Editor:
Re: Changes recommended for watershed logging
The draft hydrology report released on March 11 by BC Timber Sales recommends a reduction in cut areas on Mount Elphinstone from 25 per cent to 20 per cent, to reduce the risk of flooding and protect the health of our aquifer recharge area.
This is not a good news story. It is incomprehensible why, in this time of climate change, anyone would seriously propose clear-cutting in our watershed. Mature forests are what stabilize the slopes, reduce the risk of flooding, and regulate the recharge of water into the aquifer that supplies drinking water to more than 10,000 people.
The report claims that the proposed logging poses a low risk to our groundwater supply, aquifer recharge and flooding. However, the report also states that nobody really knows to what degree aquifer recharge will be affected by logging. So why take the risk?
Vancouver and Victoria are the only communities in B.C. that have protected watersheds. Such protection is sorely needed for the rest of us. It is unconscionable, when we are already faced with water shortages, to put the water supply of thousands of people at risk, in return for a relatively small financial gain.
We all remember the heat dome of 2021, the Stage 4 water restrictions of recent years and the atmospheric rivers we experienced in October and November 2021 that brought Chaster Creek to peak flows and led to washouts at multiple locations in our community.
The hydrology report incorporates climate change projections, stating: “Precipitation projections have a high uncertainty and there is a big variability.” The series of atmospheric rivers inundating California in recent months should be stark warning to us. With only a small change in the wind pattern these rivers could have hit here.
Rod Moorcroft
President of Elphinstone Community Association
