Western Canada Wilderness Committee, Mid-Island Chapter
Box 442, Qualicum Beach, BC, V9K lS9, ph. 250 752-6585, fax: 250 752-7085
email: wcwcqb@shaw.ca

Wednesday, January 21, 2004

Bill Zinovich
Recreation Officer (Project Manager for proposed Cathedral Grove parking lot)
Ministry of Water Land and Air Protection
Telephone 1-250-751-7035 Fax 1-250-751-3103
email Bill.Zinovich@gems9.gov.bc.ca

-open letter sent via email with copies via Canada Post and Registered Mail

re: Revised Plans for Cathedral Grove Parking Lot Proposal

Dear Mr. Zinovich,

On behalf of the 27,000 members of the Western Canada Wilderness Committee, I am requesting that your government publicly reveal the revised plans and costs for the Cathedral Grove parking lot proposal to allow for public review and comment before any bids for tender are awarded. I would also like to ask for an evaluation of our alternative proposal (i.e. have you examined it and assessed its viability? If so, please provide me with a copy of that evaluation so that the Wilderness Committee and the public can see whether it’s fairly based on the facts, etc.

The costs and design for the highway widening and the very wide walkway through 400 500 metres of sensitive wetland habitat must be presented to the public. How can the cost of the walkway be part of the $2 million parking lot estimate if the location for this major walkway has not yet even been determined, or assessed environmentally for its impact on this rare and sensitive oldgrowth wetland. A very wide boardwalked walkway with bridges and culverts through the wetlands is more costly, both economically and environmentally, than a gravel trail.

As a result of the tour in Cathedral Grove last Sunday, January 18, the approximately 75 people that came from all over Vancouver Island-Victoria, Nanaimo, Port Alberni, Parksville, Qualicum Beach and north are requesting that the revised parking lot proposal be made public and that the public be able to review and comment on the revised proposal before any bids for tender are awarded.

As much interest for the tour was expressed and 75 people was a maximum number for such a tour, weekly tours are now being set up to accommodate the growing public interest and concern.

For the record I am still waiting for responses to my written suggestions, proposals, phone calls and questions to both Minister Murray’s office and M.L.A. Gillian Trumper. At the Oct. 15/03 “Community Information Meeting” which was closed to the public and by strict invitation only, it was announced that the parking lot proposal would go ahead on the floodplain and be completed by spring 2004.

Since that meeting, I have contacted you almost weekly, asking for the date when the proposal would be going out to tender. I was very surprised to hear when I called you the first week in January, that the project was put out to tender on Dec. 23, a day or two after I had contacted you that week.

Have you pre-selected a contractor to do the work or are there complete working drawings available to more accurately review the impact of the new intersection, access road, parking lot, and walkway which is planned to connect to the existing trails?

I will be including in the mail and fax, the signatures of some of the concerned citizens from all over Vancouver Island who presented me with this petition after the tour, stating: “We, the following, are opposed to the provincial government’s present plan for Cathedral Grove. We endorse the attached proposed plan.”

As concerned citizens, we do not wish our taxpayer money to be wasted on compensation to bidders for a proposal that may not be supported by the public, the residents of BC, or the international community.

Yours truly,

Annette Tanner, chairperson
Western Canada Wilderness Committee, Mid Island Chapter

cc. Premier Gordon Campbell
Hon. Joyce Murray, Water, Land and Air Protection
Hon. Stan Hagen, Ministry of Sustainable Resources
Gillian Trumper, MLA
Hon. David Anderson, Minister of the Environment

Petition Attachment: Solutions for Cathedral Grove Parking lot location

The Western Canada Wilderness Committee has recommended as one of the solutions for the location of the proposed Cathedral Grove parking lot, the end of the Weyerhaeuser land where a wide 2- kilometre length of road has been clearcut to the boundary of the park.

· The location on higher ground provides better drainage and more stable ground for the maintenance of infrastructure and for the retension of the large trees in the park. The big trees at the end of this clearcut are not as waterlogged in the winter and therefore not as unstable as the large giants on the floodplain.

· The Wilderness Committee’s proposed location is near the highway, away from the elk corridor and floodplain habitat along the river and will not disturb the elk corridor or destroy the elk habitat. Most of the deer and elk winter range around Cathedral Grove has been logged. MacMillan Provincial Park is the only winter habitat for the elk that is protected in a provincial park. The remainder of Cathedral Grove has been slated for logging. Weyerhaeuser has voluntarily suspended logging in the Grove to allow the Government time to negotiate for acquisition of the remaining 500 hectares of Cathedral Grove.

· The location on the north-west side of the highway avoids the two proposed left hand turns at the S bends where visibility is very poor, creating an extremely dangerous area for vehicles to pull out. With the heavy traffic and vehicles turning left to enter and left to leave the park, traffic in the turning lanes will be backed up significantly. We propose that a traffic light, crosswalk or an overpass would allow for crossing the highway. It is important to spread people out on both sides of the park to avoid crowding and concentrating more visitors into an even smaller area where the quality of the visit and the sensitivity of the ecosystem can be negatively impacted by overuse. MacMillan Park is less than half the size of the City of Vancouver’s Stanley Park, which is 400 hectares. MacMillan Park is the most visited provincial park in the province and it is projected to see 1 million visitors this year. The economic value of this famous park depends on safeguarding the fragile and sensitive environmental nature of this treasure - an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

· The Western Canada Wilderness Committee has not received comment on our suggestion that the rezoning of 400 hectares of Weyerhaeuser’s ocean view private forest land in Ucluelet to residential, could assist in moving the Government’s acquisition strategies for Cathedral Grove forward. Since Weyerhaeuser took over MacMillan Bloedel in the fall of 1999 when they clearcut the 2- kilometre road in the Grove to the edge of the park, the company has made it clear that it intends to log the oldgrowth area around the park.

· Two years ago, the City of Port Alberni, the Town of Qualicum Beach, the City of Parksville, the Regional District of Nanaimo, and the Alberni-Clayoquot Regional District made motions of Council to send letters to Minister Joyce Murray asking the Province to enter into negotiations with Weyerhaeuser for the acquisition of the remaining 500 hectares of Cathedral Grove. As a result, Weyerhaeuser voluntarily suspended its plans to log the Grove and agreed to enter into negotiations with the province.

· Locating the 2-hectare parking lot on Weyerhaeuser land could be arranged under a lease agreement with Weyerhaeuser. Weyerhaeuser and the province can come to terms that are acceptable.

The above proposal was supported by the people on the tour as well as those that put this petition together later that day. The Western Canada Wilderness Committee’s suggestion above is only one of many solutions that have come forward as a result of the public witnessing first hand, the proposed location and possible alternate locations in our efforts to find a better solution. The Western Canada Wilderness Committee would welcome comments, discussion and a public review so that solutions that maintain the ecological integrity of the park, as well as visitor safety,can be acknowledged and implemented as soon as possible. A long term vision for a decision as important as this must be seen as an investment into the economic diversification for our future.