Slocan Valley water users group protests logging proposal in sensitive watershed

A plan to log part of a catchment in the Slocan Valley, despite a study showing low water levels, has sparked protests from system users.

The Dumont Creek Water Users Group started a petition and collected the names of 35 local residents who oppose a proposal by Slocan Integral Forestry Cooperative (SIFCO) to log part of the 598-acre Winlaw Woodlot 1832.

Unfortunately, 300 of those acres are where the headwaters of the Dumont Creek watershed are located, said John Wittmayer, a Winlaw resident and spokesman for the user group. That’s nearly half of the watershed’s 678 acres.

Six years ago, SIFCO hired a consultant to act as an advisor and provide a prescription to the Selkirk Natural Resource District, part of the Ministry of Forests, to commercially harvest timber and build haul roads through the most sensitive portions of the Dumont Creek watershed and its tributaries.

The consultant is not a Professional Registered Forester, but he acts as if he is, Wittmayer alleged, raising potential legal questions. Only a Professional Registered Forester can draft important regulations, forest policy and implement logging operations, but the consultant has been submitting logging and road-building proposals to the Department of Forests for years, he added.

The maps the consultant provided lacked important details. They did not list major stream crossings or ephemeral streams, seeps, marshes, wetlands, or culvert placements, Wittmayer continued. They also did not indicate where gravel beds should be placed in marshes and wetlands.

According to Wittmayer, that decision-making has had a negative impact on the community and the watershed.

“As our creeks continue to dry up, we cannot tolerate anyone who does not have the professional qualifications to work and advise in the capacity that they do,” he said.

“Our watershed is not robust, with large, fast-flowing creeks that extend miles into the mountains with high-elevation snowpack. It is essentially a shallow, low-elevation watershed, with minimal snowpack. The feeder creeks that drain this watershed are now drying up most years, and climate change stressors indicate that this trend will continue into the future.

“Right now these creeks are completely dry or nearly dry. There is very little or no snowpack to sustain and replenish this watershed.”

Despite the disagreements, SIFCO is moving forward with its proposal to log and build roads for the Dumont Creek Watershed. The area has been logged before, including road building practices, which has “severe implications” for the Dumont Watershed, Wittmayer said.

“This is clearly a death sentence for what little water our community has left,” he said. “This proposal goes far beyond … intercity work on fire mitigation, which most of the community supports.”

Two years ago, Living Lake Canada began monitoring water flow on Dumont Creek as part of the Columbia Basin Water Monitoring Framework program.

“Over the past two summers, we have experienced remarkably low water levels on this creek,” program manager Paige Thurston noted in a November 2023 letter to the Selkirk Natural Resource District. “These low water levels are particularly concerning given that the volume of water allocated to users downstream of our gauging station at certain times nearly equals the creek’s total discharge.

“Given the significant demand on this creek relative to measured flow, any disruptions or impacts to the watershed could have negative consequences for the community’s drinking water supply and the environment.”

Thurston supported a moderated dialogue between Selkirk Natural Resource District, SiFCO and the Dumont Creek Water User Group to identify a mutually acceptable course of action. The user group is also consulting with a hydrologist and hopes to work with him to stop SIFCO.

When a tree falls

Wittmayer believed that SiFCO was conflating a commercial logging scheme with its wildfire suppression work under the guise of providing supplemental firefighting.

“In other words, they are taking advantage of the community’s fear of wildfires to get a commercial logging and road construction permit from the Selkirk Natural Resource District,” he explained as five major wildfires burned out of control north of Winlaw, forcing the evacuation of more than 1,000 homes.

Once SiFCO was granted a Section 52 Logging Permit by the Selkirk Forest District, it could begin logging and road construction at any time.

Users of Dumont Creek Water are in favor of Type 1 treatment for fighting wildfires, Wittmayer explained. However, they oppose Type 2 treatment, which involves commercial logging and road construction.

“Most people in the community don’t realize that this means they’re going to be in the watershed for years to come,” he said. “This increases the likelihood that the quality, quantity and flow of our water will be impacted over time.”

Type one involves thinning the forest using non-mechanized techniques — which creates jobs for local people — but does not include commercial logging plans. They want to merge the commercial logging proposals into an integral part of their “firefighting” approach. We find them purely transactional in their motives.