Dear editor:
Regarding “Harvesting in Ghost watershed has some concerned,” in last week’s Eagle, Alberta Environment and Sustainable Resource Development (AESRD) spokesperson Duncan MacDonnell was quoted as saying that, ‘The notion of 25 years of logging condensed into three years is a bit of a misconception’ and that ‘SLS (Spray Lake Sawmills) has not been cutting up to its allotted amount over the last several years, based on poor market values.’
This is exactly the point the Ghost Valley group is trying to make! While trees could have already been re-growing (theoretically), SLS is now taking all of the trees at the same time, denuding the upper watershed of a vast amount of water-absorbing vegetation and making sure re-growth is all the same age, rather than a multi-aged forest, as is ideal for the health of forests and desirable for water management.
It’s also interesting that the AESRD spokesperson clarified why this is happening, “poor market values” of past years. In other words, the plan to condense a 25-year harvest into only three short years is market-driven, rather than scientifically and ecologically determined.
It seems that in Alberta, forestry decisions are increasingly made based on markets and financial numbers, rather than on what is good for forests, the health of the watershed and the needs of the people living downstream.
Lori Haywood
