Dear Editor,
I, like many others, was shocked to read in both the Golden and Revelstoke papers that a well-known environmental organization might actually support private power projects on our local rivers. However, when I read the very long interview, it became clear that the headline was misleading and that the Suzuki Foundation actually reinforces concerns that Wildsight and many local residents have with indiscriminate private applications on Kootenay rivers. Here are three main points made in that article:
1. There is no overall land use-planning process regarding, for example, which areas are too environmentally sensitive, remote, expensive, etc.;
2. There is no overall plan—there are 600 active applications, yet nobody is looking at cumulative impacts;
3. There is a need for better environmental regulations.
We share those concerns but also add, from the perspective of the Kootenay consciousness, what about the community test? If these private power projects are so great, then let them meet the test of community approval. Instead, local governments, stakeholders and residents are completely excluded from having any influence on the process.
Locals know about proposals on rivers and creeks near their communities. But are you aware that there is a 48-megawatt proposal (a substantial size but conveniently just below what would trigger an Environmental Assessment) on the Upper Wood River? This is a pristine wilderness where the timber licensee has voluntarily agreed to forgo logging because the ecological, wilderness and historical values are so significant. It’s a magical, majestic mountain setting. With towering peaks, vast primeval forests, and pristine lakes, it’s a Canadian postcard come to life, a landscape unchanged by time. This is the Upper Wood River, unroaded wilderness, protected from timber harvest, the only place Thompson explored he could still recognize 200 years later. Ancient trees of a rare interior rain forest preside over critical connectivity corridors for wildlife, like the endangered Mountain Caribou, moose and grizzly bears. Pristine creeks and rivers teem with fish.
And the forest company recognizes all this to the point that there is a legal variance to the Kootenay Boundary Land Use Plan, but none of this has any influence on private power. What we have agreed upon in the past doesn’t matter. A private entity can push a road into this wilderness and harness a wild river that has hardly seen a canoe or kayak, let alone a power plant. In the future, if you do travel into this area or any of the many other places hosting private power projects that might also be your regular backcountry stomping grounds, you may very well be met with a fence and signs warning you, “Danger” and “No Trespassing”, and security guards. Beyond the fence will be a huge excavator, ripping up the creek and riparian vegetation and leaving you wondering why private power companies don’t have the same restrictions forest companies do.
Ellen Zimmerman, Wildsight
250-348-2225
ellen@wildsight.ca
