WATERSHED FILES
|
Rossland City Controversy over Multiple Development Proposals in Topping Creek Drinking Watershed Reserve December 8, 2008 |
In
late November,
2007, a San Diego developer, who had recently purchased the rights to
the winter ski hill at Red Mountain, in Rossland City boundaries,
proposed to extend his operations with proposals for an 18-hole
championship golf course and hotel/residential complex within the
adjacent Topping Creek drinking watershed, a main source of drinking
water for Rossland City. The developer also proposed ski-lift expansion
throughout the upper areas of Topping Creek. By February 2008, almost
1,000 residents (in a community of just over 3,000) signed a petition
against the proposals. |
The Greater Vancouver Watersheds: Capilano, Seymour and Coquitlam Creeks |
The
file includes
numerous
reports written over a seven year period on the fascinating
administrative and controversial history of the Greater Vancouver
watersheds that span a century. On November 10, 1999, the Greater
Vancouver Water District Administration Board passed a five-point
resolution on the re-protection of these three sources that provide
one-half of BC's population with a domestic water supply. |
| The
Sunshine Coast Regional District's
Watersheds, Chapman and Grey Creeks |
Near
to Vancouver, the
controversy of logging, primarily in Chapman Creek, began in the late
1960s and erupted in 1990, after years of broken promises and severe
degradation of the watersheds. |
Vancouver Island - Private Timber Lands Port Alberni Valley, Comox Lake |
Following
the
tampering with and removal of the 1994 Private Forest Land legislation
in 2004 by the BC Liberal government, the largest private timber land
owners on Vancouver Island - TimberWest and Island Timberlands - have
begun to accelerate logging of primarily second growth timber. Over the
last three years (post 2004), TimberWest has deliberately taken
advantage of this
deregulation by logging drinking watersheds and ruining fish
habitat, gaining a new notorious reputation by Vancouver Island
residents and concerned Island administrators. Information about Port
Alberni Valley and the Comox Lake area are featured. |
The Greater Victoria Watersheds: Sooke and Goldstream Creeks |
This
file, still under
construction, holds a strange tale over the fate of these watersheds,
directly primarily in the late 1940s when the assault on BC's drinking
watersheds began in earnest. In April 1994, the Supreme Court
found the Water District guilty of illegal logging since operations
began in 1948. |
Portland City's Watershed: Bull Run (U.S.A.) |
Nothing
comes close to
the
intriguing battle against logging in the United States than the affairs
of the U.S. Forest Service and the forest industry's illegal operations
in the federal Bull Run Watershed Reserve, as found by the Court in
1976. This file is still under construction, but has a wealth of
newspaper article references. |
| Creston and Erickson's
Watersheds (Pdf - 1,319 kb) November 11, 2008 - Letter to Forests & Range Minister Pat Bell (Pdf - 474 kb) Newspaper Articles 1984-2001 (Pdf - 7.54 Mb) |
This
report by Will
Koop was
originally provided on SPEC's (Society Promoting Environmental
Conservation's) website (www.spec.bc.ca/spec/), and appears here with
SPEC's permission. It is a history of the fascinating conflicts
between the Erickson Improvement District, in its struggle to protect
the Arrow Creek Watershed Reserve, against the Ministry of Forests and
the government's intentions to log it. Logging recently began in
late 2003. |
Chilliwack City's (now) Back-up Watershed: Elk Creek |
Elk
Creek, one of
Chilliwack
City's three original small watershed water supply sources, which was
used as early as 1905, later became a protected Watershed
Reserve. After a highly questionable finding of "tainted" water,
the watershed was taken off line and remains a back-up supply.
However, long before the water source was removed, the Ministry of
Forests did something secretly, by wrongly dedicating it to the
harvestable land base. Currently, there is a large looming
controversy over the protection of this area, which has become an
island of ecological importance amidst a sea of clearcuts and
urbanization. |