A picket line formed outside the Spray Lake Sawmills office in Blairmore on Thursday, May 6, to peacefully protest planned timber harvesting in the Castle area, south of Crowsnest Pass. The protest was held during the company's open house, where people could view maps and ask questions about future harvest plans.
Spray Lake harvests timber in regions designated by Sustainable Resource Development. Spray Lake is responsible for developing operational plans and specifying the exact area to be cut, and these plans must be approved by SRD before operations begin.
In the Crowsnest Pass, Spray Lake has signed a road use agreement with the municipality for their log haul operations, giving the company access through Tecumseh Road, Atlas Road, and McGillivray Creek Road. This summer, they intend to complete their harvest plans in the McGillivray Creek area. Spray Lake concluded operations on several cut blocks up Atlas Road in 2009.
Martin Wilson of Spray Lake Sawmills said that after the McGillivray harvest, they plan to operate a little further north, going to Dutch Creek, the lower Livingstone area, the upper Livingstone, and then into Savannah Creek. He noted that these plans are not set in stone.
Outside the Blairmore office, the protesters drew attention to their concerns. The group of individuals, many of them property owners in the M.D. of Pincher Creek, are opposed to logging plans in the Castle and Carbondale areas.
Wendy Ryan, one of the protesters, said that approximately 5000 truckloads of logs are planned to be removed from within the Castle Special Place area in the winter of 2011-2012.