A local grassroots group says that BC Timber Sales (BCTS) began roadwork on June 12 in preparation for logging in Lynch Creek North, a 3,200 hectare parcel of intact forest adjacent to the Gladstone Provincial Park, approximately 25 kilometres north of Grand Forks. Lynch Creek North is home to the threatened Kettle-Granby Grizzly Bear.
According to a press release issued by the Friends and Residents of the North Fork (FRNF) the Lynch Creek North area is the last piece of unobstructed land that the grizzlies can use to travel between the highlands of Gladstone Park and the Granby River Valley.
“Maintaining connections is the essence of nature” says Roy Schiesser, Grand Forks naturalist, “and nothing breaks up connectivity like a road.” Nothing stops a grizzly in its tracks like a road, and this part of the province is riddled by thousands of kilometres of roads.
Local residents believe the grizzlies are being forced into smaller and smaller territory because of all the roads and logging. “In 1995, when the Granby and Gladstone Provincial Parks were created, there was an intact wildlife corridor between the parks”, says Dave Talarico, a local resident. “Clearcut logging and road building in the past 18 years have completely trashed that corridor and basically forced the grizzly out of its traditional territory”.
FRNF says that weak legislation and uncontrolled forest development has critically altered what was once secure, connected wildlife habitat.
Over 160 citizens of the Grand Forks area signed a petition calling for an immediate moratorium on logging in Lynch Creek North, pending a full assessment of the cumulative impacts of the road network and logging activity in the area. Representatives of FRNF are meeting with senior officials of the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resources in Victoria on July 25. “We assumed Ministry officials would instruct BCTS to halt any road work and logging plans pending the outcome of that meeting”, says Margaret Steele, a local resident and spokeswoman for FRNF.
According to Steele, BCTS says they are following all prescribed regulations and guidelines, but the group maintains it is these very regulations and guidelines that allowed the connectivity corridor between the two parks to be decimated.