Press Release
April 13, 2015
Study Shows ts’ukw’um (Wilson Creek) Watershed in Trouble
Elphinstone Logging Focus (ELF) has examined the 76-page report ‘Withholding Water Flow Science in the Wilson Watershed,’ which shows omissions in two studies that supported continued logging in the ts’ukw’um (Wilson Creek) Watershed (Lower Sunshine Coast, BC). The report, released March 15, 2015 by the B.C. Tap Water Alliance (BCTWA) and authored by its Coordinator, Will Koop, raises concerns about previous studies, funded by Sunshine Coast Community Forests (SCCF). The latter studies looked at the capacity of this small watershed (2,207 hectares) to withstand further clearcut logging, without providing clear directions to forestry planners at SCCF or its owners, District of Sechelt (DOS), on how to best manage the forest cover in the ts’ukw’um Wilson Creek area to ensure long-term viability of its downstream fish habitat.
The Water Alliance report discusses terms, such as ‘Equivalent Clear-cut Area’ and ‘Hydrological Recovery,’ and updates the mapping of the ts’ukw’um (Wilson Creek) Watershed, showing recent and proposed logging, and identifies gaps in the way the data is used. It’s referenced to professional hydrological studies and contains three Appendixes. The author has more than 30 years of independent reporting on complex environmental issues in forestry, watershed management, fracking, and mining
“The BCTWA critique highlights flaws in the 2012 ‘Wilson Creek Watershed Assessment’ (author Glynnis Horel), which appears that SCCF used to justify continued logging in the Wilson Watershed,” states Ross Muirhead a forest campaigner for ELF. “After all of the data that Horel supplies, she fails to provide SCCF Planners, or DOS, with critical forest management guidance, except to say in general, that the forests across their operations should be a higher-age class to reach hydrological recovery (i.e.: to regulate peak flows). This implies that the lower forest-age class (approx. 50% under 35 years), which dominates their tenure areas, is of concern.
“Horel’s hydrological-recovery data for each elevation zone should have been calculated as an overall watershed hydrological score, linked to an industry-standard Risk Assessment table identifying on-the-ground conditions, which a hydrological score provides. Since Horel’s report was not properly peer-reviewed, ELF recommends that DOS decision-makers look at Koop’s critique closely and discuss having a third-party assessment of these two reports before approving any cutting of existing intact forests, and thus, place a moratorium on any future logging in the Wilson.”
“The BCTWA report reconfirms that it’s long past time for the Province to declare Wilson Creek a Fisheries Sensitive Watershed under the Forest and Range Practices Act,” says Linda Williams, co-chair of the Sunshine Coast Conservation Association (SCCA). “The SCCA has been calling for this status for Wilson Creek since 2005.
“The Community Forest has proposed five new cutblocks, based on Horel’s outdated 2011 assessment, in spite of the fact that as far back as 2001, its predecessor (Interfor) was ordered by the Ministry of Forests to undertake a detailed Coastal Watershed Assessment Procedure, due to SCCA concerns about over-logging. As well as assessing Wilson Creek, Glynnis Horel has evaluated Chapman and Gray Creeks, the sources of our community’s drinking water, for logging by the Community Forest. This report should be a red flag for all Sunshine Coast residents.”
A copy of the report ‘Withholding Water Flow Science in the Wilson Watershed’ can be found in the Sechelt Public Library, or at B.C. Tap Water Alliance’s website www.bctwa.org
New Report by B.C. Tap Water Alliance
http://www.bctwa.org/
March 15, 2015
Withholding Water Flow Science in the Wilson Watershed: An Examination
of the Sunshine Coast Community Forest’s Wilson Creek Watershed Assessments (2010-2012)
(pdf file – 29 megabytes)
http://www.bctwa.org/WilsonCrk-Report-Mar15-2015.pdf
Report Summary only (pdf – 2.2 megabytes)
http://www.bctwa.org/WilsonCrk-Summary-Mar15-2015.pdf
For more information contact:
Elphinstone Logging Focus
604-740-5654
Sunshine Coast Conservation Association (HANP)