The 'brutalizing' of Strathcona has park

HOME Subscribe! Island Stories: Strathcona Park 1980's Mt. Albert Edward 1927 Alexandra Peak Argus Mountain Bate/Alava Sanctuary Beaufort Range Big Interior Mtn Big Interior Mtn 1913 Part 1 Part 2 Bolton Expedition 1896 Cliffe Glacier Clinton Wood Comox Glacier Comox Glacier 1922 Comox Glacier 1925 Comstock Mtn Conuma Peak Copper King Mine Crown Mtn Elkhorn 1912 Elkhorn 1949 Elkhorn 1968 Eugene Croteau Golden Bullets Golden Hinde 1913/14 Golden Hinde 1937 Golden Hinde 1983 Harry Winstone Tragedy Jack Mitchell Jim Mitchell Tragedy John Buttle Judges Route Koksilah's Silver Mine Landslide Lake Mackenzie Range Malaspina Peak Mariner Mtn Marjories Load Matchlee Mountain Mount McQuillan Mt. Albert Edward Mt. Albert Edward 1938 Mt. Becher Mt. Benson 1913 Mt. Benson Mt. Doogie Dowler Mt. Colonel Foster Mt. Hayes/Thistle Claim Mt. Maxwell Mt. Sicker Mt. Tzouhalem Mt. Whymper Muqin/Brooks Peninsula Nine Peaks Queneesh Ralph Rosseau 1947 Rosseau Chalet Ralph Rosseau Tragedy Rambler Peak Red Pillar Rex Gibson Tragedy Sid's Cabin Steamboat Mtn The Misthorns The Unwild Side Victoria Peak Waterloo Mountain 1865 Wheaton Hut/Marble Meadows William DeVoe Woss Lake You Creek Mine Zeballos Peak Other Stories: Sierra de los Tuxtlas Antarctica Cerro del Tepozteco Citlaltepetl Huascaran Mt. Roraima Nevada Alpamayo Nevada del Tolima Nevado de Toluca Pico Bolivar Popocatepetl Uluru/Ayers Rock Volcan Purace Volcan San Jose Biographies Island 6000 Cartoons Order the Book Contact Me Links	The 'brutalizing' of Strathcona has park pioneers speaking up By Nancy Brown Times-Colonist staff From the Times-Colonist. Victoria, BC. June 10, 1988
	Three retired provincial parks pioneers have joined forces again to save B.C. wilderness parks from industrialization. The three, retired provincial parks director Bob Ahrens, retired recreation and conservation deputy minister Lloyd Brooks, and retired park planner Bob Broadland, started their careers back in 1949 after graduation from university. Thursday night they came out of retirement to talk to the Strathcona Park Advisory Committee about provincial park policy. In particular, they are talking about Strathcona Park, which Broadland called "one of the most brutalized parks in Canada - certainly the most brutalized in B.C." Brooks and Broadland spoke their minds Thursday night, as the hearing opens in Victoria. This morning Ahrens is scheduled to be the second speaker at the 9:30 a.m. meeting. Broadland said it is time the provincial government started to atone for the obscenities it has committed "against Strathcona's lovely form." He recommended transferring Strathcona to federal jurisdiction as an addition to Pacific Rim National Park. He also recommended the establishment of a $15-million park restoration fund to buy out existing mineral claims and timber licenses. And he said, Westmin Resources, which is spending $1-million a year now to neutralize acid in mine waste, should establish a fund to pay for clean-up when the mine is abandoned. Broadland reminded the panel, chaired by Dr. Peter Larkin, that Strathcona became a park 77 years ago so that a sample of virgin territory could be preserved. "Some sample, some virgin," he commented. Brooks said Broadland and Ahrens had spent their entire careers setting up what was recognized as a first class park system. "The early years in provincial parks were heady years," he said. "We believed we were helping to set aside something special and permanent for future generations. Not in the wildest state of imagination did we believe we would see the day when ordinary men and women of all ages would camp in the mud and rain, and risk humiliation and arrest to focus on and to defend those very values we naively believed were protected for all time," he said. Sixty four people have been arrested while protesting mining exploration in the heart of Strathcona Park. Brooks said recreation areas where industrial activity is allowed can never be parkland. Integrated resource management is impossible in a true park because wilderness is beauty, virgin timber and pristine alpine meadows cannot be restored from slag heaps and stumps. Brooks said not only Strathcona Park, but the entire provincial parks system is at risk from a bottom line approach to parkland. top
	How to order \| \| Subscribe \|\| About the Author \|\| Links \|\| Home Contact: Copyright © Lindsay Elms 2001. All Rights Reserved. URL: http://www.beyondnootka.com http://www.lindsayelms.ca