Local
Court ruling allows Tolko to log
By J.P. SQUIRE
Thursday, February 4, 2010

Tolko Industries will be able to log in the Brown‘s Creek watershed on the west side of Okanagan Lake after all.
The company‘s successful request for a B.C. Supreme Court injunction was finalized this week with the court‘s acceptance of the company‘s proposed archaeological plan, which involves retaining professional archaeologists who will take additional steps to assess the eight cutblocks.
The injunction states the Okanagan Indian Band, Okanagan Nation Alliance and others can‘t obstruct or otherwise interfere with Tolko‘s road maintenance, use of the road and timber harvesting.
The company has held provincially issued cutting permits for the eight cutblocks, which have been heavily impacted by mountain pine beetles, for more than 30 months. The application for an injunction was filed by Tolko in November after it conducted its usual archaeological assessment.
“We will be acting on the plan quickly to take advantage of the further protection winter conditions provide and to address the heightening need for cost-effective logs to sustain Armstrong sawmill‘s operation,” said Mark Tamas, Tolko‘s Okanagan woodlands regional manager.
Madam Justice Brown accepted Tolko‘s archaeology proposal, subject to clarifications around Okanagan Nation involvement and Tolko considering post-1846 archaeology.
She ruled if there is any question on the classification of archaeological potential, it is expected the archaeologist will err on the side of caution and provide a higher classification. Protecting Okanagan archaeology was a prime concern, she said.
Both Chief Fabian Alexis of the Okanagan Indian Band and Grand Chief Stewart Phillip of the Okanagan Nation Alliance expressed their disappointment.
“I am disappointed that the B.C. Supreme Court did not appreciate the importance of the trail mapping that must be conducted to preserve our title evidence for litigation,” said Alexis.
“The Okanagan Nation has historically used the Brown‘s Creek watershed and continues to use it for traditional foods, hunting and gathering purposes. I am confident that if the archaeologist does his work properly, that he will find more archaeology within the eight cutblocks that cannot be disregarded.”
Added Phillip: “The Okanagan Nation Alliance is disappointed, that, once again, the courts have side-stepped and turned a ’blind eye‘ to the proprietary or ownership dimension of our aboriginal title interests to the lands and resources within our territory.
“Consequently, we shall be forced to continue to fight the unresolved aboriginal title battle cutblock by cutblock, mining permit by mining permit, and pipeline proposal by pipeline proposal.”