Environment and Sustainable Resource Development (ESRD) quietly approved a logging plan for the Bragg Creek area, Nov. 1.
The controversial decision, which was made after 10 months of public debate and posted on ESRD’s website, is raising concern from area residents who say it will destroy the area’s recreational value.
“It is outrageous,” said Ralph Cartar, an ecologist who lives in the area. “The outrage is because they are doing this when they know the community doesn’t want it… what hurts is the lack of attention to what locals think.”
ESRD’s plan to log 1,730 acres of trees in the West Bragg Creek Recreation Area was first revealed at an open house in January.
Although the amount of land to be logged hasn’t changed, the original plan has been altered to include 24 cut blocks, rather than the original 17, and 50- to 75-metre buffer zones on either side of the trails that will be affected.
More than 100 people attended a Sustain Kananaskis town hall meeting regarding the plans last April. An open house and two additional public meetings were hosted by ESRD last summer to discuss the controversial plan.
Representatives from the ministry also had a number of smaller meetings with stakeholders, such as trail groups in the area, who wanted to create treed buffer zones for trail users on 11 of the 15 kilometres of trails affected by the original plan.
The logging is being presented as Bragg Creek FireSmart, a way to protect the community from forest fires.
ESRD Minister Diana McQueen said the plan strikes a balance between between public safety and preservation of West Bragg Creek’s recreational appeal.
“We have to… balance public safety and trail mitigation,” said McQueen. “I think we worked very hard to find that balance. The trails aren’t being removed, we really paid a lot of… attention to make sure the buffers will be there to separate the trails from the blocks.”
The logging plan will create a series of firebreaks on forested Crown land west of the community, in an area assessed as having forest conditions that will create extreme wildfire behaviour in the event of a wildfire start, according to ESRD’s website.
“These firebreaks will help reduce the wildfire threat to the community of Bragg Creek,” stated McQueen on the website.
According to McQueen, since 2007, the department has held more than 30 consultation sessions including nine public events and 25 meetings with various groups about the plan.
Cartar said there is no science to support ESRD’s claim that forests older than 100 years burn hotter than younger forests, nor will 50-metre fire buffer zones be effective in preventing wildfire.
“It makes no sense,” said Cartar. “What we have been asking for is a permanent containment line. Couching this as a FireSmart strategy makes no sense because a 10-year-old forest is just as dangerous and an old-growth forest.”
Shaun Peter, president of Bragg Creek and Kananaskis Outdoor Recreation Company, agrees.
“(ESRD) are touting this as the saviour of Bragg Creek, but they are also saying it won’t stop a fire, it will just delay it and there is no alternative egress, so they are still leaving the residents with a risk of fire,” he said. “You aren’t solving anything and you are making things worse for the recreation industry.”
Ministry Spokesman Duncan MacDonnell said the logging plan was determined using experts and technology.
“The cut plan is based on what the science tells you it is going to do,” he said, adding the plan also took practical firefighting knowledge into account.
McQueen unveiled three logging options to 300 residents at a meeting, Sept. 25.
Peter said a large majority told the minister to go back to the drawing board.
“It was a public meeting and 97 per cent of the people clearly said ‘no,’” said Peter. “I don’t know how much clearer a voice she can have from the public.”
Peter said concerns over the relative value of the recreation industry have gone unheeded.
“It is quite obvious that the intent of ESRD is to log this area and there might be a small benefit with FireSmarting… but it is a secondary reason they are logging,” he said. “There seems to be a very strong consideration of forestry (industry) over any other.”
For more information, visit www.srd.alberta.ca
