‘Should have never happened’: B.C. MLA shocked with Indigenous band clearcutting | 24CA News
A big space of treaty land has been clear lower, resulting in considerations with a B.C. MLA, Mike Morris, and a useful resource coverage analyst, Ben Parfitt.
The Kerry Lake clear lower, north of Prince George, B.C., has Morris disturbed with its staggering measurement, which is seven occasions bigger than Stanley Park, and he observed no culverts had been put in to handle erosion.
“This should never have happened,” Prince George-Mackenzie MLA Mike Morris advised Global News.
“There should have been small wildfire retention areas. There should have been several hundred hectares of mature forest retained for wildlife habitat but it wasn’t. Everything was cleared right out.”
Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives B.C. useful resource coverage analyst Ben Parfitt additionally investigated the clear lower space.
“What was so intriguing and worrying about this clear cut is that it had all occurred on treaty settlement lands that had been turned over to the McLeod Lake Indian Band during treaty negotiations between the band, the province and the federal government,” Parfitt advised Global News.
The negotiations had been signed in 1999 and had been formally adhered to in 2000.
“Under the treaty agreement, the McLeod Lake Indian Band and the provincial and federal governments agreed these lands would be managed in a particular way,” Parfitt stated.
“In particular, forestry or logging activity on those lands were, in the words of the agreement, to be conducted in a ‘reasonable or gradual way.’”
Both Parfitt and Morris stated the clear-cutting was not carried out in a method to protect the lands for future logging.
“Virtually nothing of the treaty lands, that McLeod Lake holds, have any primary forest remaining on them at all,” Parfitt stated.
“They were all logged out over a relatively short period of time.”
Global News has reached out to the McLeod Lake Indian band for remark however has not heard again in time for publication.
Parfitt stated he was capable of converse with some former McLeod Lake Indian band leaders concerning the scenario who stated they’re shocked and saddened by the logging.
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