Development versus Nature
Private property rights are held in high esteem in our culture. You can “develop” your property for any number of reasons, and clear-cut forest on your land as long as there is no direct impact on riparian zones. BC Timber Sales uses the term “developing” when they talk about how they use taxpayers money to “develop” a cutblock, which is code for building roads in order to make logging easier for the logging companies. But I digress.
If you have been out to Morning Beach in the last few years you have seen the on-going destruction of a privately-owned, previously forested slope along The Point Road AND YOU MAY HAVE BEEN SHOCKED BY WHAT YOU SAW. According to Islands Trust bylaw officer, Warren Dingman, the slope is not steep enough to be deemed a potential environmental hazard. I walked that slope and saw widespread evidence of erosion and water runoff, which will hamper any regenerating vegetation growth and may eventually wash out the public road. Denman Conservancy has filed a resource violation report with the province because the owner dug a reservoir beside a covenanted marsh. The owner has recently applied for a water license; the process can take up to 5 years. In the meantime, a private citizen has also sent in a complaint that indicates that water is being used on site, despite the lack of a proper license.
This slope was clear-cut, the best trees sold for profit and the remaining logs piled up and left behind; a typical practice for the cut and run crowd. According to John Waters, a BC forester, the dryness of a clear cut slope has a significant influence on the speed of a spreading fire. Decades of wildfire research shows that wildfire spreads rapidly in areas where there is an abundance of dry, fine fuel or unburnt piles of slash accumulations. barren land exposed to the full strength of the sun lowers air humidity and causes any available ground moisture to evaporate. Clear-cuts also create drying winds and higher temperatures, negatively influencing adjacent forests and local weather patterns. Dry hot winds can spread fire quickly.
If any of this sparks your need to take action, I suggest you contact Islands Trust and ask them to send out a team to survey the damage and the potential for further damage. The lot number is PID 006-662-307. Please visit this link to report a concern:
https://islandstrust.bc.ca/mapping-resources/report-a-concern/
Once your online form submission is successfully sent, you will receive an automatic reply email indicating that “your bylaw enforcement e-mail has been received!” If you haven’t received this email message, then you haven’t successfully submitted your complaint.
