BRIEFING THE MINISTER
1pm Monday July 12, 2004 Parliament
Buildings - Victoria, BC
Water, Land, and Air Protection Minister Bill
Barisoff shook my hand as I entered his office behind Chief Judith
Sayers of Hupacasath First Nation(Port Aberni), Annette Tanner
of the Western Canada WIlderness Committee Mid-Island Chapter,
and Richard Dean a retired Port Alberni businessman. We stayed
for a full hour, briefing the Minister about the need for public
safety to be addressed immediately in Cathedral Grove, a forum
for meaningful public input into long term changes, and a moratorium
on logging and construction in the floodplain of the Cameron River
where a proposed parking lot is planned. We presented thousand
of petitions supporting these solutions for an international landmark
of primeval forest.
Noticeably silent through the entire meeting
were MLA Gillian Trumper, WLAP Supervisor of Parks Dick Heath,
and a Minister’s Aid who recorded the entire conversation
with a tape recorder.
Each one of use spoke on subjects related to
our expertise. I was able to engage the Minister about his love
of the sport of fly fishing and was able to use that subject to
introduce the hydrological assessments that prove that the Cameron
River changes course every year making the entire floodplain susceptible
to flooding and erosion. The new gravel shoulders from the widening
of the highway through this old growth forest has already been
washing out, changing the flow of water. This is a very real danger
to the Douglas Fir trees who do not like having wet roots and
will die.
Near the close of the meeting Minister Barisoff
claimed to have spoken with many different “stackholders”
and reviewed many alternatives for parking in Cathedral Grove.
A statement that he repeated several times was; ”Something
about my upbringing makes me act commonsensical.” He uses
this to preface his claim that not everyone can be appeased or
satisfied, therefore the site for the proposed parking lot was
the best solution.
2pm Tuesday July 13, 2004 Cathedral
Grove
Unannounced and with no fan-fare or media in
attendance Minister Barisoff, MLA Gillian Trumper, MLA Judith
Reid, and WLAP Supervisor of Parks Dick Heath arrived at the entrance
to the proposed parking lot in Cathedral Grove.
They
were greeted by a few of the concerned citizens who have been
living there for the past few months to protect the forest from
logging and construction. The politicians spoke briefly, observed
a number of
tree platforms high up in the trees, and then walked to the proposed
site for the parking lot. There they were greeted by tree-sitters
high up in the canopy. Back at the highway they crossed the highway
and looked at the Telus fiber optic line which has been suggested
as an alternative route and parking area. Having been alerted
by cell-phone myself and others began to arrive one the scene.
I found MLA Gillian Trumper exhausted and sitting in the forest
along the newly built Culturally Modified Tree Trail. She agreed
that is was nice and cool in the shade and I reminded her that
when Weyerhaeuser clear-cuts the area there will be no shade.
I found the Minister looking at a giant Cedar tree that had been
burnt and hollowed out at the base many years ago in an attempt
to fell it for a canoe. I proceeded to video tape this unique
situation. I also gave the Minister a mini-tour of the CMT trail
and pointed out several significant trees and commented on their
origins. I was able to show him a tree that had been stripped
of its bark approximately 150 years ago near a tree that I witnessed
being stripped a month ago by a first nations elder.
The group stopped briefly at the Fiber Optics
road where I was able to explain that it lead back to the present
day parking lot near Cameron Lake. Dick Heath asked where the
Weyerhaeuser logging road was located. I explained that it started
about 200 meters from where they stood and was 90 meters wide
and 2 km long. They decided that they could not walk but would
drive to the other end where the gate is located. I followed them
there but they choose not to get out of their vehicle. I reminded
them that Weyerhaeuser had offered to make a deal regarding the
106 hectares of land which this road runs and that Chief Judith
Sayers had suggested a solution that could see the significant
expansion of Cathedral Grove Park without the government having
to come up with new money.
I am hopeful that a solution will be found so
that the park and be expanded, the wetland can be protected, the
highway and parking can be made safer, and the protectors of the
forest can relax their vigilance.
yours,
Richard Boyce
