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Judge grants new injunction against logging protesters

Elphinstone Logging Focus
ELF
Vandalized trail signs in the B&K logging road area.

Elphinstone Logging Focus (ELF) says it will respect a B.C. Supreme Court decision to grant a new injunction to Peninsula Logging.

The company was the successful bidder for the harvesting rights on cutblock A87125 on the slopes of Mount Elphinstone. BC Timber Sales (BCTS) put the block up for auction in June.

BCTS said at the time the requirements it would impose on the company doing the logging would protect veteran Douglas fir and leave additional buffers around riparian areas and the popular mountain biking trails.

An interim injunction granted by a judge in Vernon in late August was not extended after a Sept. 26 hearing in Vancouver. The company filed a new application within days, and the judge in the case ruled Oct. 7 to approve a new injunction.

The injunction will remain in place until Dec. 31, enough time for the company to complete work.

Although ELF said it would not do anything further to interfere with the company’s work, there have been other demonstrators on the mountain who aren’t affiliated with the group. “We don’t have control over other people’s actions who may take a different view; however, we are not encouraging others to violate the injunction,” said a statement posted to the group’s Facebook page.

Sunshine Coast RCMP said there have been no arrests related to the new injunction.

The Sunshine Coast Trails Society, though, is reporting vandalism to its sign marking the trail network around the B&K logging road. The sign was defaced with an anti-logging message, and one section of the map was blacked out with the words “clear cut” written beside it.

More than a dozen people arrested for violating the original interim injunction were due to appear in court Oct. 12.  The results from those appearances were not available by Coast Reporter’s deadline.