In a bid to step up their resistance to clear-cut logging in the Ghost Valley watershed, Ghost Valley residents have enlisted the support of Stoney Nakoda Nation.
Stoney tribal elders held a pipe ceremony Dec. 4 in an area about 30 kilometres northwest of Cochrane slated for harvesting by Spray Lake Sawmills (SLS). It was the third Ghost Valley clear-cut protest in the last month, but the first officially involving First Nations participants and their traditions.
Approximately 50 people hiked into a stand of 100-year-old lodgepole pine and white spruce to take part in the pipe ceremony signifying the Stoney (comprised of Treaty 7 Bands Bearspaw, Chiniki and Wesley) seek consultation on logging in the area. The group crossed a logging road already constructed by SLS, with bundles of harvested trees piled neatly along the roadside, before gathering in a small clearing in the forest as Stoney tribal elders conducted the pipe ceremony involving the passing of a lit pipe around a blanket circle, a smouldering clutch of sage placed in the middle of the circle while Stoney hereditary words were spoken.
“This is a new realization that how we’ve always done things is not how we can always continue to do them. I think we are seeing a whole societal shift here and we’re kind of on the front lines of that,” said Ghost Valley resident and activist Sharon MacDonald. Along with landowner Fritz Seidel, she’s been on the front lines organizing rallies to halt clear-cut logging in the Ghost until more stakeholder consultations take place. She was buoyed by the fact that Stoney Nakoda Nation had joined the initiative.
“I’m interested to see where it’s going. I’m not First Nations and cannot pretend to speak for First Nations. But I’m excited to see where this goes.”
The ongoing dispute Ghost Valley land owners have with SLS involves a 100/130-year-old stand slated for harvest off Red Fox Road, northwest of Jamieson Road. Cut block 2766 is part of a 900-hectare parcel scheduled for harvest. Bearspaw First Nation Coun. Narville Kootenay got Stoney Nakoda involved in the halt-logging initiative with a letter, dated Dec. 4, to Alberta Premier Rachel Notley.
In the letter, read aloud at the gathering by Myrna “Coco” Powderface, Kootenay asserts: “The history of these lands was that block B9 was a temporary reserve land set aside for the Stoney People back in 1915, although there are no current land claim(s) in process, at least give us the opportunity to address this concern and inform the people of this discovery.”
According to protesters, clear-cut harvesting in the area is ongoing near several IR142-A survey posts, indicating the land was once surveyed with the intent that it remain with Stoney Nakoda peoples.
“When we gave up the land in 1921, what did we give up the land for? Some people say it’s an exchange for land across the river,” says Stoney elder Sykes Powderface, a participant in the pipe circle. “Some say, no, we just surrendered it as Crown land. So I’m curious. Because, obviously, Spray Lake did their research to determine the status of this land before they went in here. And if it’s Crown Land ... the provincial government needs to be taken to task as well. Because it is traditional land.”
The participation of Stoney Nakoda Nation, and the assertion that land slated for clear cutting may be tribal land, now takes the game up a level.
“According to what the elders have said, this has been under claim,” said Fred Powderface, a Stoney/Chiniki Band elder. “This is ancestral land. And any lands, and even the government recognizes that, any lands considered ancestral lands, the set people that are in the area should be consulted. That is basically what we are saying. One of our members has said ... even chief and council were not consulted on this. So this is why our neighbours have asked us to come over to help them.”
All at the rally, participants insisted they sought consultation, not confrontation. The rally was monitored, and aided, by SLS employees ensuring safe passage through an active logging area. The Ghost Valley residents, and First Nations, have banded together to chart a course away from clear-cut logging in the Ghost.
“This is hugely significant for us in terms of coming together as neighbours who share the landscape. We’ve also emphasized how important it is for people to be involved in the decisions that affect their lives,” surmises MacDonald. “We do currently have a consultation model that maybe doesn’t involve people soon enough in that process, or specifically enough.”
It’s not easy wearing the black hat or, in Ed Kulcsar’s case, the red hard hat.
But he wore it well as approximately 50 protest-sign-toting Ghost Valley residents, Stoney Nakoda Nation members and assorted news-media wonks traipsed through his office Dec. 4.
His office, currently, is a stand of 100-year-old-ish lodgepole pine and white spruce trees slated for harvest in the Ghost watershed – cut block 2766 just off Red Fox Road approximately 30 kilometres west of Cochrane, where the trees will ultimately be processed into everything from pre-fabricated home segments to lumber, mulch and top spray at Spray Lake Sawmills (SLS).
As SLS woodlands manager, it’s his job to ensure, among other things, the worksite is secure.
He and his crew of about half a dozen foresters helped usher anti-clear-cut rally participants safely in and out of his active work site. He was also on hand to provide any tours of the logging operation currently underway.
“All we can do is follow what’s been approved by the Government of Alberta,” he says. “This area was sequenced for harvest and approved back in 2007.”
The area is part of a much larger, 900-hectare plot slated for harvest in the Ghost.
“We have our approvals and it’s part of our schedule. The wood is needed to meet the needs of the mill,” he states. “We’ll carry on. It’s normal operation. It’s not an accelerated harvest. It’s all part of the normal sequencing. At this point, we’ll carry on.”
He’s confident logging will continue in the area because he insists SLS has done years of due diligence, including numerous consultations with all stakeholders.
“We have conducted many, many consultations with people in this area, with stakeholders. We keep a database of consultations,” he says as anti-clear-cut protesters hike across the logging road recently constructed for the harvest. “There are over 80 recorded consultations with people in this area. We’ve tried to engage, we’ve tried to accommodate. In terms of the First Nations component we do, as part of our process and it’s also part of the Alberta government’s process, we do carry on annual First Nation consultations with all of the Treaty bands in this area.”
To find out more about SLS consultations, visit: spraylakesawmills.com/woodlands/public-involvement-process/
