Slocan Lake is the largest unpolluted lake in southern British Columbia, surrounded by a breathtaking mountain wilderness often compared to Lucerne, Switzerland. Residents on mountain roads above the lake's eastern shore are among the few in Canada whose water supply, pure and untreated, comes directly from streams flowing down mountainsides through forested wetlands. But for some 45 families residing in the Red Mountain area, near the villages of Silverton and New Denver, this water supply is threatened by industrial logging. On Friday this week [February 11, 2000] shortly after 7 a.m nearly 100 people stood in silent protest blocking the path of loggers who had come to fall trees for a road through their watershed. They, and we, will be back there again on Monday morning. By then, the loggers may have an injunction with accompanying police to enforce it.

Slocan Forest Products, authorized by the BC Ministry of Forests, intends to begin construction immediately on logging roads 200 and 500 which will slice through the heart of the Hasty/Vevey Watershed that supplies Red Mountain residents with their drinking water. This first phase of a massive logging operation will have devastating effects, crossing every creek and stream (at least 25) in the entire watershed as well as some very fragile wetlands (at least 7).

Deforestation and road-building on the scale proposed by the company, no matter how carefully done, will increase peak flows and cause soil erosion in this watershed. The resulting sedimentation is a health hazard (through water-borne disease) and can severely damage property in several ways: water-boxes and intakes can be blocked, hydro-electric systems can be shut down by erratic flows and there is danger of flooding and landslides. There is no alternative source of water in these remote locations high above the lake and far from any reservoir except for the very expensive and perhaps fruitless search for wells. Therefore, our properties could become worthless and the dream of living in a mountain paradise could become a nightmare.

How has it come to this? Since 1985 the Red Mountain Residents Association and the Slocan Valley Watershed Alliance have been actively promoting responsible logging practices in order to safeguard our water supply. In November 1990 we were encouraged that the "Plan Goal" for the Integrated Watershed Management Plan for Hasty/Aylwin Creeks (adopted by officials of the Forestry and Environment Ministries) stated that "for integrated resource use... the number one priority is the protection of water quality, quantity and the timing of flow." But it soon became apparent that the real number one priority was logging, whether for company profits or government revenue. In 1991, while participating in a blockade at Hasty Creek, 84 people were arrested after Slocan Forest Products obtained an injunction against them; the supposed leaders were named in lawsuits which still hang over them.

We have tried everything, expending time, energy and money. Our application for Community Watershed Status, which would have provided some protection, was recently denied on a technicality. We recommended the sensible conclusions of the Silva Forest Foundation's plan for this region. We welcomed the sensible recommendations of the Auditor-General supporting a stand-alone agency for water with meaningful involvement of watershed users, real negotiating power as opposed to what trade union leaders scornfully dismiss as `binding supplication.' We have met often with the principals in this dispute: the company, the District Manager of Arrow Lakes Forest Region, officials from the Ministries of Forests and Environment, our MLA, the Sierra Defense Fund, Forest Watch, and many experts in hydrology and ecosystem-based forestry planning.

Membership in our Association reflects the diversity of residents along our road, including free-spirited `freaks from the Slocan', shopkeepers from the local villages, retired professionals and even forest product workers. We are not guerilla fighters seeking to destroy logging or sentimental tree-huggers who have seen Bambi or Free Willy too often. We seek a voluntary deferral of construction of Roads 200 and 500 so that detailed consideration can be given to our perspective. Another of our quite rational proposals calls for the creation of a Hasty/Vevey Creeks Study Area, not the entire watershed but the region south of Hewitt Mine Road. A panel of experts acceptable to all concerned parties and paid by the Ministry of Forests would conduct a comparative analysis, at a landscape level, of the various planning approaches, making recommendations that would break the logjam and lead to a resolution of this longstanding, bitter conflict that threatens once again to erupt in civil disobedience.

What we ask is taken for granted in many Canadian regions. No activity of any kind is allowed in the watersheds supplying Vancouver and Victoria; even those working in such areas must submit to stool and urine tests. Cortes Island, the Harrop-Proctor area and some First Nations groups have experimental watershed-protection systems in place. But creative thinking is in short supply here in the Valley. All parties to the dispute have become somewhat boxed-in by their own perspectives and orthodoxies. Bombast abounds. Here is our MLA, Corky Evans, speaking in 1991 in front of a video camera:

"This thing about 84 people being `busted', being charged essentially to protect what all of us take for granted is a terribly sad thing, but the way in which it went down warmed my heart and made me feel incredibly hopeful because it wasn't started off with a clenched fist or a shouted word but with honour and with silence and with asking for political support and asking for change. I thank you, you did a lovely job!!"