SKOOKUMCHUCK, BC — Plans in the works for 10 new cutblocks to be harvested this year in the Egmont area have sparked concern that BC Timber Sales hasn’t given enough notice to the community, contravening communications protocol. “I’m quite concerned with the timeframe and lack of community consultation and presentations,” said Pender Harbour/Egmont director Leonard Lee. …“They seem to have abandoned the communication protocol in the rush to harvest cutblocks.” Directors receive BCTS five-year operating plans annually and provide comment, as part of a communication protocol with the organization that was signed in 2014. …To deal with the short notice, Lee asked for community consultation prior to cutblock design.

The Saskatchewan Wildlife Federation and Tree Canada joined forces to plant 20,000 trees on the weekend on Wildlife property about 10 kilometres north of Veregin. …The SWF and Tree Canada partnered to plant 20,000 white spruce seedlings through their National Greening program, a mass seedling planting program which targets areas in need of reforestation or afforestation across Canada, said a release from Tree Canada. Co-ordinated by a Tree Canada contractor, in consultation with the SWF land manager and area members, the planting was on 22 hectares of land adjacent to the Assiniboine River. …The reduction of wind erosion and the stabilization of the soil brought about by planting trees will also result in a cleaner Assiniboine river and watershed.

The Tsilhqot’in Nation is organizing a peaceful action to protest exploratory drilling by Taseko Mines Ltd. west of Williams Lake. The TN said they will be exercising their Aboriginal rights and ancestral laws to protect Teztan Biny (Fish Lake) and Yanah Biny (Little Fish Lake), a place of cultural and spiritual significance for the Tsilhqot’in people, from the drilling program by TML in support of the rejected New Prosperity Mine proposal. “This project is dead,” said Tsilhqot’in National Government Tribal Chairman and Tl’etinqox Chief Joe Alphonse. “It cannot be built. Yet the company wants to come in and tear up a place that is as sacred to us as a church. We are deeply concerned about this escalating conflict. …“When the Tsilhqot’in must defend itself from invaders, it brings us back more than 150 years and makes us feel that nothing has changed with regards to Crown and Indigenous relations,” said Yunesit’in Chief and TNG vice-chair Russell Myers Ross.

CALGARY –Lake Louise Ski Resort argued in Calgary court last Friday (June 28) that the judge that fined it $2.1 million under the Species at Risk Act (SARA) for cutting down endangered trees, erred in law and her sentence should be reconsidered. Lake Louise Ski Area is one of the first companies to be prosecuted under the act and the charges stemmed from a 2013 incident when employees did not have the required permits in place to do tree clearing on Ptarmigan Ridge and ended up destroying endangered whitebark pine trees. The tree species, which exists only at higher elevations in the Rocky Mountains, were listed as an endangered species the year prior and are protected under SARA. …The judge reserved her decision for a future court date yet to be determined.

The South Okanagan-Similkameen region is an ecological treasure. …For millennia, the syilx/Okanagan Nation has called this region home and has been steward of the land, water, plants, and animals that make this place so special. …Today, the Governments of Canada and British Columbia and the syilx/Okanagan Nation signed a Memorandum of Understanding to formally work toward establishing a national park reserve in the South Okanagan-Similkameen. This is a significant step towards the establishment of a national park reserve in the South Okanagan-Similkameen. …The iʔ sc̓ax̌ʷtət / Memorandum of Understanding confirms the working boundary for the proposed national park reserve, outlines next steps and provides a framework of naqscn/knʔxtwix / collaboration as negotiations begin for an establishment agreement… Working together, the Governments of Canada and British Columbia and the syilx/Okanagan Nation are taking action to protect this iconic natural and cultural landscape for future generations.

Jimmie Hodgson

Mosaic Forest Management is on its toes and urging the public to be more cautious after two record-setting wildfire seasons and the prospect of a third this summer. Mosaic — which oversees the operations of Island Timberlands and TimberWest after the two affiliated last year — counted 66 wildfires on its land base in 2018. …In all, 80 percent were human-caused wildfires, twice the average for B.C. “We’ve definitely ramped up our response people,” said Jimmie Hodgson, senior manager of forest operations. …Mosaic is better equipped to take on wildfires on their own this year without relying so much on B.C. Wildfire’s Coastal Fire Centre. When the provincial wildfire situation gets intense, provincial resources can be heavily taxed.