WATERSHED UPDATE - January 30th, 2008
I received a phone call a week or so back from a lady who represents the senior citizens group on the Sunshine Coast known as COSCO. This organization wanted the concerned citizens of the Sunshine Coast who have been standing up trying to protect our drinking water, that the members of COSCO had formally passed a “motion” in support of our work and all of the concerned citizens on the Coast. This was a very nice gesture on the part of COSCO and we thank them for their support.
As many of you know, the Sechelt Community forest has a large portion of their forest tenure in our watersheds. I attended my second meeting of the community forest advisory committee and most of the discussions centered around forestry road maintenance in the Trout Lake area. Towards the end of the meeting I was able to provide the committee an “updated” version of my spreadsheet showing long-term timber supply based upon the “mean annual increment” (MAI). This MAI is basically the “interest” that “accrues” each year in the harvestable tenure area (capital) of the license area.
Depending upon many factors, such as watershed areas, cut blocks not harvestable, etc the annual allowable cut could vary from a “positive” MAI to perhaps a “negative” MAI depending upon decisions taken by Sechelt Projects Inc.
Last Saturday, for example, Rick O’Neill and myself, along with both Board members of Sechelt Projects Inc and Advisory committee members, visited several proposed cut block sites in West Sechelt. One of the cut blocks contained very immature trees along with a mix of some more mature trees. However the group determined with the advice of Brian Smart (who is a consultant to the community forest) that the cut block was not suitable for harvesting.
I only mention this to illustrate that until a more “precise” inventory of just what is available to harvest, it is not clear if there is sufficient timber in the remaining parts of the tenure area, should any or all of the watershed portions be excluded for whatever reasons.
I have attached a copy of the spreadsheet that I provided the advisory committee for your information and inspection.
The environmental committee met for the 1st time on January 10th to develop a draft terms of reference for the SCNHS board of directors approval. Following this meeting I met with Tony Greenfield, President of the SCNHS and reviewed our draft document.
Tony has now taken this draft to the SCNHS board for their approval.
Our next meeting of the committee is scheduled for March 6th and Tony plans to attend and provide several environmental issues to be incorporated into the committee’s work plan.
Many of you will know Clint & Irene Davy who operate the Gibson’s Wildlife Rehab Center, here in Gibson’s. They are two very special people who have devoted not only their life to assisting wildlife, but operate the center out of their home.
Clint has agreed to join our environmental committee and we are lucky to be able to tap into his knowledge and expertise.
If any of you have environmental issues on the Sunshine Coast that you are personally concerned about, we would like to hear from you and perhaps our committee can assist in some way. This is a “humble beginning” but the fledgling environmental committee under the guidance of the SCNHS perhaps can make a difference we hope with respect to environmental matters on the Sunshine Coast.
Finally, many of you are probably aware that the SCRD has formed a new committee made up of the SCRD board members strictly for watershed issues. Once the terms of reference have been approved by the SCRD hopefully we (public) can attend these meetings of the committee and if necessary bring our concerns regarding drinking water to the committee’s attention.
Dan Bouman wanted me to circulate the attached letter from the SCCA to the editor, Coast Reporter.
Regards
John Bebbington