal parcels that could be purchased,” said Gary Holman, director of the South and West Conservation Partnership.
Holman said he believed that local fundraising has reached close to $10,000 in cash and pledges. A large donation is expected to be announced Thursday evening during a regular opposition-group meeting at Fulford Hall.
Company officials insist they are sticking to a public code of principles developed in conjunction with local environmental groups and are therefore taking “the most responsible path available for a harvesting operation.”
In early December the company hired Salt Spring forester Terry Gordon in response to community demand for tighter monitoring of logging on Mount Tuam.
Gordon works with Texada’s forestry consultant Julian Dunster.
“I was hired to delineate sensitive ecosystems, such as wildlife trees and old-growth, and to help maintain visual esthetics so that (Texada) could stay within their code of principles,” he said. “As far as I can see they are doing everything they said they would.”
Gordon is bound by a non-disclosure clause as part of his contract, which means that he must vet all sensitive information with company executives before releasing it to the public.
“I have to walk my own line of ethics, and it’s a bit of a balancing act, obviously. But it was (director) Derek Trethewey who called me and asked what could be done to help solve local concerns,” Gordon said. “In all the work I’ve done so far, none has been overruled.”
Cutting was set to resume Tuesday after a holiday break from December 22, according to Dunster. Kapler said he thought the daily take was between three and five acres, up slightly from the amount logged when the operation began commenced in early November.
Logging restarted on Mount Tuam but not Mount Maxwell as many feared.
“There was talk of going to Maxwell, but I’m pretty sure it has been deferred until we talk with the watershed people,” Dunster said.
Company officials have recently held talks with North Salt Spring Waterworks about the effects of logging on the north side of Burgoyne Bay.
“We’ve done some surveying of things like creeks but basically we talked to them about their concerns for the area, so we’re doing some more investigation,” said Kapler.
The company is also paying for a computer model of what the area’s viewscapes will look like after logging is complete, a plan which came out of earlier meetings with the Islands Trust.
While the most polarized opposition to Texada expresses a zero tolerance to logging, forester Gordon believes that situation could be much worse than it is now.
“I managed the land for the previous owners, who were German aristocrats, in the early 1990s and it is ironic that most people don’t know that they were looking seriously at developing the area since 1990,” he said. “It’s not like this type of thing wasn’t ever going to happen but at least (Texada) has given the public all sorts of access that the Germans didn’t.
“These new owners have made a substantial investment and they know if they harvest too much that’ll hurt the value of the land. If they aren’t allowed a reasonable return they could be pushed into the type of land auction that (continues to) screw up Galiano.”
Land formerly owned by Macmillan-Bloedel on Galiano has been extensively clear-cut during the past 10 years as owners try to realize a return from properties denied development potential.
Regulations for logging on private land will not be introduced until April but will need a one-year phase-in before they have any teeth, Gordon explained.
E-mail the writer: Mike Levin
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