ChiLdren deLiGhTed wiTh SUmmer proGram B1
JULY 24, 2013
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Two Sections, 44 pages
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Arlene Jongbloets photo
The Bighorn Archery Club Traditional 3D Shoot and camp-out at the 100 Mile Snowmobile Club drew 76 archers from all over British Columbia on July 20-21. Bighorn Archery is a family affair for club member Sebastian Riley, 18, who attends practices and shooting competitions with his brother and dad.
Land use plans passionately defended Sound scientific basis protects old growth Carole rooney Free Press
Some folks who helped create the Cariboo-Chilcotin Land Use Plan (CCLUP) back in the 1980s and ’90s are expressing profound dismay at the current move to open it for logging in sensitive areas. As one of the key people who crafted these CCLUP agreements, Dave Neads has worked on land-use planning issues in the region for the past 25 years. Neads has a lot to say about what he refers to as the “so-called scientific-review rhetoric.” “The science hasn’t changed or become obsolete, but the timber supply has shrunk and this is an
unwarranted attack on other values so it actually involved another 16 to undermine and remove protec- years of work after its release. tions placed, by agreement, in the The province states the CCLUP CCLUP.” services local forest industry, proThe province released the vides certainty for the CCLUP in 1994 to address mining, ranching and the long-term balance of tourism industries. It also environment and economy establishes conservation in the region. However, it and recreation objectives for was implemented gradually many natural values in the over eight years under the Cariboo-Chilcotin. auspices of a multi-sector Now, a Ministry of committee, the Cariboo Dave NeaDS Forests, Lands and Natural Chilcotin Regional Resource Resource Operations Board, of which Neads was a mem- (MFLNRO) project is underway, and ber. headed up by resource operations He says the final step came about director Rodger Stewart. He is in 2010, with Land Use Order leg- looking at the potential for a sciislation to address changes made to ence-based review of opening up the Forest and Range Practices Act, land-use plans.
Three land use values are included in the investigation, including Old Growth Management Areas (OGMAs), Mule Deer Winter Range (MDWR) and Visual Quality Areas (VQAs). However, Neads explains seven or eight scientists from University of British Columbia’s Conservation Data Centre and Regional Protected Area Teams already worked out the scientific data during that original CCLUP process. “These were professionallytrained university biologists, for caribou, for mule deer, for critical fish, for grizzly bear, for habitat requirements, [and so on].” Continued on A12