Monday Oct28th/2002
By Murray Mandryk
Environment Minister Buckley
Belanger is preparing to take on the federal government and Parks
Canada to get them to change their policies on controlling spruce
budworm in Prince Albert National Park (PANP).
In a memo to other MLAs in the coalition government written earlier
this month, Belanger encouraged his colleagues to start pressuring
Parks Canada to change its policies on budworm control.
Belanger's memo says that
if nothing is done, a major forest fire starting in the park and
entering the nearby commercial forest could put hundreds of jobs
in forestry and tourism in jeopardy.
Allan Willcocks, director of the forest ecosystems branch in Prince
Albert, said the battle between Waskesiu residents and Parks Canada
over whether to spray for the budworms in the townsite was minor
compared with the economic disaster that could occur if a fire starting
in the park got out of hand.
The memo Belanger sent to fellow MLAs pointed out that Saskatchewan
Environment had called on Parks Canada for a comprehensive action
plan.
"The economic impact to the province as a result of widespread
spruce budworm-infected tree mortality in PANP could be significant,
and could impose a cost to the province in the tens of millions
of dollars if wildfires escape the boundaries of the park,"
Belanger's memo stated. "No action by PANP could lead to losses
in employment and the economic sustainability of the forest sector
in Saskatchewan."
The worst forest fire ever to hit the commercial forest in Saskatchewan
was the 1993 fire in the Primrose Weapons Range north of Meadow
Lake which destroyed 300,000 hectares of commercial forest, the
largest such fire ever south of the Churchill River.
Willcocks says the province is still pursuing the federal government
through the courts over that fire, which the province was not allowed
to fight because of fears about unexploded ordnance within the weapons
range.
Willcocks says the province is trying to make the case to Ottawa
that Parks Canada would be fingered for blame if forestry and tourism
jobs outside the park disappeared after an uncontrolled fire.
To that end, Saskatchewan Environment proposed a five-point plan
to Parks Canada officials that calls for changes to the PANP vegetation
plan to reflect the increased fire risk due to mortality of the
forest.
Willcocks says the forest in the northern two-thirds of PANP, north
of the Waskesiu townsite, is a breeding ground for billions of budworms
which are spreading north and northwest to the commercial forest
nearby.
"We're spending two million bucks a year fighting this thing
outside the park and yet they are breeding in the park," he
said.
Parks Canada has already rejected increased spraying of budworms
with the BtK biological control agent to promote buffer protection
areas. The park also doesn't want to build bigger fire breaks within
the park which would essentially allow some logging.
SASKATOON
STARPHOENIX
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