With another log hauling season starting in the Ghost Valley area, safety is the shared interest of all parties involved.
The harvest season for the Spray Lake Sawmills’ (SLS) clear cut of the “B9 area” in Ghost Valley started in November 2015 as it relies on winter conditions to freeze the ground to a certain extent. The subsequent hauling season started officially for SLS on Jan. 19.
According to a letter sent to multiple concerned citizens in Ghost Valley by Deputy Minister of Transportation Manon Plante, some hauling may have occurred before Jan. 19 to transport salvaged wood. This was done by the Cochrane-based logging company through a previously issued permit.
“The over-dimension permits to haul salvaged wood are issued for a 12-month period to individual carriers. The Municipal District of Bighorn No. 8 imposed a 90-per-cent road ban allowing 10 loads per day to a maximum of 100 loads in the month of January,” states the letter.
The primary transport roads to be used by SLS will be Jamieson Road and Richards Road. To do so, the company will be operating under a permit issued by Alberta Transportation as well as a Voluntary Road Use Agreement issued by the Municipal District (MD) of Bighorn No. 8.
What complicates the matter of hauling the logs out of Ghost Valley is the width of the Jamieson Road and Richards Road in comparison to the width of the hauling trucks. The narrow, winding roads pose safety issues when occupied simultaneously by large hauling trucks and other vehicles.
According to the Voluntary Road Use Agreement, “only log trucks having a maximum bunk width of 3.06 meters (approximately 10 feet) are permitted.”
“The roads (are) too narrow for 10-foot wide trucks so the log trucks will need some of (the adjacent) lane in many places,” said Sharon MacDonald, one of many concerned citizens in the Ghost Valley community.
MacDonald is part of a small, local group initiative, called Stop Ghost Clearcut, that is concerned about the clearcut of the upper watershed of Ghost Valley. A watershed is an area or ridge of land that separates waters flowing to different rivers, basins, or seas.
“We believe clear cut logging in the upper watershed has the potential to dramatically exacerbate downstream flooding. The effects of this scale of assault on the landscape are not understood,” states the initiative’s website, stopghostclearcut.com
“Until the proper science has been done to understand this, we call for a moratorium, a stop to further logging until ecologically responsible harvest plans exist.”
Although the initiative’s main concern is the clearcut itself, they are currently focusing on the hauling operation as it relates to their cause and many of the group members are locals directly affected by the hauling.
The group held a public meeting regarding the hauling with Banff-Cochrane MLA Cam Westhead at Beaupre Community Hall on Jan. 14 in order to ensure their concerns were heard. Westhead has been in talks with the group since March 2015 and has weekly communication with MacDonald.
“Not only do we have to worry about everything going on in the clearcut and the damage they’re doing to the watershed, but now we have to worry about safety on the only road we have to get to our home,” said Patti Reyes, a member of the Stop Ghost Clearcut initiative. “We’re not trying to say we’re totally against logging, we’re trying to say let’s come to some resolve and let’s do this safely and properly.”
Reyes’ residence is located just off of Jamieson Road and she is concerned for her own safety and the safety of school buses using that road.
“There’s no shoulders, no anything (on Jamieson Road) – it’s so narrow in sections that even two normal-sized pick-up trucks can’t pass,” Reyes said.
“So if (a logging truck) ever did meet a school bus, hopefully both (drivers) would see each other ahead of time and be able to slow down and think about what to do. If that didn’t happen and they (met) on a blind corner, I don’t even want to think about what could happen.”
The MD of Bighorn has taken steps to reduce that particular risk by addressing the SLS’ hours of operation within the Voluntary Road Use Agreement, which will end in March 2016.
“Notwithstanding the generality of the foregoing, all hauling operations shall be restricted during normal school bus hours, unless (SLS) demonstrates to the complete satisfaction of the Municipal District that all school districts and school bus operators which use the permitted roads do not have concerns or conflicts with the haul,” states the agreement in “Schedule C: Special Terms/Requirements” under the General section.
According to Ed Kulcsar with SLS, the logging company already imposed that particular restriction of hours on their hauls before the agreement went into effect.
Schools in the area understand their buses have a “window of opportunity” to run in the mornings before school and afternoons after school in order to avoid coming across logging trucks , says Dene Cooper with the MD of Bighorn.
On the afternoon of Jan. 13 a school bus did happen to come across one of SLS’ logging trucks on Jamieson Road, accounts Reyes. Kulcsar says the company did its “due diligence” in looking into the matter and found the bus had been operating outside of the “window of opportunity” the company was aware of.
Upon following up with Southland Transportation, SLS learned of an additional school bus using the permitted hauling roads and has since adjusted its schedule. Both vehicles met on a straight section of the road and were able to pass one another without incident.
Fritz Seidel, another local resident involved with the Stop Ghost Clearcut initiative, is concerned about the number of logging trucks that will be on the permitted roads.
“We believe and we’ve said as a group over and over that Jamieson Road is a very bad haul road for this many trucks in a very short term,” Seidel said.
According to Kulcsar, SLS plans to run 40-50 hauling trucks a day on the permitted roads.
Some safety measures being implemented by SLS, and mentioned in the Voluntary Road Use Agreement, include the installation of GPS monitors and dashboard web cameras with timestamps in the hauling trucks for tracking purposes.
According to Kulcsar, the company also employs on-site supervisors “to ensure compliance” with the restrictions in place. Alberta Transportation has also reduced the speed limit for over-dimension and overweight loads to 50 km/h on Jamieson Road, which Kulcsar says will “reduce the chance of an incident” and “give drivers time to react.”
“On order right now” by SLS is a triggered warning-light system for the permitted roads to alert drivers of the hauling trucks. Until they are installed, the company is using pilot cars to ensure drivers are aware of the logging trucks on the road.
Enforcement of the issued permits falls onto the parties that issue them. The actions that can be taken to address infractions depends on what infraction is committed, how consistently it is made, and whose jurisdiction it is under.
“There is the potential, with some circumstances, to halt the log haul,” Cooper said. “That would not be a first step (however because) in our bylaw enforcement we always work on education/persuasion – we find we resolve most (issues) by seeking cooperation on all sides.”
Certain community members of Ghost Valley will also take it upon themselves to act as watchdogs to ensure the permits’ regulations are being followed and to report any infractions to the proper authorities.
“My goal is to make sure that the concerns of the community are heard by the minister, and that we take the necessary steps to address those concerns,” Westhead said. “It’s important that the community is coming together and advocating for (its) best interest and I’m committed to listening and taking that back to the minister.”
As the hauling season is just beginning, only time will tell how useful the permits will be in keeping people safe on the road.
Cooper knows the key to this endeavour’s success will be cooperation from all parties involved.
“There are several paramount concerns, and safety on the road is (one of those) paramounts,” said Cooper. “Cooperation from everyone is not a minor expectation, it is a total expectation.”
