The Western Canada Wilderness Committee recently celebrated its 25th year of existence by initiating a letter-writing campaign aimed at convincing the Provincial government to officially recognize and protect seven 'Wild Spirit Places' designated by the Squamish Nation.
"During the BC Day long weekend, we were in the Elaho Valley celebrating our anniversary and we asked participants to write letters to the Premier to ask him to designate the Wild Spirit Places as protected areas in legislation," said Louise Pedersen, Wilderness Committee campaign assistant. "We are going to have letter-writing parties at the Wilderness Committee offices and we will also have a display set up at Mountain Equipment Co-Op asking people to write letters."Wild Spirit Places are specific areas in the Sea to Sky corridor, deemed of significant spiritual, historical and cultural significance by the Squamish Nation. In 2001, Chief and Council of the Squamish Nation initiated a Land Use Plan for territory claimed by the First Nation band, which identified and designated certain areas as Wild Spirit Places.
"Currently, there are five areas designated as Wild Spirit Places and another two are designated as sensitive areas," said Pedersen. "One of those areas is the Upper Elaho Valley, which is why we initiated the letter-writing campaign there."Although the Provincial Liberal government has yet to honour the Land Use Plan and officially protect these areas from commercial logging and other activities, companies such as Interfor have respected the Squamish Nation's wishes and voluntarily stayed out of areas like the Upper Elaho Valley.
"Since the government has not yet honoured the Squamish Nation's wishes and recognized that the Upper Elaho Valley is permanently off limits to logging, these ancient forests are still in danger of being cut down and therefore our work there is yet unfinished," said Pedersen. "So, the letter-writing campaign will be going on until these areas get designated and protected in legislation. We expect the campaign to be full-on for at least the next few months."
Randal Lewis, environmental coordinator for the Squamish Nation, said he was unaware of the letter writing campaign."Although we are not doing the campaign in conjunction with the Squamish Nation, we have a very positive relationship with them and are asking letter writers to send a copy of their letters to Chief Bill Williams, so he can get an idea of how many people are writing the Premier," said Pedersen. "A lot of letters have already been written. It looks great so far."
For more information on Wild Spirit Places, the letter-writing campaign or the Wilderness Committee click to www.wildernesscommittee. [email protected]
