The Save Our Spruce (SOS) Committee has released a report dealing with Parks Canada policy affecting the control of spruce budworm in Waskesiu

The spruce trees are worth saving and can be saved with BtK spraying in 2003

Waskesiu visitors and residents attribute significant heritage value to the mature spruce

Without spraying, significant and costly risk to public safety and increased risk of fire spread will result as the trees die

The costs of not spraying, in the millions, far exceed the cost of spraying, projected at $100,000 over three years

Other means of controlling the budworm, such as high pressure water and logging, are far more environmentally intrusive than BtK spraying

The use of BtK is not expected to have any measurable ecological impact on neighboring forests

The report also states that both Saskatchewan Environment and Resource Management (SERM) and BioForest Technologies, the acknowledged experts, recommended aerial BtK spraying as the only effective means to save the spruce in the Waskesiu townsite.

That recommendation is consistent with the SOS position that BtK spraying with a long-term management plan is the means to deal with this nasty pest.

Parks Canada policy permits environmental manipulation such as pesticide spraying when no reasonable alternative exists where serious adverse effects on neighboring lands can be expected and major park facilities, public health or safety will be threatened in the absence of such manipulation.

Based on comments by BioForest and SERM, SOS believes those conditions exist in Waskesiu and PANP.

The report also contains several recommendations:

Parks Canada should announce its support for the tangible heritage and economic value of the spruce trees in Waskesiu; recognize the community spirit; and support the health and safety of Waskesiu visitors and residents.

Parks Canada and the Waskesiu Community Council should jointly announce their intention to take the action required to save the trees, including an early decision to spray with BtK in the spring of 2003.

This shared decision making approach should become the model for future decisions and Parks Canada should review its consultation processes to ensure more open, transparent and honest dialogue in the future.

SOS spokesman, Herve Langlois says: "The report is a sound, detached, and reasoned analysis of the crisis faced by the Waskesiu community. It confirms the direction SOS has been favoring. SOS is prepared to work with Parks Canada and the Community Council to deal with the current crisis and to develop a long term management plan once the decision to control the budworm is made."

Langlois also noted that the recommendation for joint decision making is entirely consistent with the shared decision making concept in the draft Park management plan.

"SOS earnestly hopes that Parks Canada and the Community Council will use this report as the basis for the solution to this disaster in the making in the Waskesiu community."