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Vancouver
Island |Cowichan
Mt. Washington|
Cathedral Grove
Forest Eco-Systems |
Plants |
News 3
Cathedral Grove
activists threatened with injunction for blocking loggers
Judith Lavoie,
Times Colonist
Friday, February 13, 2004
In the pre-dawn darkness
Thursday, Nanaimo resident Jim Erkiletian made a spur-of-the-moment
decision to drive to Cathedral Grove.
Because of that decision, logging crews who moved in at 7 a.m. to
start cutting trees for a parking lot in MacMillan Provincial Park had
to leave without falling any trees.
"Yes, I'm feeling pretty good," said Erkiletian in an interview. "For
at least one day I have saved eighteen 300-year-old trees."
Environmental "witnesses" have been patrolling the central Vancouver
Island park on an ad hoc basis for the last week in an effort to halt
construction of a controversial parking lot for 200 vehicles.
It is the second time this week that the logging contractor has had to
leave because protesters refused to leave the area. Bill Barisoff,
minister of water, land and air protection, is considering asking B.C.
Supreme Court for an injunction.
"We hope that we don't have to go to the hard-line route of an
injunction," Barisoff said Thursday.
"But, if that's what it takes to create safety for all British
Columbians and tourists that travel in that area, that's what we have
to do."
Erkiletian said he went to the park because a friend was camping there
and he wanted to make sure she was all right. He happened to be on
site when the logging contractor turned up.
"They said they couldn't work while my friend and I were there and the
foreman said he was going to call the police. We said we were going to
stay there because we don't believe the trees should be cut," he said.
RCMP turned up shortly afterward and Erkiletian, who was later joined
by other environmentalists, said he was prepared to be arrested if
necessary. But police and the loggers left the area, he said.
Cathedral Grove is the most popular part of the park. Erkiletian said
he went there a couple of weeks ago to assess the parking lot plans.
"I think the government's plan is backwards. It interferes with elk
habitat, and the old-growth trees are a very precious thing to me.
There's very few of them left," he said.
Erkiletian, who was a logger for 15 years, said the parking lot will
create a wind tunnel into the big trees, increasing the blow down risk.
The government says the two-hectare parking lot is needed for safety
reasons. The area has become an accident hotspot with drivers parking
by the busy highway. Few old-growth trees will be cut and the gravel
surface will prevent run-off problems, Barisoff said this week.
The parking lot will be built in a 21 hectare area bought specifically
for that purpose and the remaining area will be added to the park once
the lot has been built, he said.
Syd Haskell of the Carmanah Forestry Society said lawyer Cameron Ward
will be asked to oppose any application for an injunction.
"We are calling for a stop-work order and a meaningful, open and full
public process so that the public can work with the government to
resolve this contentious issue," he said.
© Copyright 2004 Times Colonist (Victoria)
reprinted with permission
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