Elphinstone Logging Focus (ELF)’s latest blockade has me thinking about the early days of my return to the Sunshine Coast.
I signed on as news director for a local radio station almost exactly 10 years ago, and within a week or two, I was scooped on a story about a tree-cutting controversy by then Coast Reporter editor Ian Jacques.
I joked to Ian that I missed the story because I’d forgotten the first rule of covering the Sunshine Coast: “It’s never just a tree.” That’s certainly true in the case of the Chapman Creek watershed.
As ELF tries to stop logging in the watershed, the Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) is poised to spend millions on improvements to the system that supplies Chapman water to a huge number of households.
But there’s been no real change in the authority it has over that watershed.
The Sechelt First Nation claims the area as traditional territory, but that’s far from a guarantee of control either.
And although the Sechelt Indian Band/SCRD joint watershed management agreement means a coordinated approach, it doesn’t create the powers either government wants or needs. In fact, when it was last renewed in 2011, SCRD chair Garry Nohr pointed out that a key goal under the agreement was to gain those powers.
Many communities in B.C. hoped local control over watersheds would be in the province’s new Water Sustainability Act, which comes into force this year. It isn’t.
I don’t always agree with ELF’s tactics, and – if you’ll forgive the obvious gag – I think they sometimes go barking up the wrong tree altogether. But, you have to admit, they’ve done a damn good job of pointing out those times when it’s never just a tree. Shame Victoria hasn’t noticed.
•••
I opened this column with a mention of my old job, so I’ll close with a mention of my new job. I’m now officially a staff writer here at Coast Reporter.
I’ll be keeping tabs on doings at the Town of Gibsons and the SCRD, and working on a project that’s going to need some of the skills I picked up during all those years in broadcasting (more on that in the weeks to come).
I’m thrilled to be continuing my journalism career here on the Sunshine Coast, and although I may have changed outlets, I haven’t changed outlook. This is where I grew up. This is where I’ll grow old(er). What happens here matters to me, and so does helping people understand it.
