Petition calls for forest minister to resign

<div class="storyheader"><h2>An
environmental group has called for Forests Minister Rich Coleman to
resign for permitting Western Forest Products to remove its private
forest lands from a government-regulated tree farm licence.</h2></div><p>The
Victoria-based Dogwood Initiative claims Coleman's decision was a
betrayal of public trust as it overrode community desires that the area
remains as forestland. Western Forest Products is in the process of
selling the land to a developer.</p><p>NDP forests critic Bob Simpson
filed a 2,200-name petition in the legislature Tuesday on behalf of the
group seeking the minister's resignation.</p><p>Simpson
said the WFP decision came after a similar one in 2004 allowing
Weyerhaeuser Co. to remove its private lands from a tree farm licence
in the Port Alberni region. That move, he said, left the resource town
surrounded by private lands, throwing its timber-based economy into
disarray.</p><p>"That should have been a lesson learned," Simpson said.</p><p>A
Vancouver Island first nation took the province to court over Port
Alberni issue, claiming the government had not lived up to its
obligation to consult with them, and won.</p><p>The court ruled that
the forest minister could have prevented the land from being taken out
of the tree farm licence and failed in his duty to consult. However,
since the lands had already been sold to a new owner, the decision was
not reversed.</p><p>Private forest lands were originally placed into
tree farm licences in exchange for access to timber on Crown land. The
entire licence -- both private and public lands -- was then subject to
provincial logging and sustainability regulations.</p><p>But over the
last decade, forest companies have sought to have those lands removed,
providing them with more flexibility in managing them. Besides real
estate sales, one of the main consequences has been an increase in log
exports.</p><p>Coleman approved the deletion of about 28,000 hectares of private lands from Western's tree farm licences in 2007.</p><p>WFP
provisionally sold 2,500 hectares of those lands on southwestern
Vancouver Island to developer Ender Ilkay. The Capital Regional
District responded by passing bylaws to restrict the lot size of the
most forest and resource land to no smaller than 120 hectares, but WFP
countered by successfully applying to have its lands administered under
old zoning laws that permit smaller lots.</p><p>The application now is before the provincial highways ministry for final approval.</p><p>Maurita
Prato, forest campaigner for the Dogwood Initiative, said the group is
seeking Coleman's resignation because his decision benefited the forest
company over the clearly stated public interest that the lands remain
in forestry use.</p><p>When asked if that meant logging, she hesitated,
saying the group would have no objection to portions of the lands being
logged, as those portions would then grow back as forests. The
minister's decision means they can now be paved, she said.</p><p>"We
are calling on Coleman to resign not only on the TFL deletion that he
made but because this is very symbolic of what is happened in the
forest industry. The continued privatization and trade liberalization
schemes are hurting not just recreationalists but the entire forest
industry," she said.</p><p>"He is continually stating that there is nothing he can do about the forestry crisis and we disagree."</p><p>At
the same time the Vancouver Island group is calling for the minister's
resignation, a second application to remove private lands from a tree
farm licence in the Kootenays goes to public meetings this weeks at
Nakusp and Castlegar. Insolvent forest company Pope &amp; Talbot
applied to have 4,500 hectares of lands removed from its tree farm
licence after telling its creditors it had sold them.</p><p>That
application could prove as thorny an issue for the government because
Pope &amp; Talbot is in receivership and has already transferred the
tree farm licence in another bankruptcy sale to Interfor, effectively
alienating the lands from provincial regulation despite the requirement
for Coleman's approval.</p><p>ghamilton@png.canwest.com</p>