Transcript from the Alberta Legislature on April 2, 2007 between Dave Rodney, MLA Calgary Lougheed and Ted Morton, Minister of Sustainable Resource Development
Mr. Rodney: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It was suggested at a meeting last week in Bragg Creek that Kananaskis Country is threatened by a clear-cutting plan which was approved by the
minister of sustainable development. My question, obviously, is to that minister. What is the minister doing to protect the recreational and watershed functions of K-Country?
Dr. Morton: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to remind all members of the Assembly that clear-
cutting hasn’t been allowed in this province for several decades. The current practice of block cutting respects important structural features such as watersheds, riparian areas, trails, and sensitive biological areas. I’d also remind all members that block cutting is better than the alternative, which is beetles and wildfires, which respect none of the above. Mr. Speaker, 58 per cent of Kananaskis Country is already protected. Of what’s left, only a third is available. Less than one-quarter is subject to any logging.
Mr. Rodney: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Further comments from the meeting last week in Bragg Creek suggested that pine trees in Kananaskis Country are too small to be threatened by mountain pine beetles, that the beetles only attack large-diameter pines. I’m wondering if the Minister of Sustainable Resource Development can comment on how accurate that statement might be.
Dr. Morton: Mr. Speaker, that’s half true. It is true that the beetles prefer the larger diameter trees that you find in British Columbia. But if they can’t find the wider diameter trees, they’re happy to take the smaller ones. I want all members to know that our forestry models use 15 centimetre diameter for our predictions, the same statistic that is used by British Columbia, a province that’s lost 9 out of 10 of its pine trees. Following the B. C. model, we predict similar potential losses here. We’ve already found isolated incidents of smaller trees being infected. The eastern slopes are at risk, and we intend to manage that risk in a responsible manner.
Mr. Rodney: To the same minister. Perhaps I’ll be just a little bit more direct. The suggestion has been made that this government is using the threat of pine beetles as an excuse to allow timber harvesting. What is the minister’s response to that accusation?
Dr. Morton: Mr. Speaker, this is a simple question of risk manage-ment. You can look at what’s happened in British Columbia, where they’ve projected to lose 90 per cent of all their pine trees by 2010 or 2012, and you can see what doing nothing does. We believe that responsible logging, responsible forestry is the answer. This is trying to balance long-term environmental health versus short-term aesthetic values. We will make the responsible choice, which is the long-
term environmental health of our forests.
Thank you. |
Comment:
Ted Morton won't answer the first question. That is, what is he doing to protect recreation and the watershed? That's the key issue. It is the harmful effect industrial development will have on the immense value people derive from nature in the eastern districts of Kananaskis. The protected areas are relatively inaccessible compared to the foothills near Calgary. Logging will harm businesses who rely on the recreational users and it will cost the City of Calgary more to clean the contamination and deal with altered water flows than Spray Lakes and the government will earn from the logging.
The government is determined to extract all the value it can from Kananaskis in the short-term, with no regard for the cost to the environment, and the people who derive value from the land.
It is shameful that our government pays no head to the hundreds and hundreds of letters they received from their constituents who said they don't want logging in Kananaskis.
The beetles are not happy to take the smaller trees. The bugs can't survive on smaller trees. They may attack a few of them, but those trees can't sustain the beetle. The pine beetles won't kill all the other trees as clearcuting, block cutting or contour cutting (all basically the same thing - it's semantics and nuance that Morton uses to complicate and confuse) and the bugs won't kill the understory.
Those young trees will enjoy a surge of growth when the canopy of big old trees are gone. It will take years for those big trees to fall and during that time they'll help retain and recycle water. That's why it is far better to leave the trees.
Morton makes a very insulting and inaccurate charge against the forestry in B.C. saying they did nothing to combat the beetle. True they weren't able to stop the beetle. You can't. You can mitigate the damage, but this is a very visible manifestation of climate change. Cold kills the bugs. Our warm winters have allowed it to flourish. When you look at those alarming photos of vast expanses of red trees in B.C. - you're looking at global warming.
Extensive logging in Kananaskis is a greedy, rapacious response to a natural disaster. Leaving the trees will allow slow degeneration of the forest and will restore health and vigour to the forest far better and faster than will the logging industry. |
