Six protestors were at an established barricade on Forest Service Road 7375 Branch 3 off the B and K Road in Roberts Creek on April 3. For a second consecutive day, the blockade, organized by Elphinstone Logging Focus (ELF) barred vehicle access to BC Timber Sales (BCTS) area TA 0521 (also known as Joe Smith Creek cutblock). The block is slated to go to auction in April, according to BCTS’s website, but as of mid-day April 3, had not been listed as available for bid.
ELF spokesperson Hans Penner, told Coast Reporter that while the protestors are not on site full-time, a daily presence is planned. He said ELF’s action is to demonstrate support for what it has heard from the community: the view that “this block is not for sale.”
The blockade was in place shortly after 10 a.m. on April 2, and Penner said the group plans to “ramp up” its campaign of awareness pending BCTS’ decision on the block’s future. He indicated BCTS manager Stacey Gould spoke with an ELF representative on April 3. The message relayed, he said, was that she would be deciding whether or not to issue the block to auction sometime next week.
Penner said if the auction is sanctioned, harvesting at the cutblock could proceed within a month.
On April 3, a Ministry of Forests spokesperson advised via email that should BCTS decide to move forward, the typical advertising period before an auction opening is 21 days for a sale. If a successful eligible bid is received, the bidder has 10 days to sign the licence document.
On its website, ELF called BCTS’s proposed auction for TA0521 an “ill-advised plan to clear-cut log across the S. Elphinstone Forest slopes that will impact many values, including removing Mature native forests, changing the existing hydrology that will result in impacts to water flow, reduces habitat for many species, loss of recreational opportunities.”
An online petition in opposition to logging the area had been signed by 34,677 individuals as of midday on April 3.
In March, the Sunshine Coast Regional District board officially received a notification from BCTS that the cutblock was headed to the auction block this month. Earlier in 2024, the local governments requested that effort be delayed, to protect the site for future old growth retention and until further review and plans for mitigation of the impacts of logging on the slopes of Mt. Elphinstone were in place.
In July 2023, BCTS released the initial phases of a watershed protection report for the Mt. Elphinstone area, produced by contractor Polar Geoscience. That report summarized the results of a watershed assessment of eight urban interface streams on the southern slopes of Mt. Elphinstone between Gibsons and Roberts Creek. It recommended that “the appropriate party consider a stream crossing review to pre-emptively identify and replace undersized or potentially non-functional crossings, especially those which pose higher social or environmental risks with failure.” That work has not been undertaken.
On Saturday, April 6, ELF has a public hike through the area scheduled. Penner encouraged those interested in learning about the impacts that logging of what the organization has named “The Mt. Elphinstone Water Protection Forest” could have for forest biodiversity as well as for downstream properties and infrastructure to meet on the B and K Road “at the power lines at 10 a.m.” A three-to-four-hour timeframe was estimated for the hike.
