The Town of Golden is looking to use grant funding to get a community forest in Golden.
Two years ago, the Town contributed $25,000 to an Economic Opportunity Fund (EOF), which was to be used for analyzing options for gaining access to the Kicking Horse River lower canyon. Last month, Town CAO Jon Wilsgard asked council to relinquish the contribution, cancel the lower canyon access analysis, and put $15,000 toward a contribution for a grant application for a community forest.
“I ended up getting a grant two years ago for doing essentially an analysis on what would be the options for getting access back to the lower canyon for community rafts,” Wilsgard said. “There were three recommendations.”
Three recommendations from the analysis, included modifications to the river channel, introducing an at-grade crossing at the access point across the CP Rail train tracks, and access on the other side of the bridge into the canyon.
“After that, it looked like river modification would actually be the least expensive. I ended up getting another grant for phase two, which was going to be a look at the river modification more closely,” Wilsgard said, adding that it included doing a prescription for it, and meeting with stakeholders. “Phase three would be handing it off to someone else, probably the province, to handle it.”
The Town of Golden essentially wound up cancelling the project after major canyon projects were announced.
“The province wasn’t really interested in it. It was a stalemate,” Wilsgard said. “I asked council, lets relinquish your EOF contribution of $25,000, which they did.”
Community Forest Agreements are a special licence, given by the Ministry of Forests, Lands, and Natural Resource Operations. Community forest operations are managed by local governments, First Nations, or community groups. The foresty involves social, ecological, and economic sustainable development.
Community forestry is about local control over and enjoyment of benefits offered by local forest resources.
“It’s an area-based tenure, with a certain amount of volume of timber attached to it,” Wilsgard explained. “The forest is managed and the wood is harvested and utilized in a way that benefits the community the best.”
The community forest would help build jobs in the community, and would be managed locally. There are more than 50 community forests across the province, and Wilsgard said there have been proponents in Golden trying to get a community forest for more than a decade.
The Town of Golden will have to prove capacity for community support, and show there is a land base for operations. The study to see if a community forest is viable in Golden would be held in 2019, Wilsgard predicts.
The closest community forest to Golden is the Nakusp and Area Community Forest.
