Human Interest Human interest Ranching and logging head to head in Big Creek
Ranching and logging head to head in Big Creek
| Human interest |
By LeRae Haynes
Ranchers in the Big Creek area who say their properties have sustained significant damage due to local logging practices had their concerns raised in late February in the BC Legislature by Opposition Critic for Agriculture Lana Popham.
(Saugstad Ranch is pictured here flooded due to what owner describes as ‘excessive logging’ upstream from his 100 year-old ranch.)
“We are working with the ranchers in that area, addressing the impact of harvesting practices there. It's had a Forest Practices Board review,” responded Minister of Forests Steve Thompson in Legislature. “The Forest Practices Board review confirmed that the harvesting activities were not causing the impact.”
Big Creek Rancher Randy Saugstad disagrees, stating that although the review listed ‘cold snap, drought, pine beetle and logging practices in the area’ as the cause of the problem, he knows better.
He states that excessive logging in areas upstream from his ranch has resulted in no water in the winter and floods in the summer. “There is one continuous cut block between me and my neighbor--about 30 km--and the reason we’re getting hit so hard is that we’re so close to Williams Lake,” he said. “They log here because it’s more economical for them.
“A Forest Practices Board Review written a year ago recommended a dispute resolution process. I saw a letter from four ministry deputies saying that ‘it’s all fine,’ but our problems here are getting worse and worse,” he explained.
“Last winter my cows ate snow, but when it starts melting in the spring it gets polluted. Although the cattle can handle drinking it, it made the baby calves sick.”
Another impact to Saugstad Ranch is electricity. “We have our own hydro-electric plant on the ranch to generate electricity---we use a 5/8” nozzle and only 90 lbs pressure, but in the winter with no water, we have to run an expensive diesel plant in order to have power,” he said.
He said that about 10 years ago District Manager of Forestry Jim Sutherland refused to issue a logging permit because he saw what it would do to my ranch. “As soon as the new FRPA (Forests and Range Practices Act) came in, though, the logging companies can do whatever they want,” he explained.
Two years ago Randy said that he and a neighbor blockaded the road when the logging company arrived to put in a bridge. “They turned around and went back to town with their bridge. Between Christmas and New Year two Tolko guys showed up at my house with a letter from Tolko’s lawyers saying what would happen if I blocked the road again,” he said. “So, the bridge went in, even though the mill closed two weeks later.”
He said that they’ve ruined the east side of Big Creek and now they’re logging on the west side.
“This Forest Practices report hasn’t done any good—it has no ‘teeth’ and the government just runs over it. Unless there is a huge public outcry about things, they just ignore them,” he noted. “Nothing changes their mind.
“I got a call from BC Minister of Forests Steve Thomson the first part of February. He listened, and said it was a ‘bad problem’ and said he wanted to come out for a visit and see for himself. He asked how far we are from Williams Lake.
“But when the group of Ministers, including Minister Thomson, came to Williams Lake in February, we were never even told he was coming and he did not contact us.
“We went through the right channels. We contacted our MLA Donna Barnett. Four of us met with her for about a half hour and she took a lot of notes. She said that we had a ‘bad problem’ and we told her we wanted to meet with Minister Thomson, which she didn’t seem to think was ever going to happen.”
He said that Donna arranged a meeting with the ranchers, the licensees (BC Timber, Tolko and West Fraser) and the District Forestry Manager, Mike Peterson, in order for us to see their logging plans. “We had all seen the maps a hundred times at Cattlemen’s meetings. It ended up being a question and answer period for Mike, who basically said there was nothing he could do,” Randy stated.
“Nothing was resolved, and Donna Barnet said last week that I’m making a ‘mountain out of a molehill.’”
When it comes to that Forestry Practices report, Randy states that he’s been told by forest service employees themselves that it’s only ‘suggestions’ and isn’t ‘law.’ “It’s useless if the current government isn’t honourable enough to follow it,” he added.
“I went to CCBAC (Cariboo Chilcotin Beetle Action Coalition) last June to see if we could get some money to help with some of this. They gave us $30,000 and the TSA (Timber Supply Association) gave us $10,000 for a study into the matter,” he noted.
He said that the money from both groups is for a study about water storage assessment, and ranchers have been hoping for the money for the actual work from the federal government.
“Because all this has taken so long, now it’s almost spring and nothing has been done—not the study, not the work—nothing. Yesterday the engineer finally received the contract, but we’ve missed the window of opportunity to do the work before the spring flooding,” he explained. “Now another year will go by.”
Randy has been at Saugstad Ranch for 22 years, and said that the ranches in his area are 100 year old, adding that two of them used to be part of the Chilko Ranch in the early 1900s.
The reality for him now is hauling water in a truck from a nearby lake to water his cattle during the winter. “We had to cut a road through the bush to a lake we use for irrigation. I have five places to water cows and we’re halfway through the calving season. Everyday we haul 1,500 gallons of water, chop the ice and water the cattle—at least three to four hours a day,” he said.
“When our water dried up this winter and we had no snow on the ground, I called the Forest Practices Board and they told me to phone Provincial Emergency Services. When I told them my problem they said it was a non-compliance issue and sent my complaint to the Conservation Officer and that got sent back to Forestry, who can’t do anything either.”
He said that there is earlier run-off with higher peak flows as a result of the clear-cuts.
“The three-foot ditch that the forests service originally dug in the 1980s on my ranch to help with the runoff has expanded to a ‘river’ that is 100’ wide and 20’deep—it gets bigger and bigger every year,” he continued. “At the lower end of my ranch the creek is flat and the sediment settles, flooding my hayfields and leaving a third of them two feet under water all summer.”
He applied for a permit last summer to get the creek re-dug and clear it out. Within two week he had all the First Nations referrals completed, but said that there was nothing but delays with the only official in Williams Lake who could issue the permit. “Between holidays and delays and adjudication, we didn’t get the permit until October,” he explained.
“The government calls FRPA ‘results-based forestry. The Registered Professional Foresters have a code of ethics and they are supposed to address problems like this. The Registered Professional Forester working for the mill can say, ‘I don’t think we should log that: it will flood a ranch and cause problems,’ but his boss says, ‘we need that wood: you sign it or we’ll find someone who will.’
“Everybody knows that what they’re doing is wrong, from the government on down, but this is systemic in our whole society,” he said. “If it’s in favour of a big corporation it’s good, but if it’s in favour of the ‘little guy’ it’s bad. I don’t even think having Minister Thomson out here will do a lot of good—there needs to be a change of government.”
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