February 15, 2001
Faxed to: (604) 687-3264
Mr. Brian Robinson,
President,
Association of B.C. Professional Foresters.
Suite 1201, 1130 West Pender St, V6E-4A4.
Mr. Robinson,
We would like to take this opportunity to impart a very important concern and request to you and your fellow Association of B.C. Professional Foresters at your upcoming 53rd annual general meeting in Kamloops next week. This matter specifically relates to drinking watersheds in British Columbia.
Our organization, with the growing daily support of many others, is advocating the legislative protection of drinking watersheds. As you are aware, the primary activity in these consumptive drainages, in what some presently refer to as "the working forest", is related to industrial forestry through the concept of integrated resource management: road building, harvesting, and silviculture. These activities are influenced by the government's inappropriate application of forested lands currently under the Allowable Annual Cut in drinking watersheds.
Relatedly, your professional Association is quite cognizant of the wide and persistent public criticism and debate over the last few decades of these activities in drinking watersheds. That is why Victoria and Greater Vancouver, which together constitute over half of British Columbia's residents, have discontinued logging programs in their drinking water sources. For example, the following resolution passed by the Greater Vancouver Regional District on November 10, 1999:
1. The primary purpose of Greater Vancouver's watersheds is to provide clean, safe water.Over the last thirty years there have also been many resolutions passed by the Union of B.C. Municipalities related to the controversy over logging in drinking watersheds on Crown and private lands. The B.C. Medical Association passed a resolution in 1998 to "recommend to all regional health districts in BC that they protect their water supply." Throughout the 1900s, Medical Health Officers have often objected to resource activities in the public's drinking water sources.
2. The watersheds will be managed to reflect and advance the Region's commitment to the environmental stewardship and protection of those lands and their biological diversity.
3. The Region's management plan will be based upon the minimum intervention absolutely necessary to achieve the Board's objectives.
4. The management plan will contain policies to return areas disturbed by human activities as close as possible to the pre-disturbance state consistent with the primary goal of protecting water quality.
5. The decision-making process will be transparent and open to the public.
Your Association is not only on record for defending industrial forestry in British Columbia's drinking watersheds (for instance, submission #37, and related submissions, in 1991, for the Greater Vancouver Water Districts public review of logging in the watersheds), but a number of your members are involved in commercial forestry activities in drinking watersheds in a variety of ways.
We are entreating your Association to reconsider its position and help advocate single use, that is the full protection from resource activities in British Columbia's drinking watersheds. We are therefore urging your association to pass a resolution at your upcoming annual general meeting to protect British Columbia drinking watersheds from resource use activities.
Sincerely, Will Koop, Provincial Drinking Watershed Campaigner, Society Promoting Environmental Conservation (SPEC).
cc. Premier Ujjal Dosanjh
Hon. Gordon Wilson, Minister of Forests
Hon. Ian Waddell, Minister of Environment,
Lands and Parks
Hon. Jim Doyle, Minister of Municipal Affairs
Hon. Corky Evans, Minister of Health
Perry Kendall, Provincial Health Officer
Dr. Shaun Peck, Deputy Provincial Health Officer
Larry Pedersen, Provincial Chief Forester
Hon. Gordon Campbell, Liberal Opposition Leader
Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs
Interior Alliance of B.C.
B.C. Regional Districts and Municipalities
British Columbia Environmental Network
Council of Canadians
Media
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March 5, 2001
Mr. Will Koop
Provincial Drinking Watershed Campaigner
Society Promoting Environmental Conservation
2150 Maple Street
Vancouver BC. V6J 3T3
Dear Mr. Koop:
Thank you for your letter of 15 February, addressed to our then president, Brian Robinson, urging that a resolution be tabled at our annual meeting concerning watersheds. At the request of our Council, I am writing to advise of the disposition of your letter.
Council considered your letter at its meeting on 21 February. ABCPF bylaws allow two kinds of resolutions to come before annual meeting, business resolutions and advisory resolutions. Business resolutions must be put forward by members and must be provided to the association no less than 45 days in advance of the meeting so they can be included in the agenda of the annual meeting which must be provided to members well in advance of the meeting itself. Advance notice of advisory resolutions is not required but they must still be put forward by members. Accordingly, due to time considerations and the fact that you are not a member, it was not possible for the matter to be presented at the annual meeting as either a business or advisory resolution.
Council did decide to refer your letter to our Stewardship Advisory Committee with a request that they bring a recommendation forward for Council's consideration at its next meeting on 29-30 March.
Sincerely, E.V. (Van) Scoffield, R.P.F., Executive Director.
cc. Premier Ujjal Dosanjh
Hon. Gordon Wilson, Minister of Forests
Hon. Ian Waddell, Minister of Environment,
Lands and Parks
Hon. Jim Doyle, Minister of Municipal Affairs
Hon. Corky Evans, Minister of Health
Perry Kendall, Provincial Health Officer
Larry Pedersen, Provincial Chief Forester
Hon. Gordon Campbell, Liberal Opposition Leader
Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs
Interior Alliance of B.C.
B.C. Regional Districts and Municipalities
British Columbia Environmental Network
Council of Canadians