My home is adjacent to Quartz Creek, the creek that is at the heart of Ymir’s watershed and has been the centre of much discussion around logging. BCTS wants to log in our very tiny, very fragile watershed. This will impact the water flow and quality of our creek.
There is no way that carving a road through the tributaries to our water supply 45 times to access timber will not affect the water levels and quality of our creek. B.C. has been in a State of Emergency since July 7 because of wildfires and we have only received 25 milimetres of rain since June 30. These are drought conditions. Although this summer has been extreme, this is not the first intense wildfire summer we have had nor is it the only drought in recent history. These conditions will happen again.
Quartz Creek not only supplies hundreds of residents with domestic water, it also supplies our fire hydrants. Just like all the other communities in B.C., we are at risk of interface fires. Forty-five thousand people have been evacuated this summer in B.C. and many homes have been lost. What would happen to Ymir if we had to fight interface fires and our source of water for our hydrants could not meet the demand? One look at the small trickle that is now running through Quartz Creek and you will see that this is a very real threat.
I am not opposed to logging. I fully support sustainable and smart logging. I oppose BCTS’s Quartz Operating Plan to log in our watershed. There are other options. The community of Ymir and the Ymir Watershed Action Team are actively working on other plans that could meet all our needs, including BCTS’s.
Now we just need BCTS to truly come to the table and work with us instead of digging in their heels and just paying us lip service in what they call the “community referral process.” Let’s bring back meaningful stakeholder consultation to this process and ensure a positive solution for all sides.
Isabelle Herzig
Ymir Water Action Team
