Residents of the Ghost Valley continue to voice concerns about the logging trucks hauling timber through residential areas. While spokesperson Sharon MacDonald said the trees have already been cut, there is a public safety risk to using the narrow, residential roads to transport the timber.
“This area is not really suitable for commercial truck traffic at all,” MacDonald said. “In at least five places, it’s known that the lanes are narrower than the width of a logging truck – so even though road use agreements or permits from Alberta Transportation may stipulate that logging traffic is to stay in its own lane, residents are highlighting the reality that that is just not possible.”
While MacDonald said the issue is still connected with the community’s concerns about the clear-cutting, it’s become more an issue of public safety and concern for the youth who live in the area, who are on the roads every day taking buses to and from school.
“We’ve entered into a realm of assessing what our values will be as Albertans,” she said. “Will we prioritize an industry’s right to do business? Which certainly has an economic benefit, although it could be argued that the benefit is limited to a few despite this being the public’s resources being harvested. Or, will we prioritize the public safety of the taxpayers in the community who pay for that road?”
According to MacDonald, residents are encouraged to continue monitoring the roads and reporting any infractions – as well as things that may not stray “technically” into infractions, but that are recognized as potentially posing a safety hazard. Residents will also be watching for signs of damage to the roads themselves, although MacDonald admitted that likely won’t be seen for a while.
She added, while trees are already cut for the 2015/2016 timber harvest season, the community is still hoping the government will reconsider the plans for 2016/2017 – which were set in 2007.
With a number of concerns raised since that time, including the need for mitigation to protect Calgary infrastructure in the event of another 2013-level flood and physical evidence that the area to be harvested is “undeniably” First Nations land, MacDonald said nearly 1,400 people have signed a petition to request the harvest be paused.
“There is an opportunity for the Minister or his delegates to pause a harvest to relook at environment, ecology, socio-economic values, wildlife – new information that has come to light since the harvest was planned,” MacDonald said. “We are hopeful about that – we have seen indication from government and from industry – that there are things we can work on together to get better outcomes for the landscape.”
According to MacDonald, residents were given the opportunity to discuss these issues with MLA Cam Westhead on Jan. 14. Although Westhead was unable to provide answers at the meeting, MacDonald said she was confident he would represent the concerns of his constituents and bring them to the attention of his colleagues.
“The Ghost is a popular recreation area, many people have used it with their families since childhood and are carrying on the tradition,” she said. “This is an area that can instill within people a deep connection and a deep appreciation, and in that sense, the broader community had some very intense feelings about what is seen to be occurring on the landscape. We are changing the look of the place, and what people love about this place. We need to start, as a society, having conversations about what kind of world we want to create together.”
