Too Much Watershed Logging Already
Capilano Crown Creek Douglas fir-over 9ft. In diameter
Cedar Creek Coquitlam Watershed, storm slide on south facing slop.
The Greater Vancouver Water District (GVWD) was formed in 1926 by Ernest Cleveland-a public servant with a clear vision who saw the need to protect our drinking water by preserving the old-growth forest in the catchment areas. Based on his observations of logging at the time, he reported to the public in 1922 that logging was degrading the quality of Vancouver's drinking water.
As the guardian of our watersheds, Cleveland brought a stop to logging there for over 30 years. After his death in 1952 the timber industry's "managed watershed philosophy" gradually took over and the big trees in the Capilano, Seymour and Coquitlam watersheds began to fall again.
Because provincial legislation requires that any logging in the three watersheds can proceed only if it enhances or preserves water quality, it has been necessary for GVWD officials who want to log to claim that old growth stands were decaying and threatening our drinking water. Downed tree snags were deemed to be forest fire hazards, requiring road-building to facilitate their removal. This con job worked for over two decades.
The three watersheds, totalling 585 square kilometers, are in part owned outright by the GVRD. The rest of the land is leased from the province for a period of 999 years under the 1926 legislation that founded the GVWD.
Greater Vancouver Water Supply Areas'(Watersheds')Current Forest Cover
Click on image for detail
Some 300 kilometres of logging and access roads were built between 1961 and 1992 and more than 10,000 hectares (25 Stanley Parks) of trees have already been logged; some 4,000 hectares clearcut between 1960 and 1993. WCWC believes that this logging and roadbuilding has unleashed excessive erosion that has lead to gradual degradation of our water quality.
Following public hearings in 1994, GVWD officials announced plans to expand existing chlorination plants at Vancouver's reservoir sites and add 20 re-chlorination stations throughout the GVRD area at a cost of $190 million. Extra chlorine is needed now to kill bacteria and maintain safe drinking water. Silt and organic material reduce the effect of disinfectants like chlorine, so more is used.
Meech Creek Road(rip/rap road through clay bed) built in 1992, Coquitlam Watershed
North east Coquitlam Watershed ancient forest.
Capilano Watershed slide area along old logging road takes silt into the reservoirs.
The GVWD has also recommended installation of additional filters at the three reservoirs, burdening taxpayers with nearly a billion dollars in capital expenditures and huge ongoing costs to maintain them.
Western Canada Wilderness Committee (WCWC) believes the GVWD should quit logging and roadbuilding in the watersheds, decommission the existing roads, and allow the natural old-growth forest system to heal and regrow. Then the forests will once again operate as he best and most cost effective method of filtering and preserving healthy drinking water.
The GVWD has responded to recent public pressure and say they now log "only to improve water quality or reduce fire risk." WCWC believes the idea that logging can improve the water is fraudulent (See Three Big Whoppers, p.4)
"Since 1992," says Paul George, WCWC's watershed campaigner, "documented evidence points to the fact that logging increases the natural rate of erosion and threatens our water quality. Now it's going to cost Greater Vancouver taxpayers an awful lot of money to cope with silty water, and the GVWD is still refusing to admit that logging is the problem. It looks like increased public pressure on the top official in charge, B.C.s Minister of Environment, Lands and Parks, is the only way to achieve an end to logging in our watersheds."
"From a standpoint of public health it is essential that no logging be allowed on the watersheds of Seymour and Capilano. No logging operations... could ever be carried on without imminent danger of pollution.
Should the timber be removed, the unchecked erosion would not only increase the amount of suspended matter (in drinking water)..but also eliminate the retention of run-off."
-Provincial Water Rights Board - August 1916