Wilderness Threatened

Granby Wilderness Area

Clearcut logging is scheduled to butt against the borders of a recently designated 100,000-acre provincial park area near Grand Forks, British Columbia.

The Granby Wilderness Society is organizing a public forum on the Traverse Creek area beginning at 7 p.m., Oct. 2, at the Grand Forks Secondary School Auditorium.

Traverse Creek, a tributary to the Granby River, is the most visited area of the Granby wilderness, but was not included in Granby Provincial Park when it was designated in 1995.

Portland-based Pope and Talbot Co. plans to log the area, including the first two miles of a historic native trail, rare interior cedar-hemlock old-growth, and a spectacular canyon, said Nadine Dechiron, society spokeswoman.

“It is also an important spring habitat for the threatened dry-land ‘Granby’ grizzly,” she said. “Most day-hikers never set foot in Granby Park, but remain in this area.”

Boundary conservation groups have proposed that the 4,500-acre Traverse Creek area be given limited protection under the Kootenay-Boundary Land Use Plan, which aims at protecting an additional 25,000 acres in the region. A government decision is expected in late fall.

Info: Granby Wilderness Society, Box 2532, Grand Forks, BC V0H 1H0, telephone 250-442-8210,e-mail: gws@sunshinecable.com.