Wilderness
Committee Confronts Tembec on
Provincial Park Logging at Open House
On short notice the Wilderness
Committee Manitoba hosted an Open House at Place
Louis Riel on January 22, in the room adjacent
to multinational logging giant Tembec’s
Open House.
Our intention was to bring Tembec’s plans
to further abuse our forests to more Manitobans.
Displays documenting Tembec’s upcoming plans
for clearcutting our wilderness were presented
and explained to a group of over 50 concerned
citizens. These people included Wilderness Committee
members and supporters, cottage owners, outfitters
and lodge owners, and Forestry students from the
University of Manitoba, among others. After discussing
the many concerns with Tembec’s activities
we walked over to Tembec’s Open House to
ask the hard questions about Tembec’s plans.
People from a diverse range of backgrounds asked
questions. Tembec's Divisional Forester was on
hand, but was unable to explain Tembec’s
actions in any satisfactory way. Most people went
away disgusted with Tembec’s flagrant abuse
of our forests.
Attending Tembec’s
Open House was an auditor for the Forest Stewardship
Council (FSC), an international organization which
certifies forestry operations as ecologically
responsible. Tembec is attempting to get certification
as responsible foresters right now.
Below are some images from the event. We will
be posting a link to the video recording of the
event as soon as it becomes available.
Manitoba
Director Eric Reder explaining some of Tembec's plans
for provincial parks.
Eric and a map of Nopiming
Provincial Park, which shows all of the old growth forests
in the park. Tembec plans to log it all in the next two
years.
Tembec's
Divisional Forester trying to blame the government Department
of Conservation for Tembec's logging of a proposed Ecological
Reserve in Nopiming Provincial Park. Tembec stated in
documents to the FSC that they would not be logging this
area, yet their 2006 Operating Plan clearly demonstrates
this as false. Taking notes in the background is the FSC
auditor.
Cottage owner and outfitter
Russ Popp confronting Tembec's Divisional Forester about
the pattern of illegal cut block sizes, and Tembec ignoring
the legally required consultations of cottage owners and
outfitters.
Eric
asks about Tembec's plan to clearcut the calving grounds
of the threatened woodland caribou. At first Tembec tried
to say the calving grounds were protected, and then backtracked
to say this wasn't part of their planned operating area.
Eric countered by presenting a map downloaded from the
Tembec website clearly showing Tembec plans to log the
calving ground.
Eric
waits in vain for a Tembec response to the question of
why Tembec is logging the Manigotagan River corridor after
so many Manitobans worked to protect it. CBC television
films. No explanation was forthcoming.
Further explanations of Tembec’s
plans and what we must ask Tembec and government to do will
be forthcoming.
To start please click on the link below and send an email
to government, expressing your opinion on whether logging
in provincial parks should be stopped.
Click
here to send an email to government to
express your opinion about stopping logging in our
provincial parks.
