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by Stephan Martineau & Miriam Mason Martineau
An outstanding aspect of the EACT watershed area in the Slocan Valley
is the clear voice of the residents in regards to the planned road building
and logging in our watershed by SFP. The argument that 50% of the population
feels one way and the other 50% the opposite way is often used in the
logging controversy. In June 1997, however, a petition was signed by 97%
of the water users of the EACT watershed and sent to MOF by Alex Ferguson
from SFP. It contained the following conditions that must be fulfilled
prior to any further activities in this watershed:
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- SFP must agree to work with the SVWA to develop a planning process/methodology,
which is ecologically responsible and sensitive to the values of water
users.
- SFP must agree to test this methodology in a non-consumptive, non-contentious
area outside of the Slocan Valley.
- SFP must agree to defer harvesting activities within the Slocan Valley
until this testing phase has been completed.
The conditions put forth by 97% of the residents of the EACT watershed
have yet to be met. How will you ensure that this almost unanimous group
of concerned citizens, who will be directly affected by the outcome, will
be heard and seriously considered at the highest levels of decision making?
We sincerely ask how our voice is presently, if at all, being represented
in the review process for the Elliott FSR?
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