Copyright © 2000 NLThomas
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VANCOUVER - On May 8, the provincial Environmental Assessment Office (EAO) asked Environment Minister Joan Sawicki for a delay in the decision on the $500 million four season ski resort that developers Al and Nancy Greene-Raine want to build in Melvin Creek, located in the Cayoosh Mountains, 55 kms south-west of Lillooet, B.C. The EAO was scheduled to submit its final recommendations to Cabinet on May 17, but is asking for the delay because of concerns raised by First Nations, and potentially adverse impacts to threatened grizzly bears.

At a presentation to the Lillooet Tribal Council Chiefs on May 5, SPEC was informed that the St'at'imc (Statlium) Nation have not had meaningful consultations with the provincial government on the ski development and its impacts since the proposal was initiated in 1990. The Province is proposing to privatize and lease large tracts of unsurrendered St'at'imc lands to the promoter and future developers. The proposed development for an instant town, and long term associated developments outside of Melvin Creek, will forever alter the character and demographics of the Lillooet/Pemberton region. The absence of meaningful discussions with the St'at'imc nation is a serious neglect in the present development proposal.

On May 5, SPEC was provided with a copy of a recent ethnographic study of the greater Duffey Lake area, which includes the ski resort proposal. This study, Stl'atl'imx Use of the Duffey Lake Area Including the Melvin Creek Watershed, was released to SPEC on a confidential basis, and summarizes the traditional use, history, and associated legends of the many areas around Duffey Lake.

At the beginning of May, St'at'imc erected a small camp near Melvin Creek, which is a peaceful demonstration in opposition to the road building, logging, and ski development of the Melvin Creek watershed. Ainsworth Lumber Co. Ltd. plans to build a road into Melvin Creek this summer.

Since last November, 1999, SPEC and bear biologist Wayne McCrory identified serious deficiencies in the ski resort promoter's (NGR Resort Consultants Inc.'s) wildlife report on grizzly bears to the EAO. Both the provincial wildlife ministry and the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans (cumulative effects analysis under the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act) have recently acknowledged SPEC's concerns as a significant issue, and have requested that more information be assessed.

On March 27 and 28, SPEC held informational slide presentations in Victoria and Vancouver with two grizzly bear specialists, Brian Horejsi and Wayne McCrory, on the impacts of two proposed ski developments to grizzlies. Brian Horejsi's recently released report (for the Valhalla Wilderness Society) on the Jumbo ski development near Invermere, The Purcell Mountains Grizzly Bear: Cumulative Effects and the Proposed Jumbo Glacier Development, concluded that the Jumbo resort would be devastating to the grizzly bear population. Based on the information and methodology in that report, the same conclusion can be made for the Cayoosh proposal, for grizzlies which travel between the Stein Valley Park, the Cayoosh Mountain Range, and the Bendor Range.

The cumulative impacts associated with this proposed development, and other future related developments, will also have negative consequences to other wildlife, such as mountain goats, wolves, wolverine, deer, and bull trout. Should the development go ahead, traffic on highway 99 for the Duffey Lake corridor is projected to increase by ten times, bringing about further stress and loss to wildlife populations.

On March 9, 2000, SPEC released information to the provincial media regarding a scandal about Cabinet and Deputy Ministers sidelining the concerns of government biologists who acknowledged the provincial importance of both grizzly bears and mountain goats in this area.