A Slocan Valley bear biologist wants a logging company to spare a tree that he says shows all the signs of being a bear den. He wants them to leave a strip in their cutblock and move the planned location of a road.
But Wayne McCrory says the company, Yucwmenl煤cwu (Caretakers of the Land), owned by the Splatsin First Nation located near Enderby, has refused to move the road.
The cutblock is located in the Valhalla Range just north of Valhalla Park and Slocan Lake.
sa国际传媒淚 was hoping that they would be more amenable to this,sa国际传媒� McCrory told the Star, sa国际传媒渆specially when they [initially] phoned me asking for input.sa国际传媒�
He said the company told him they would try to save the den tree but might have to sa国际传媒渟tubsa国际传媒� it to make it safe by WorkSafe BC rules. Then they would cap it so a bear might be able to use it later.
McCrory said it may be only one tree, but itsa国际传媒檚 symbolic. Den trees only exist in old growth and he estimates that 80 per cent of the old growth forest in the Slocan Valley has been logged.
sa国际传媒淭his is symbolic of what is wrong with our resource management policies today when you donsa国际传媒檛 protect high biodiversity areas like this,sa国际传媒� he said. sa国际传媒淲hether you stand up for one tree or many sa国际传媒� or you stand up for one grizzly that was wrongly killed or the whole population, it is the same principle.sa国际传媒�
Yucwmenl煤cwu has not returned the Starsa国际传媒檚 calls or emails requesting comment.
McCrory was instrumental in pushing for the 2016 Great Bear Rainforest legislation that includes a provision that bear dens should be surrounded by a 30-metre buffer and no road construction.
What hesa国际传媒檚 recommending here is sa国际传媒渓eave a strip 40 metres wide and 200 meters long, not a very big area. It mostly means moving the road. Having built lots of mining company roads, I donsa国际传媒檛 see the problem. It is not like we are asking them not to log or not to salvage, it is just moving things a bit to accommodate.sa国际传媒�
He said hesa国际传媒檚 been tracking and attempting to protect grizzly bear dens and old-growth black bear dens for the past 40 years and is now trying to get legislation that would apply outside of protected areas.
sa国际传媒淲hat I am talking about is not an economic threat to logging companies per se, it is just encompassing new knowledge and new information into more ecosystem-friendly logging, as has happened on the coast.sa国际传媒�
