Elphinstone Logging Focus (ELF) says it has turned back logging crews heading to work in the area known as the Clack Creek Forest.
ELF has been trying to stop the harvest of cutblock A93884, but a BC Supreme Court judge rejected the group’s petition, filed last April with support from West Coast Environmental Law, against the sale of the cutting rights.
BC Timber Sales (BCTS) awarded the cutblock to a Squamish-based company, Black Mount Logging, giving it the right to remove roughly 29,500 cubic metres of timber.
Since the loss of the court challenge, ELF has been calling on Forest Minister Doug Donaldson to offer the company a different area to log. The group also staged “Living Forest Institute” classes in the cutblock and placed more than 1,000 felt hearts on trees in the cutblock.
In an email Jan. 12, ELF said a crew from Black Mount had begun felling trees, calling it “a very sad day for this regional district and our collective community goals … as another key part of the Mt. Elphinstone Park protected zone gets compromised.”
ELF’s Ross Muirhead said when crews returned to the area again Monday morning, “we informed them that we weren’t allowing them to go to work today each time.”
