The Kawesas Watershed Assessment

A Perspective on West Fraser's Five-year Plan

West Fraser Timber released its most recent five-year plan in May 1996. In regard to the Kowesas drainage, the plan proposes a 26 ha cut block that would yield 7,000 cubic metres of logs. Currently access is planned from a log dump on the west side of Chief Mathews Bay. A 10 km road would be constructed along the contour about 100 m above the river, cross a ridge into the Cole Creek watershed, and cross Cole Creek to access a timber stand at the confluence of the Kowesas River and Cole Creek (Figure 1). This is about as much information as has been made publicly available, although a more complete 20-year plan has been requested. The public was given sixty days to comment.

Clearly this information is insufficient to inform meaningful public input regarding land use planning on public land. By limiting description of actions to those contemplated in the first year, it masks potential cumulative impacts. In addition, it fails to assess the impacts of road building, limiting information to the locations of those activities.

Ecosystem Features Sensitive To Disturbance

West Eraser's plan leaves numerous critical questions unanswered: How much is the timber worth? How much would the road cost? What would be the impacts of the log dump? What would the total transportation costs be? How much of the terrain is unstable? Would there be seasonal environmental impacts, particularly to wintering mountain goats, oolichan, salmonids, and spring bird nesting? Are there cultural sites that should be avoided? What are the implications of the 10 km road, presumably built to access numerous medium- to high-volume stands?

In short, is the low-value, high-cost timber available in the Kowesas worth the ecosystem disruption that would ensue following standard forest harvest techniques as currently practiced in coastal British Columbia? We cannot answer all these questions without more information, but we can make a start. In particular, we can show the level of information that should be publicly available before any such plan is presented.

As important as the likely value of the timber harvested in the next five years and the transportation costs involved in the log dump, road, and water transportation, is an assessment of the long-term impacts of such activity. If we assume that timber stands adjacent to the planned road with as much or more volume than the proposed 26 ha cut block will be harvested, then the total long-term cutting area is likely to be 334 ha. This information needs to be considered alongside a careful site-specific analysis of environmental impacts, that takes into account terrain stability, soils, hydroriparian areas, wildlife, fisheries, and cultural values. The beginning of such an analysis is shown in Map 6. In addition, the economic costs and benefits of a short-term forest harvest plan should be weighed against the impacts on long-term sustainable benefits from activities such as fishing and tourism. The point here is not to critique likely forest harvest plans, but to demonstrate the minimum amount of information needed to evaluate any such plan. Detailed site-specific analysis, which was not the intent of the present study, would have to be carried out, and then presented in a way that invited meaningful public analysis and input.

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