Valhalla Wilderness Society Stops Pipeline Through Pristine Grizzly Country
By Nelson Daily Staff
By Suzy Hamilton, The Nelson Daily
Good news is hard to come by for Wayne McCrory.
But that ended last week when the New Denver bear biologist got word that his efforts will keep a gas pipeline out of the Khutzeymateen Provincial Park and grizzly bear sanctuary.
Pacific Rupert Gas Transmission (PRGT) has announced that it is withdrawing its pipeline route from the protected area due to public concern and will look for an alternate route, according to word received by McCrory.
The coastal campaigner for New Denver’s Valhalla Wilderness Society (VWS) learned in September that Trans Canada Corporation, a subcontractor for PRGT, was illegally landing helicopters in the Kwinimass and Khutzeymateen West conservancies north of Prince Rupert to study a route for a natural gas pipeline.
Thanks to a piece of legislation called the Provincial Park Boundary Adjustment Policy passed by Gordon Campbell’s government in 2004, pipelines — and other resource developments — can be built in parks with the proper permits.
But that wasn’t going to stop McCrory. “We took the leadership role and definitive action,” said McCrory. “That area is near and dear to our hearts. We are a small group with a big voice.”
The VWS set up communications and mobilized their networks, contacting everyone from legislators to grizzly viewing operators.
According to McCrory, the project would have involved the largest diameter pipeline (4 feet) ever built in Canada, requiring a 200 meter right of way strip to be logged through the pristine coastal rainforest. A major industrial road and large gas compressor would be built in the conservancies.
“Whatever we mean by ‘protection’ or ‘conservancy’ would simply be crushed and thrown away by pipeline development,” said McCrory.
“We weren’t about to see these ‘babies’ of ours threatened by such a major development. We just went ballistic.”
McCrory said his love of the Khutzeymateen began thirty years ago when he got “a brown envelope from a senior executive” containing documents revealing that the Khutzeymateen was about to be logged. He and two other bear biologist flew into the area and within four days, they determined that the area was an incredible ecosystem that must remain intact.
McCrory and VWS were the main players in battling the timber industry to get the area designated a park in 1994. A further two adjacent nature conservancies were established in 2006 in the fjords teeming with fish, bears and unique plant life.
Although another company, Spectra Energy, also has plans that involve the Khutzeymateen, McCrory is hopeful they will withdraw as well.
For McCrory, the bigger issue is the loss of protection for BC’s parks. “Campbell opened the door in the 2004 legislation,” he said.
“West Kootenay residents should realize that the Liberal government is slowly dismantling our sacred institutions,” he said, citing the recent news that the Agricultural Land Commission may be on the chopping block.
“All of us should be concerned. We don’t know what they’re going to do next in the West Kootenays…let logging and mining in the parks? There is a huge amount of support for wilderness and improving the logging here, but anyone could apply to move the (park) boundaries.”
“Jumbo is another example of the government catering, this time, to recreational development, over conservation and grizzly bears,” McCrory said.
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