ie building in Tofino Creek. The IWA is calling for more experimental rock blasting
imize shot rock. At forefront of photo is Dave Olsen, front-end loader operator.

neither the manpower or resources to
responsibly police activities of log-
ging companies.

Tony Bennett says that there is
little accountability in the Forest Ser-
vice or in MacMillan Bloedel and that
the very few fines given by the Forest
Service are simply viewed as a cost of
doing tiene the company.

“With constant pressure from our-
selves and the public, the company
and the Forest Service are starting to
make moves,” says Bennett.

Brother Haggard says that in deal-
ing with short-term problems like har-
vesting methods, long-term solutions
may be found.

MacMillan Bloedel does not prac-
tice intensive silviculture. It only per-
forms the very basic reforestation and
juvenile spacing which is required by
the Forest Service.

Rather than planning for future
forests of mixed variety and quality,
the company’s philosophy has been to
replant for pulp wood volume and not
sawlogs.

Ina sharp contract, Fletcher Chal-
lenge Canada, no great friend of IWA
workers, has been planning for second-
growth sawlogs. The company has, in
certain areas, been spacing and prun-
ing second-growth stands which will
result in merchantable timber.

MB has over 121,000 hectares of
logged-off forest in which no intensive
silviculture has been done. The com-
pany has simply allowed for natural

eration, planted seedlings, and
led away and let the second-
growth take its own course.

The IWA is pressuring the company
to replant the logged areas immedi-
ately and avoid slash and burn tech-
niques which destroy natural seed-

lings and also deplete the forest floor
of its valuable nutrients.

“In the future their is going to be a
definite fall-down effect,” says Pem-
berton. “But a lot of that fall-down
can be relieved by intensive silvicul-
ture which can create jobs and in-
} _ ¢rease the annual allowable above cur-

Tent levels.”

__ “At the same time that we cut our
forests we must retain some old-
owth characteristics within second-
wth forests,” says Bennett. “That

)s longer rotation periods in some
to grow quality trees for lum-

_ While the Clayoquot Sound Sus-
_tainable Development Task Force
es about its business, the IWA will
tinue to participate in that forum
d remain active on the work site.
The concerns of IWA-CANADA
mbers are straight forward — to be

of an environmentally con-
ous and sustainable forest indus-
which is desi, to create long-
stability of the communities
*h rely on the industry.

The Clayoquot Sound Task Force:
an exercise in frustration

In August of 1989 the Ministries of
Environment and Regional and Eco-
nomic Development struck a multi-
membered “Clayoquot Sound Sus-
tainable Development Task Force” to
help resolve conflict over resource use
in the Clayoquot Sound area of Van-
couver Island.

It was a move first welcomed by
IWA-CANADA, partially as a means of
avoiding confrontation over logging
and an opportunity to bring in truly
sustainable forest practices.

The Task Force, which consists of
over 30 representatives from munici-
palities and citizen’s groups, forest
companies, government ministries,
and native peoples, was designed to
operate on the principle of unanimous
consensus.

As one of its goals the Task Force
was charged with developing a sus-
tainable economic and environmental
strategy for the area by the end of
1990. The Task Force would address

Photo by Clive Pemberton

CLAYOQUOT

: ne

VANCOUVER
ISLAND

“Port
of Alberni

CL.
TA

ENLARGED

logging in Bulson Creek and longer term

sustainable development plan for the entire area shaded above is the mandate of the

task force.

such areas as economic development
opportunities, aesthetics, and social
concerns.

Each resource sector of the area —
forestry, fishing, tourism, mining, and
aquaculture — would be examined in
relevance to the sustainable develop-
ment plan.

But more than a year after the Task
Force was formed the parties aren’t
even close to developing a strategy.
Instead of working towards long-term
issues, the Task Force has been
caught up in discussions related to
short-term logging.

“This has been frustrating as hell,
but I still remain optimistic that we
are going to accomplish something
out of it,” says Port Alberni Local
1-85 president Dave Haggard, the
union’s representative on the task
force.

Brother Haggard says, “There’s
nothing put in place to resolve issues
if there is no consensus.”

e At a public meeting of the task force held in Tofino in September was Local 1-85's
alternative representative Monty Mearns (standing), who expressed the union's frustra-
tion with the task force's progress.

© At present logging activity is limited to Tofino Creek. Other proposals will include

STRATHCONA
PROV. PARK

\
BARKLEY
SOUND

|
AYOQUOT SOUND>”
SK FORCE STUDY AREA

oa

ration by Ingrid Rice

development in the Clayoquot River area. A

The Task Force is chaired by Allan
Hope, a highly respected expert on
dispute resolutions. Even though
there is a split between the represen-
tatives from Tofino, who appear to
want to halt all logging activity, and
other members of the Task Force,
logging activity has carried on in the
Tofino Creek watershed on a very
limited basis.

Local 1-85’s second vice-president
Monty Mearns says the process can
work if all parties deal in good faith.

Brother Mearns agrees that more
study is needed concerning the biodi-
versity of Clayoquot Sound, but that
a moratorium on logging activity is
uncalled for.

“The IWA is perceived by the public
to be acredible part of this Task Force
because of the positions it has taken
in the past on such issues as halting
log exports and demanding more
intensive silviculture,” says Brother
Mearns.

Both local union officials say that
more community involvement is
needed in the Task Force, and that by
such involvement, the importance of
the forestry base will be made more
apparent.

The Task Force has been broken
down into nine different negotiating
committees which cover the economic
sectors of the area. The negotiating
committees have defined their inter-
ests and interact with the committees
from the other sectors.

Some agreements have been reach-
ed between several of the committees.

The Clayoquot Sound Sustainable
Development Task Force is an experi-
mental attempt by the government of
BC. to institute some form of land-
use planning process. Being as the
government itself is unable to provide
a process which can satisfy the priori-
ties of user groups, the Task Force is
given that mandate.

The decisions of the Task Force will
effect the long-term future of more
than 2,500 residents in Uculet and
1,500 full-time residents in Tofino.
Eighty percent of the Kennedy Lake
crew live in Uculet.

Several of MB’s pulp mills and solid
wood manufacturing operations in
Port Alberni depend on balanced har-
vesting in the Clayoquot Sound area
and the rest of TFL #44.

LUMBERWORKER/SEPTEMBER, 1990/9