North Shore cottage owners who are hoping to save a swath of Gambier Island from logging have won a temporary reprieve.
Members of the Gambier Island Conservancy, which opposes the logging plans, is applauding news the Ministry of Forests will hold off awarding two new woodlots on the island until after the public has been consulted.
In a letter sent to conservancy director and North Vancouver resident Peter Snell, Craig Sutherland, the assistant deputy minister of forests, told the group the ministry has decided to delay awarding the woodlots for "a few weeks" in order to help people with concerns "better understand the woodlot process."
The recent halt came after the Gambier Conservancy threatened to file a request for judicial review of the ministry's decision in court, on the grounds the public hasn't been adequately consulted on the proposed logging.
Many North and West Vancouver families, who make up the majority of Gambier Island's part-time residents, were shocked this spring when they found out the Ministry of Forests was putting two large areas in the northeast corner of the island up for bid as Crown woodlots. The two woodlots include areas of popular hiking trails, a community watershed, patches of old growth forest and Gambier Lake, a prime recreational destination on the island.
The area is close to a children's summer camp and to outstations of the Burrard and Thunderbird yacht clubs.
Combined with an existing woodlot, if the new woodlots are approved, it would see 25 per cent of the island under active logging, said Peter Scholefield, president of the Gambier Island Conservancy and a West Vancouver resident. The two new woodlots, which would be side by side, total 1,326 hectares, while the current woodlot is 400 hectares. The annual combined cut in the two new woodlots would be 6,000 cubic metres.
District staff estimate the two new woodlots would provide between four and five jobs, said ministry spokesman Greig Bethel. Six bids were received on each of the woodlots, ranging from a low of $100,000 to a high of $488,000.
Bethel said any successful bidder must complete a management plan, and addresses issues like management of watershed, riparian areas and recreation areas.
But after news of the impending woodlot decision got out, over 100 Gambier residents wrote to say they want to be consulted before the contract is awarded.
Scholefield said the ministry's agreement to do that is good news.
"I'm hopeful that we will present enough evidence to them that they will rethink the woodlots," he said. "I haven't heard of anybody yet who thinks these lots are a good idea."
Bethel said the ministry believes it has followed an appropriate process, but "given all of the concerns being raised and confusion about the process" has decided to hold further consultation with island residents.
