WINLAW - Today the struggle to protect Trozzo Creek was renewed, after an eight month break. At 6:00 this morning, thirty local residents returned to Fern Road, 10 km north of Winlaw, to protest Slocan Forest Product's plans to upgrade the Trozzo Creek road prior to beginning logging operations in the domestic watershed. The confrontation on the road lasted the better part of the day. The residents and SFP negotiated a halt to all work for the day, as well as the withdrawal of Slocan Forest Products equipment from the work-site.

Slocan Forest Products had begun work on the road a few days prior to this morning's protest, but had failed to inform either EACT (Elliot-Anderson-Christian-Trozzo water users association), the Slocan Valley Watershed Alliance, or the Christian Creekwater users (the Christian basin will be accessed via the Trozzo Creek road) of their intention to begin work. In fact, Slocan Forest Products most recently told the Slocan Valley Watershed Alliance that they would not be starting work in Trozzo until June.

The fact that Slocan Forest Products began work without notifying these groups contradicts the impression of "community involvement" which the company attempts to foster. Furthermore, the road-building crew left a small "beauty strip" at the junction of Fern Road, so that the upgrade work could not be seen by passing residents. According to EACT resident Tanya Wright,
"By going into Trozzo Creek without informing us, SFP have set back any trust they had earned by ten years."

Approximately one kilometre of the road was cleared and graded before today's protest. Slocan Forest Products claims that the upgrade work is necessary to improve drainage. However, the protesters note that any road-work done by SFP in Trozzo Creek is only the prelude to industrial-scale logging in a consumptive-use watersheds. While SFP has attempted to treat the logging plans and the road upgrade as two separate issues, the protesters view this division with suspicion. According to Mark Stoddart, a resident of nearby Christian Creek,
"Where the main purpose of the road is to access cut-blocks, to treat the road as a separate issue from SFP's logging plans would be absurd. The road is the integral first step in SFP's plan to log our domestic watersheds."