To the Editor,
Water, water everywhere and not a clean drop to drink…that used to be a regular refrain, especially if you live in the Beaver Creek Water District. That’s where TimberWest logging company logged the beautiful Beaufort Mountains from Wolf Creek on the west side to Kitsuksis Creek on the east side, and all the stream beds and water courses in between including Beaver Creek itself.
Some of their actions caused numerous boil water orders and forced residents to use city water from the China Creek watershed.
TimberWest is the same company that has been logging the China Creek watershed for years, now under the Private Lands Council, where they have their own rules and self-supervision. By the look of the mess on the mountain behind, the company logged with no professional logging plans and no properly engineered road building plans, which in my mind means no plan at all.
I may be just a dumb old logger who has spent a lifetime living and working in the forest industry, but I have been involved with many different ways of operating and doing business with respect for people and the environment.
It is long past the time that I think TimberWest should be held accountable for what they have already done in the watershed.
We may have to wait for another B.C. provincial election so we can have some professional foresters who are not under the thumb of forestry company officials and bureaucrats to investigate what is really going on with this Private Lands way of logging.
From my own experiences with Timber West, on my Beaufort property, the sooner this Private Lands fiasco is stopped the better.