Vancouver Island: The Vision For the Future?

February-March 1998

This is an article from WaveLength Magazine, available in print in North America and globally on the web.

by Laurie MacBride

All those who care about the outdoors need to be aware of the latest government planning initiative: the Vancouver Island Land Use Plan (VILUP).

Released by the provincial Land Use Coordination Office in December, the draft plan reflects an industrial vision for the future of Vancouver Island and our coastal waters. Public comment is being welcomed, but only until February 28-so we need to speak up now, before this document wins acceptance by Cabinet.

The VILUP grew out of the earlier CORE (Commission on Resources and the Environment) process, which was designed to build consensus amongst community groups, industry, user groups and the environmental community to resolve land use issues on Vancouver Island. But while CORE was generally accepted as a fair and transparent public process, the VILUP is anything but.

VILUP's draft plan appears to spell disaster for wild fish, forests, eco-tourism and recreational opportunities on and around Vancouver Island. The Sierra Club of BC has called VILUP a "fibre flow plan" and a "band-aid solution designed to keep the forestry industry clear-cutting for a few more years".

Marine-focused groups including the BC Marine Trail Association, the Marine Life Sanctuary Society and the Georgia Strait Alliance have all objected to the fact that VILUP has included marine planning zones despite having had no public process whatsoever on marine planning. Indeed, representatives of marine-focused environmental groups and other marine users were not even present during the two-year-long Vancouver Island Resource Targets (VIRT) process that developed the draft plan, since marine planning units were never discussed and VIRT's stated purpose was to develop recommendations specific to logging on the Island.

VILUP refers to "34,000 hectares of foreshore and ocean suitable for aquaculture"-despite the provincial moratorium on salmon aquaculture, the fact that Cabinet has still not made its final decision regarding the recent year-long Salmon Aquaculture Review, and the lack of any studies on aquaculture suitability for the waters around Vancouver Island.

As well, VILUP appears to open the way for offshore drilling of minerals, oil, and gas. As for the terrestrial component, VILUP divides the public forests (not including Clayoquot Sound) into 3 zones:

• Enhanced Development Zones (EDZs): 46% of the planning area (27% of Vancouver Island's total land mass). Forest companies operating in these high-intensity areas would be allowed to use lower standards than those in the Forest Practices Code (eg. have larger clearcuts of up to 250 hectares and lower standards of practice). The EDZs include fully half the remaining ancient forests in the planning area.

• General Management Zones (GMZs): 43% of the planning area (25% of Vancouver Island's total land mass). Clearcut logging and the already under-enforced provisions of the Forest Practices Code (which the government is currently considering weakening) would apply here - ie. business as usual for the forest companies.

• Special Management Zones (SMZs): 11% of the planning area (6.4% of Vancouver Island's total land mass). In these areas wildlife, recreation and cultural values are to be respected by industry, higher logging standards would be expected, and alternative logging would be encouraged. Yet over 20% of the forests in these zones has already been clearcut, and neither forest companies nor government officials have yet revealed any "special" plans for safeguarding these zones from further clearcutting.

Favorite paddling destinations such as Brooks Bay, West Coast Nahwitti Lowlands and West Coast Nootka Island are among those designated as SMZs. These areas are clearly not destined to be protected: logging, mining and aquaculture will be permitted so long as industry accepts "special standards" and demonstrates "respect for special values". Who is to enforce these standards and behaviors in this era of government cutbacks is anyone's guess. (Similarly, a report last year showed that none of the province's much-touted Forest Practices Code's measures for protecting wildlife or endangered species have been implemented and that the Code is simply not being enforced. If the government can't enforce the Forest Practices Code, how does it plan to monitor and police "Special" Management Zones?)

VILUP threatens ancient forests, wildlife, wild salmon, recreational values, fisheries and eco-tourism. It offers a bleak, industrial vision for Vancouver Island communities-one that opts for short-term corporate profits over the long-term sustainability of our communities.

Speak Up on VILUP! The time to speak up on the Vancouver Island Land Use Plan is now. Public comments will only be accepted until February 28. Get a copy of the draft plan from the Land Use Coordination Office (http://www.luco.gov.bc.ca, or telephone 250-387-1526), get in touch with your local environmental group to get their view, and send your comments in by the deadline. The Plan can be beaten if enough people speak out. Address your comments to: Land Use Coordination Office, 2nd Floor, 836 Yates St., Victoria, BC, V8V 1X4, fax 250-953-3481.

--with thanks to Dan Lewis, John Nelson, Jennifer Lash and Merran Smith. Laurie MacBride is the Executive Director of the Georgia Strait Alliance and WaveLength's Environmental Editor