The five-week-long blockade at Dakota Creek on Mount Elphinstone orchestrated by Elphinstone Logging Focus (ELF) came to an end on Sept. 21 after K&D Contracting Ltd. demobilized the heavy equipment it had in the area.
B.C. Timber Sales (BCTS) had contracted K&D to build a new logging road into an area that ELF considers a black bear habitat.
“The road-building equipment has been removed from the site for now. However, the contract remains valid and may be restarted or rescheduled,” Greig Bethel, media relations officer for the Ministry of Forests, said.
Bethel said the ELF roadblock was illegal and that it has impacted the ability of BCTS to build a new road.
“BCTS is currently considering its options. It would be inappropriate to speculate further at this time,” Bethel said.
The area that ELF forest protection campaigner Ross Muirhead is calling the Dakota Valley Bear Sanctuary is known to BCTS as timber sale area A87126.
According to Muirhead, logging in the 70-hectare old-growth forest is controversial for a number of reasons.
“Issues of culturally-modified trees by First Nations and a high number (32) of active black bear den sites are projected to be found in the block,” Muirhead said.
The blockade remained in place for five weeks. Muirhead said this is the longest blockade he’s ever heard of without an injunction. “I haven’t read or heard of a roadblock lasting for more than a few days before an injunction gets served,” Muirhead said. “Certainly not road building equipment being voluntarily removed behind a blockade. What’s going on here is very interesting.”
