Environmentalists, or a
Bunch of Jerks?

ZAHRA JAMAL

who claim the Plan is nothing more than a new

rationale for logging. They say the GVRD’s only
objective is to preserve the 1967 Amending Indenture, a
legal mandate for logging the watersheds.

T« new proposal has outraged environmentalists

Jedi and carrying a neon sword, an

environmentalist marches down the stairs and
along the panel of Greater Vancouver Regional District
(GVRD) speakers. As Councillor Marvin Hunt, Chair of the
GVRD Water Committee, starts his introduction, Darth
Vader yells, “Welcome to the dark side of the GVRD!” and
points his sword’into a speaker's face, accusing the GVRD

D ressed in black as Darth Vader from Return of the

“The Management Plan is being developed as a condi-
tion of the Amending Indenture, which means they have
no intentions of getting out of their logging agreement,”
raves Malone.

This widely-held opinion is causing some members of
the GVRD staff to detonate. “Look, we don’t log up there
now and haven't for years,” yells Bill Morrell of the
GVRD’s Communications Department. “I seem to say this
ten times a day, but no one wants to believe it.”

 

of wasting $6
million of our
tax money.

n Friday
May 15,
the GVRD

held a Watershed
Management
Consultation at
Robson
Conference
Centre to give
Greater
Vancouver
citizens a chance
to provide their
feedback on
Management Plan
No.5.

The GVRD has
recently complet-
ed a $6 million
forest inventory to
explore different options for managing Greater
Vancouver's watersheds. Now, they're asking for public
opinion on these options and how to improve the water
quality. Heather Malone, from the Society Promoting
Environmental Conservation (SPEC), warns, “The whole
thing is a sham; as soon as this debate dies down, there's
nothing stopping them from logging our watersheds.”

‘The Patch” for trees

page 9 the Other Press June 1999

  
 
  

uring a recent edition of
De and Policies on Rogers
Cable, Marvin Hunt made the
GVRD’S position quite clear, “It does not come into the
equation...there’s no logging for profit going on.”
Morrell specifically states, “The purpose of this
Management Plan is not to renew logging plans in the
watersheds, but to improve the quality of our drinking
water.”