Friends of Snowden,

My apologies for not updating you on a more frequent basis, but most of our meetings with BC Timber Sales (BCTS) have been taken up with us receiving information from them. In addition to the information about land-use plans, watershed assessments, etc. they took us on a one-day field trip into Snowden back in February just as the first snow was falling (see photo of the CREW Hiking Club representatives). It was a good field trip because it helped us all see what the impacts were from different management and logging decisions. 

Recently there have been a number of newspaper articles about Snowden, which were triggered by a report from the City staff member who is attending the advisory Council meetings.  In his report he expressed his concern to City Council that BCTS had not shown any openness to input from the stakeholders. As I mentioned, most of the meetings have been taken up with BCTS presenting information to the stakeholders and his report reflected that fact. Council responded by writing to the Minister again requesting a moratorium on logging and roadbuilding until a comprehensive management plan for Snowden is completed. 

After the first newspaper article came out BCTS indicated that they were open to input from stakeholders and that they are open to the fact that one or more of the five proposed cut blocks might not be acceptable and might have to be changed. This was heartening news.

Another encouraging sign is that BCTS will only seek to log 5,000 – 6,000m3 of timber per year from Snowden, even though technically the area should be able to sustain an annual harvest of >10,000m3. This will give them more ability to reduce impacts on the recreational values in Snowden.

Specific activities or next steps are as follows:

1. BCTS asked stakeholders for their top 3 Values in Snowden and asked us to identify areas in Snowden that were most important.
2. We spent a meeting revising the BCTS Guiding Principles for logging in Snowden. This will have to be revised once the Vision is agreed upon.
3. BCTS mapped the key value areas identified by stakeholders (still in process).
4. BCTS presented a map showing all of the harvestable areas in Snowden.
5. We have been asked what we would like the 20 year logging plan to look like.
6. We have been asked to update or refine the values that are important to our groups.
7. We have asked for the opportunity to provide feedback on the five proposed blocks and the associated roads.

At the last meeting we discovered that BCTS felt that all of the elements of a 20 year plan were satisfactorily in hand. Stakeholders responded forcefully stressing that they have provided very little input to date and requested the opportunity to provide more input. BCTS agreed to the request, so at the next meeting we will all provide additional information on our key values and feedback on the maps that have been developed to date.

I will present the goals and the objectives that make up the draft Friends of Snowden Vision document that a group of stakeholders collaborated on to create last fall. 

We have reached a challenging point in the advisory committee process. We are trying to get BCTS to understand that all of the planning for Snowden should flow from an overarching vision in terms of what we are trying to achieve (from a recreation and tourism perspective). I hope that over the next several meetings we will be able to come to some consensus as a group (including BCTS) with regards to that vision. We will then continue working towards the development of a 20 year plan.

Thanks for caring,

Garry