Gondola views now protected

Visitors to the Sea to Sky Gondola won’t see obvious signs of logging thanks to recently announced provincial guidelines.

The Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations has established scenic area and visual quality objectives for the Shannon Creek Watershed area around the gondola, it was announced Nov. 17. 

“With the new gondola being installed and the area being proposed as a community forest, we basically started to look and see what is the total visual area,” said Frank DeGagne, a forest, land and resource specialist with the provincial government. Logging in the area can continue, but is restricted, DeGagne explained, so that there isn’t a large cut area that can be seen while at the gondola. 

Those with a stake in local logging are supportive of the guidelines. 

“The objectives appear to recognize the importance of recreation while supporting careful timber harvesting,” said Stirling Angus, of the Squamish and District Forestry Association in an email to The Squamish Chief. 

In one area of the Shannon Creek Watershed the objective was changed from retention to partial retention and in another area the opposite change was made. 

“With retention, logging is allowed so long as the alteration is difficult to see, small in scale and natural in appearance. With partial retention the alteration may be easy to see, small to medium in scale, and natural in shape,” explained Angus.

Mayor Patricia Heintzman said the community forest proposal for approximately the same area is moving forward. 

The District of Squamish and the Squamish Nation are moving forward on plans for a community forest. Council established the Squamish Community Forest Corporation, a general partnership equally owned by the district and the Nation, in February.

“Right now we are at the stage where we are establishing the governance model with the Squamish Nation,” she said. “We agree on the board make up, how we are going to create this entity and how we are going to contract out the work.” 

The exact location of the forest has yet to be confirmed, she said. A community forest is an area of trees that are managed and can be harvested by a communal entity. There are 50 such forests in B.C. 

Closest to Squamish is the 33,000-hectare Cheakamus Community Forest near Whistler, which is managed by the Lil’wat and Squamish First Nations and the Resort Municipality of Whistler.