Elphinstone Logging Focus (ELF) has taken down its blockade and camp north of the Sechelt airport, after AJB Investments was granted an injunction against the protesters.
ELF supporters had been blocking the company’s access to its property in the Chapman Creek watershed since early February. AJB went to court arguing that the timber already cut was at risk of rotting to the point of being unmarketable, and incomplete roads were at risk of eroding.
ELF, on the other hand, wants to see serious negotiations between the Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) and AJB for the purchase of the land (roughly 161 hectares, or 400 acres) before it’s too late to keep it from being logged.
In an email to Coast Reporter, AJB’s Mark Rogers said, “For now we are going to proceed with retrieving the timber we have already fallen and take care of any road or erosion control matters that require our attention. “
ELF’s Ross Muirhead said, as he understands it, the company doesn’t plan any new tree cutting on the Chapman property for a while. “That buys the regional district more time to just even contact Surespan [a company affiliated with AJB] to say ‘OK, give us until 2017 to come up with a purchase plan.’”
Immediately after the April 22 court ruling, ELF wrote SCRD chair Garry Nohr and the board. That letter says, in part, “We urge you at this late hour and in your capacity of the executive arm of the SCRD to take immediate action by contacting Mr. Rogers and providing a timeline for the purchase of these watershed lands … 10,000 households reply on the Chapman Creek drinking watershed as their source of water; they are the taxpayers who can support the purchase of their watershed lands. The value of the AJB/Surespan lands has been talked about at $7 million. Should the SCRD borrow the $7 million (on a 10-year term) this would represent approximately a $75 annual, temporary tax (at a 1.5 per cent interest rate) per household.”
Muirhead said the group doesn’t understand the SCRD’s reluctance to at least take the idea to voters. “We’ve said all along, give the public a chance to comment on that [borrowing money to buy the land]. Maybe the public is on side to see a temporary tax increase.”
Nohr has told Coast Reporter previously that a “land swap” involving Crown land is a far more likely option, and the SCRD has been trying to get a meeting with Forests Minister Steve Thomson to talk about it.
Overall, ELF is disappointed with the ruling. “Even though we’re respecting the ruling, we’re disappointed that the judge didn’t look a bit more in detail at this situation,” said Muirhead, adding that the company’s past practices and concerns raised over previous logging should have been given more weight.
The judge allowed a seven-day window for appeal of the ruling. As of Coast Reporter’s press deadline, no appeal had been filed.
