We have received a cluster of comments over the last few days, several with overlapping contents. Rather than responding to each individually I thought I would provide a generalized response.
First of all we would like to apologize for any technical issues you may have had with our blog site and appreciate you letting us know. We have contacted our blog hosting provider and they have increased the amount of time allowed for our blog pages to load. If you continue to have technical difficulties let us know and we will do our best to resolve the issue.
Several have provided a range of comments with respect to our upcoming open houses, with a primary target surrounding the community of Bragg Creek. Some have indicated that open houses are a waste of time. Some want open houses but have requested it be held in Bragg Creek rather than Cochrane. Still others have indicated it is inconvenient for them to have to drive outside of Calgary to attend an open house and would prefer open houses to be held in Calgary. While it will be near impossible to accommodate everyone’s wishes, one take home message is clear. There is a big interest in our operations with respect to the Bragg Creek area. Given this, we are in the process of evaluating options for how we might further engage interested parties. We don’t yet have a definitive answer to what this might look like, but keep posted. It is a work in progress.
Another common theme from recent blog comments and emails is the request for an advanced digital distribution of our proposed harvest plans. We appreciate why these requests are being made however in the past it has also created a few problems. At present we are just in the process of finalizing the field work/ground truthing associated the plans development. As the field assessments occur modifications to the plans naturally arise. Advance distribution of draft plans will end up with a range of draft plans in the public domain. This has ended up creating confusion and has made it more difficult to discuss the end plan. Our intent is not to be secretive but things must occur in their proper sequence. We are targeting to have a plan available for viewing and discussion by the time of our open house and we are planning to post a link to it on our blog so everyone will have access to it.
Some comments have questioned whether logging is an appropriate activity for the area and that recreation should have a priority as a land use. This is a broader issue than what we can deal with as a company. Spray Lake Sawmills has been granted a Forest Management Agreement by the Crown and the area has been zoned as multiple use as per the Governments Integrated Resource Plan. We will be taking these as givens and have been developing our plans accordingly. If stakeholders would like to work with us to determine how we can best accommodate multiple use objectives for the area we are very happy to roll up our sleeves and see what we can do.
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About the Author: Jason Mogilefsky
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The open house provided a ‘record of public input or concern’ form. Can those of us that weren’t aware of the open house, or unable to attend, still fill out this form?
The open house is done, the map where there,
is possible now have a link to a digital format we can download so we can look to them better and do our homework?
I try to navigate your web but I could not find them.
Is also looking to a historical data of previous logging in overlay with the future proposed to understand what will be left standing after your harvesting that has more then 20 years.
Where i can find detail maps of wetland and other information in connection to your planned logging. In my opinion the maps with only the contour of the proposed logging are useless unless (the only thing we can debate is only the size. You need to give some other key information and indicators to have an informed discussion. (slopes, water courses and topographic information , existing vegetation, animal corridors and etc etc)
Good Morning Alvise
If you go to the Spray Lake Sawmills website, http://www.spraylakesawmills.com you will see an area on the lower right hand corner of the page labelled as “Quick Links”. The map is at the very top of the list. Click on “FHP Map for West Containment Line for Bragg Creek”. Some of the information you are looking for is included as part of the map; AVI cover types, hydrography, access, legal grid, block boundaries, etc. Other information that you referenced can best be found by going to our Detailed Forest Management Plan. This can also be accessed through our website. It is a fairly large document (over 1000 pages). Given that you seem to be wanting to get into the details surrounding our harvest plans it may be beneficial for you to give us a call so we can set up a time to meet with you and help you sort through it. All the best.
Could you give an estimate of the total area being logged in the Kananaskis region by your company?
Would you also be able to explain the style of harvesting which is planned for the region?
What precautions are being taken to prevent a dangerous wildfire from threatening communities in this region?
Thank you for your time.
Hi Andrew
Thanks for your questions. The logging style will be similar to what was done for the first containment line west of Bragg Creek last winter. It consists of blocks of variable shapes and sizes and tries to follow natural features of the landscape to the extent possible. Within the blocks we leave some structural retention to help break up the line of sight across the block. This generally consists of smaller patches or clumps of trees as well as individual trees.
The provincial department of Environment and Sustainable Resource Development is the agency responsible for wildfire prevention. Your question related to precautionary steps to protect the community from fire might best be put to them. The harvest design we have been working on is intended to help mitigate wildfire risk by designing the blocks into a configuration that would assist in providing an anchor point from which ESRD could fight the fire.
In order to answer you question related to the estimated area planned for harvest in the Kananaskis region I need a little more information. Are you interested in all of K-Country or just the portion specific to the harvest plan currently being developed? As our FMA is planned for perpetual timber harvest in a sustainable fashion there will be ongoing activity through time. What time frame are you interested in?