Dear Editor,
Just a clarification that the caribou protection strategy and interim moratorium on “new high impact forestry and mining activities” only applies to the Northern and Central Groups of Southern Mountain Caribou. It does not apply to the Southern Group of Southern Mountain Caribou of which Revelstoke is a part.
READ MORE: B.C. temporarily halts resource development to protect caribou
Unfortunately, there is no interim moratorium in the Revelstoke Shuswap Planning Unit or the rest of the Southern Group while the province and the Federal Government negotiate our part of the Section 11 Agreement for the recovery of mountain caribou.
A three way partnership agreement between B.C., Canada and certain First Nations for the Northern and Central Groups was ready to be signed and some see this interim move as a way of putting off signing their agreement. An agreement for Southern Group is at a much earlier stage of negotiation, perhaps two years off being ready to sign. In the meantime, logging, mining and other industrial activities continue apace.
-Virginia Thompson MSW EdD, Revelstoke