Public Comment: Deadline for East
Vancouver Island Crown Lands Tonight
by Wilderness Committee
Dear Friends of the East Coast of Vancouver Island; there is a unique opportunity for those of us living on the East Coast of Vancouver Island and those of us loving to visit this island, that will allow 5 pieces of Crown Land to be included in a special Land Use Initiative.
Please write, fax or email today if you support this positive government initiative. Every comment is crucial.
Government links, addresses and background information can be found below. Deadline Monday,Feb. 15. (midnight )
Thank you in advance for taking time.
Annette Tanner.
Please write, fax or email today to let the Government know how you feel about:
* the provincial government's recent initiative to create a special Land Use Initiative for 5 pieces of Crown Land that contain the quickly disappearing, rare and threatened forest type, called the Coastal Douglas-fir biogeoclimatic zone. These parcels are located in Bowser, the Little Qualicum River, Nanoose Bay, Linley Valley in Nanaimo and Hurtado on the Sunshine Coast. This special Land Use order could possibly lead to protection for this public-owned land.
The Wilderness Committee, with unanimous support from the Regional District of Nanaimo which includes the City of Nanaimo, Parksville and Qualicum Beach, will be asking the government to ALSO expand the initiative to :
* include all of the Coastal Douglas-fir parcels of Crown Land within the Coastal Douglas-fir biogeoclimatic zone
* and to include
all remaining parcels of Crown Land within the E & N Land Area
The recommendation to also place the less than 10 percent Crown Land remaining within the E & N Lands into the same special Land Use Order, is key, as we have already lost most of our public-owned CDFmm and E & N Crown Lands and rely on only 2 percent of the land base to supply the growing communities along the East Coast of Vancouver Island with access to recreation, parks, drinking water quality and quantity protection, flood control, wildlife corridors, carbon sinks, and protection of fish-bearing streams for recreational and commercial fisheries.”
The E & N land has a long way to go to catch up to the rest of the province where nearly 95 percent of the province is Crown Land and over 12 percent has been protected, but this is a very important first step.
Bill Zinovich, Integrated Land Management Bureau, West Coast Service Cetnre, Suite 142, 2080 Labieux Road, Nanaimo, BC, V9T 6J9 or fax 250-751-7081, or email bill.zinovich@gov.bc.ca by February 15, 2010.
Please copy to: pat.bell.mla@leg.bc.ca, barry.penner.mla@leg.bc.ca, premier@gov.bc.ca
For more information see:
www.ilmb.gov.bc.ca/slrp/legalobjectives/advertisedLUORs.html
Backgrounder:
* the endangered Coastal Douglas-fir biogeoclimatic zone exists along the east coast of Vancouver Island, Gulf Islands, Sunshine Coast and is found nowhere else in Canada.
* Because of its small size, it is one of the most endangered ecosystems in Canada
* Because of its Mediterranean-style climate, with an extended growing season, the biodiversity of the CDFmm forests on East
Vancouver Island rank among the highest in Canada.
* Only 110 hectares of oldgrowth Coastal Douglas-fir have been protected in the entire province of BC, yet this forest type has one of the highest carbon sink capabilities.
* The RDN Regional Parks Plan system requires the purchasing of private land and there is a long list of sensitive ecosystems that will be destroyed if funds cannot be found to purchase these areas fast enough. It is critical at this time to include all Crown Land within the E & N land in this government land use order, as this land would not have to be purchased, as it already belongs to and is owned by the public.
* Regional District of Nanaimo passed the following motion to request the Provincial Government to: ( 1 ) expand the provincial government initiative to include all of the Coastal Douglas-fir parcels of Crown Land within the Coastal Douglas-fir biogeoclimatic zone
* and to: ( 2) extend the initiative to include all remaining parcels of Crown Land within the E & N Land Area
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