Logging to be halted in Castle wilderness area

Anti-logging groups are cheering the decision to put timber harvesting on hold in the ecologically sensitive Castle wilderness area, which serves as a watershed for 70 downstream communities.

Photograph by: Gavin Young , Calgary Herald

Logging to be halted in Castle wilderness area 

By Bryan Weismiller, 
Calgary Herald 
October 12, 2012


Timber harvesting will be halted in the Castle wilderness area once the current logging plan expires — pending further talk over the future of the popular recreation area.

The province has approved Cochrane-based Spray Lake Sawmills to axe 50,000 cubic metres of forest in southwestern Alberta in the first of a three-year deal.

But the final two rounds of logging have been put on hold. The decision was lauded by anti-loggers who’ve fought against clear-cutting in the ecologically sensitive area that serves as an important watershed for dozens of downstream communities.

“This is a very positive turn of events,” said Peter Sherrington, a member of the Castle-Crown Wilderness Coalition.

“The big win is that logging is not happening . . . until the regional plan is completed,” echoed Sarah Elmeligi, a representative of the Stop Castle Logging Group and senior conservation planner with the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society.

Elmeligi was referring to the South Saskatchewan Regional Plan, a land-use strategy spanning more than eight million hectares from just north of Calgary to the U.S. border. It’s the second of seven land-use plans in the works, since a provincial framework was laid out in 2008.


Moving forward, Elmeligi is calling for the land to designated as a provincial park or wildland. It’s an idea she wants pitched again during the next wave of consultation — that has yet to be scheduled.

“It will allow for current land-uses to continue, with the exception of commercial forestry, within the ecological limits of that place,” Elmeligi said.

Beyond logging, the area has also become “out of control” with recreational activity, she added, which must be addressed in future area planning.

Only 12,000-cubic metres — roughly enough lumber to build 240 three-bedroom houses — have been chopped to date, due to protests and spring breakup.

Consultation over the Castle wilderness area has been ongoing for the past year and a half, said Duncan MacDonnell, spokesman for Alberta Sustainable Resource Development.

MacDonnell said he expects a decision to be reached sooner than in the case of the Lower Athabasca Regional Plan, which took 3 1/2 years.

With files from Tamara Gignac, Calgary Herald