PLEASE ATTEND THE SPRAY LAKES SAWMILLS OPEN HOUSE

Thursday January 26th, 2012

Bragg Creek Community Centre

3:00 - 7:00 pm.

If you care about the newly built trails in West Bragg [North map, South map], please come out to the open house and make your voice heard!

CMBA and the Greater Bragg Creek Trail Association [GBCTA] have been and are still actively engaging with SLS on their immediate plans to log the West Bragg Creek area. We meet with SLS, Parks, and the local cattle ranchers at least once a month to discuss all sorts of issues. The newer summer trails that were recently built were designed to route around the edges of many of the proposed cut blocks. For the cut blocks that we would come up against, they were going to offer some terrific views. SRD had told us that the blocks were not to be reforested as they were part of the fuel break for the wild fire management plan. We've recently been told that is no longer the case. They will be replanted, and it's going to look like hell for many years.

The trails that are at the greatest risk right away are the winter XC ski trails. Many of the cut blocks will open them up to great sun and wind exposure. Expect snow pack retention to suffer heavily. We are trying to negotiate resolutions to these problems.

East K-Country hasn't seen a serious out of control wild fire since the late 1920s. That's actually a serious problem as the fuel load in the forest is now off the charts. If you've spent any time in the forest wandering around (like flagging new trail), you would know the amount of dried dead fall is very high. If a fire did get out of control on a hot windy day (any summer day in Calgary), it's predicted that the whole place will burn in hours taking Bragg Creek with it. Jasper National Park implemented a similar fire management plan that didn't involve complete clear cutting. SRD arranged for us to see a presentation by the fellow who oversaw its implementation. So far there's been no mention or acknowledgement of these successful strategies or their use in West Bragg.

Some of the proposed cut blocks were shown at a few FireSmart open house meetings last year, but those open house meetings were to focus on the seven point FireSmart plan where the logged fuel break was only one of seven points. The cut blocks have also been shown to other interested parties in closed door meetings like KTAG and WBCLUA meetings.  The public at large has not had an opportunity to review the plan and talk to SLS directly about this. SLS has only recently finalized their plan and is now ready to present it to the public. 

If you want to contact the various stakeholders involved, go to SustainK.ca for phone numbers and email addresses.