Riparian follow-up: Good News!

Determination from the Managed Forest Council (MFC), dated July 2015 — This “determination” from the Managed Forest Council (MFC) is dated July 2015 – Click to read it on the MFC website.

Following up is good

In the course of searching for something else, I came across this determination published by the Managed Forest Council (MFC).

I knew some of the background already.

Background

McGuffie Creek, 18 May 2015 – Click to enlarge

The (now defunct) Pebble in the Pond Environmental Society had asked me to provide my impressions on the status of riparian areas in Lot 450 (on 16 May).

This I did (on 19 May). You can read it here.

My impressions were that the riparian areas surrounding McGuffie, McFall and Wys Creek remained mostly intact. By that time Pebble in the Pond had announced that they’d retained a lawyer, contacted the MFC, and that a “file had been opened”.

The investigative process

What I didn’t realize at the time was that a legal complaint had already been drafted and submitted (on 14 May). That letter stated, in part, that:

“Our client has further concerns that riparian values and fish habitat are also being unlawfully impacted, and our client has been advised by members of the local community that logging equipment has been crossing through streams without sufficient safeguards for water quality and fish habitat during harvesting”

This was (is?) news to me.

The result

In any event I’m greatly encouraged to report that MFC took the matter seriously. Thus another registered professional biologist (RPBio) was employed to visit the site (on 15 June) to examine the aforementioned riparian areas and report his findings. Based on that report, MFC determined that Island Timberlands had not contravened the Private Managed Forest Land Act or regulations.

We should all sleep better – though nary a tree was saved, the process worked.

Thank you *Pebble* !!! – Click to enlarge

The Hamilton & Associates report was thorough, professional, and in my estimation, accurate. This fact notwithstanding, I wonder what the cumulative costs of this “investigative process” were?

I suspect they were substantial, including legal fees paid for via public donations, and administrative fees and a professional report commissioned by, and ultimately paid for, by MFC and PMFL landowners.

In retrospect… I think my effort had nicer photos…but he had way better maps…

Updated: 23 July 2016

Nibbling away at the ALR: Powell River style

1994-M&B-exclusion_B — “Lot 450 out of ALR”
Powell River Town Crier, 4 Jul 1994 – Click to enlarge

Math matters

Arithmetic took me back to the archives. There I was surprised to find, among a pile of dusty newspapers, something that contradicted much of what I thought I knew about Lot 450.

As a relative newcomer to the community I’ve come to love, learning the following just…well, it just breaks my heart.

What arithmetic? The issue was that I couldn’t make sense of a 2006 Powell River Peak story that mentioned, in passing, that 112 hectares had been excluded from the Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR) “10 years ago”…

Since it’s pretty hard to hide 112 hectares in an area the size of Powell River, I first imagined that the article must have been referring to the “old golf course” or the “lower section of Block 55”. But those land parcels just weren’t the right size, so my numbers weren’t adding up. So where on earth was it?

Turns out that it referred to that entire section of land where I spent so much time in May. The very place where a group of brave souls faced down a feller-buncher. The spot where some Powell Riverites gained national attention over the idea that maintaining some urban forest around might be a wise thing to do. Simply put, what many know as “Lot 450” used to be part of the ALR.

This is old news, of course, but what happened in 1994 and later may provide some new context with which to understand current plans, which will have repercussions for lands that were initially cataloged to preserve farmland.

As they say, the devil is in the details…

A brief history of the ALR in Powell River

(Click on any image to start a full-screen slide show)

Most of the ALR lands within the Regional District lay outside municipal boundaries, as you can see here.

Within city limits, there are only a few scattered parcels, totaling 555 hectares (1,371 acres), which encompass about 18% of the land area. Funny thing about this map; when I first plotted them I thought the boundaries seemed odd…why would only these particular blocks have been chosen back in 1975-1976 when the Agricultural Land Reserve system was first created?

All of which made sense when I happened upon this. I think the correct way to describe my reaction was gobsmacked. P.S: in other news of the day, people were complaining about rising ferry costs, and the urgent need to replace Canada’s aging fleet of Sea King helicopters…

So now it became clear. This is what the original ALR lands looked like within the Municipality. They total 669 ha (1,653 acres), or about 22% of the land area. Also shown here is the area of J.P. Rithet’s 1878 purchase of Lot 450, which still reminds me of Bart Simpson…

There are some interesting things about the 1994 exclusion. First, the landowner (MacMillan Bloedel Ltd) was the applicant. Second, it was the Corporation of the District of Powell River (i.e., the City) that made the determination that these lands were “community needed” for light industry and residential housing. Note that the exclusion includes an area slated for senior’s housing on the hospital side of Joyce Ave.

Fast forward to 2006, when the City applies to have an additional 343 ha (847 acres) excluded in support of the highly imaginative “pecuniary-spelled-backwards” Yrainucep proposal for “a new international airport, an 80-room hotel, a convention centre, three restaurants, a golf course, tennis courts, an equestrian centre and a nature park, in addition to fairway, oceanview, oceanfront, and taxiway home sites.” This made the Agricultural Land Commission sit up and take notice, visit Powell River, and firmly say, uh…no thanks. – And that 112 ha that was excluded from the ALR in 1994? Well, now it’s owned by Island Timberlands (since 2005) and managed under the new PMFL Council (since 2004).

The PRSC joint venture finally got underway in 2006, and two ALR-related things happened shortly thereafter. The first was the 2009 sale of an 8 acre parcel adjacent to the ALR (indeed the access road appears to overlap it). The second was the 2010 sale of a 30 acre then-forested parcel in Block 36, which remains in the ALR to this day (although it was clearcut in 2003). Finally, for interest, the orange polygons reflect some of the harvest on the adjacent (ex-ALR) PMFL lands by Island Timberlands in 2009. This image is from 2011, so does not show the 2015 harvest.

Next up are ALR lands presently for sale, or sold subject to exclusion from the ALR. These include A) the remaining portion of the Block 36 ALR parcel, which is presently for sale by Catalyst, and B) the 132 parcel sold to Sino Bright, who plan to build a school there. Note: plotted values are those of the ALR portion only; in both cases the legal parcels are larger.

I’ve not yet seen any applications to the ALR Commission, so my estimates may be inaccurate. BUT… if all the pending sales are contingent upon exclusions, the remaining ALR lands within the municipality would comprise small parcels around the Wildwood sewage lagoon, the airport, and within Upper Millennium Park. My estimate is about 420 ha (1,040 acres), or about 13.8% of the land area. That represents a loss of 37.2% of what was initially designated as ALR.

more food for thought?

Those bird nests again

Clicking on this image will open a new browser tab, where you can explore the various bird species that nested there.
You can also see the harvested cutblocks in 2015, *Island Timberlands’* harvest plan for the area, and see who owns which land parcels.
*Enjoy!*

Here’s another look at those bird nests confirmed during the 2015 breeding season.

In total, n=32 nests and 14 species, including my personal favorite, that lovely Brown Creeper on 16 May…I’d never seen a nest of that species before!

Although I found most of the nests, records were also supplied by Guy Monty, Robert Colasanto and Christopher Heffley – Thank You!

Be the raven…and stay watchful...