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Cut coming near well-used rec area of Lantzville woodlot

Mar 22, 2018 | 5:56 PM

LANTZVILLE — The operator of a contentious provincial woodlot in upper Lantzville says he will soon move ahead with a cut near an area beloved by local recreation enthusiasts.

Woodlot 1475 license holder John Gregson told NanaimoNewsNOW he will submit a plan to the local advisory group to remove roughly four-to-eight hectares of trees from an area near the Knarston Creek corridor.

Gregson said riparian regulations prohibit him from logging directly up to the creek and he has a longstanding history of reestablishing trails after cuts and respecting the Crown land as being open for everyone to use.

The group Save Lantzville Forest has fought for years to preserve the woodlot, most recently focusing on the corridor around the creek. The group said the area is home to mature endangered Coastal Douglas-fir trees and is a hugely popular recreation trail.

Despite offering multiple proposals to the province to conserve some or all of the woodlot, the group has yet to see much progress.

In December of last year, the province denied a proposal from the group and the District of Lantzville to remove 60 hectares from the woodlot.

In a statement sent to NanaimoNewsNOW, the Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development said their counter offer called for the groups to work together to officially designate a new recreation trail along the creek.

However, that designation would offer no protection from logging.

“That doesn’t actually help us much at all. The trail already exists and people are using it,” Ted Gullison, spokesman for Save Lantzville Forest, said. “What we are trying to do is protect more forest in the corridor along the creek and this proposal doesn’t do anything to help us.

“We’re disappointed. We thought with the change of government we might have a better chance, we thought there might be more receptiveness to what the community wishes to happen in the woodlot. Unfortunately, at least to date, that is not the case.”

It’s unclear if the District of Lantzville issued a formal response to the province’s December proposal to create a trail. In February, the District sent a letter to Minister Doug Donaldson requesting a meeting and a moratorium on logging within the woodlot.

During a visit to Nanaimo on Wednesday, Donaldson told NanaimoNewsNOW he would “definitely” be open to meeting with local representatives on the issue, although it’s unclear why the minister didn’t schedule such a meeting during his island tour.

Donaldson said he believed they had reached a “good compromise” with the proposal to designate the trail.

“I think people should be having a keen eye on the forests surrounding their communities. At the same time, the woodlot owner has been doing a very bang-up job of what he’s licensed to do in his own woodlot,” he said.

 

dom@nanaimonewsnow.com

On Twitter: @domabassi