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ELF report finds major biodiversity

Elphinstone Park

Elphinstone Logging Focus (ELF) convened a meeting on June 10 to hear the highlights of a recently completed report from conservation biologist Wayne McCrory on the biodiversity of the proposed Elphinstone Park expansion.

According to McCrory’s findings, about 30 per cent of the area that ELF would like to have designated as parkland has been logged, with another 40 per cent slated for clear-cutting. His report suggests that logging be restricted to what has already been done, with the remaining 70 per cent left intact.

“We found out that most of the Elphinstone study area is blue-listed,” McCrory said.

Blue-listed means that an area of the forest contains species of special concern. They’re not endangered yet (red-listed) but a radical environment change could bump them off the blue list.

“If they keep logging the older forests at the rate they’re going, the blue-listed species are eventually going to go to red-listed,” McCrory said, “because this all relates to the older forests and they’re doing 80 to 100 year rotational clear-cuts.”

McCrory’s report found that 83 per cent of the study area is already blue-listed. He called the area a critical habitat for black bears, Roosevelt elk and many other species from animal to fungi to plant life, including the northern rhododendron.

Although it can be found in other parts of the province, the northern rhododendron in the proposed Elphinstone Park expansion area is the northernmost of its kind.

ELF president Ross Muirhead said the report would be submitted to a series of decision-makers, including provincial government ministries, BC Timber Sales and First Nations.

“I think that biodiversity is the number one thing that planners have to look at,” Muirhead said. “[McCrory’s] report really brings to light that the Elphinstone area has high biodiversity. To maintain that biodiversity, the whole ecosystem needs to be protected.”

McCrory’s report is available online at www.loggingfocus.org