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About UsEVOLUTION OF THE
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The story of the Harrop-Procter Watershed Protection Society is a story of struggle, of community turmoil and restoration. It is a story of determination.
As far back as 1976, some residents were concerned about clearcut logging practices and their effect on the peaceful beauty of the West Arm of Kootenay Lake.
In 1977, Bruce Fraser of Selkirk College published a report to the Minister of Forests recommending public co-operation in the harvesting process. Eight years later, in 1985, the Ministry of Forests (MOF) unilaterally announced a logging plan on nearby Lasca Creek.
Shocked at being ignored, people called a public meeting in the Harrop Hall and formed the Harrop-Procter Watershed and Community Protection Committee. This group met with the local MOF office for two years trying to establish mutual respect and planning according to the following principle:
"That we can evolve a logging operation that will be a credit to the planning expertise of the MOF and industry, and the wisdom that resides in every community and forms the basis of every democratic society."
Nevertheless, a huge clear-cut was opened up directly across from the Harrop ferry landing, and MOF had plans to proceed with the Lasca Creek operation that would have provided access to the neighbouring domestic watershed in Harrop Creek.
In Victoria, other government departments began to protect some environmentally sensitive areas, and Harrop-Procter activists took hope in this.
Because Lasca Creek represented one of the few remaining unspoiled areas in the southern Columbia eco-system, the area became a focus of stress and confrontation as residents of Harrop and Procter became divided on this issue.
It was a long and drawn out process, fraught with confrontation. But in 1995, in an attempt to quell the issue, the BC government created the West Arm Wilderness Park, protecting the Lasca Creek area. The sting to Harrop-Procter residents was that their watersheds were not included in the park.
Logging above the villages seemed
imminent. Tired, but undaunted, the handful
of people who believed in their vision of ecological logging and
community co-operation started again and were joined by other residents
who were afraid that their watersheds would be sullied. A series
of community meetings and a lot of work culminated in HPWPS getting
official society status in 1996.
It immediately applied to the MOF for a community forest license, but was refused. Determined volunteers applied for funding from private philanthropic foundations and conducted community fundraisers.
With a morale boost and some financial help, they worked with the Silva Forest Foundation to create an ecosystem-based plan for the entire 11,000 hectares of all watersheds that flowed through the Harrop-Procter corridor.
Later that year, three directors of the HPWPS board met in Victoria with the Minister of Forests and the regional MLA, Corky Evans, to get support for the Silva Plan. They were not successful.
Over the next year, more community
education and discussion led to this amendment of HPWPS purposes:
"The development of public forests in the Harrop-Procter area according to site sensitive, ecologically based forestry practices, modeled on Silva Forest Foundation planning process approved by the Harrop-Procter Watershed Protection Society."
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A broad-based publicity campaign was launched, with a door-to-door membership campaign within the Harrop-Procter area. The result was that more than 60 per cent of adult residents of the Harrop-Procter area joined the society.
All this resulted in the Minister of Forests inviting the HPWPS to submit a new proposal for a Community Forest Pilot Project.
Fresh energy also came in the form of another foundation grant which allowed HPWPS to open an office, employ a coordinator, and hire local professionals to assist with a business and management plan.
In 1999, the Harrop-Procter Community Co-operative was formed, to concentrate on the actual business of forest operations and economic development.
The final submission of the forest plan was 300 pages in length.
Highlights of the goals include management of timber, soil, viewscape, fisheries, recreation, tourism, heritage, and botanical forest products. Integral to this management is meaningful community participation. Click here to see the HPWPS proposal.
After considerable nail biting, in July of 1999, the local MLA, Corky Evans, announced that after 23 years, Harrop-Procter residents finally had a chance to realize their concept of "model forestry."
Harrop-Procter
Watershed Protection
Society
PO Box 5
Procter, British Columbia
Canada • V0G 1V0
Ph. 250.229.2221
Fx. 250.229.2332
email: info@hpcommunityforest.org