Chronology of Community Concerns and Government Response

UPPER KISPIOX RIVER WATERSHED, UPDATED FEBRUARY, 1998

1.History of Kispiox Valley community involvement and concern. 1972 to 1995, ( see attached) .

2. Swan Lake Wilderness Area designation by Order in Council, August, 1991 (see attached map).

3 Protected Area Strategy (P.A. S) process initiated 1992 targeted 12% of Provincial land base.

4. Regional Protected Area Team (RPAT) designated the Swan Lake extension (32,600 ha) as Class I and Class II areas of interest.

5. Kispiox Watershed Protection Coalition (KWPC) Formed, January, 1995 .

6. Gitxsan Chiefs and KWPC blockade forestry road to protest 1ogging north of the Nangeese River, February, 1995.

7. Swan Lake Wilderness Area Management Plan approved January, 1996.

8. Swan Lake / Kispiox River Class A Provincial Park (19,200 ha) declared by 0rder in Counci1, Apri1, 1990.

9. Kispiox Forest District land and Resource Management Plan (LRMP) approved. September, 1996 (1.2 million ha), Upper Kispiox watershed area (51,000 ha) deferred pending local planning process (see attached map).

1O.MOF initiated a local planning process, the Upper Kispiox Planning Group October, 1995.

11 . Socio–Economic Impact Analysis For the Upper Kispiox Planning Area published November 1996 by Crane Management Consultants Ltd. for MOF. It notes "The Kispiox TSA contains a number of areas with exceptional high value fish habitat. . The Upper Kispiox has a high quality steelhead fishery and is also important salmon habitat- together the region supports significant native, commercial and sports fisheries. (Pg. ix, Executive Summary) Section 2.4.4 Commercial Fisheries, In terms of total escapement the Kispiox is the most important, followed by the Skeena, Babine, Bulkley and Cranberry. (pg. 44) Table 2-32, ‘Kispiox River Contribution to Commercial Salmon Fishery, in 1995’, $4.8 million, ‘Employment Income", $.4 million "Protection of the whole study area would result in no short-term harvest declines for the first 30 years (pg. 69) but would eventually "result in $0.38 million annual loss in employment income (pg. 69).

12.Kispiox Band, with Nortec Consulting through MOF , initiate a Watershed Restoration Project study in the lower Kispiox River in1996. The results of the study are not yet public but indications are that current logging and road building practices have resulted in significant damage to the fish habitat in a number of areas.

13.Upper Kispiox Land Use Recommendations submitted by MOF in April, 1997, final decision by cabinet is still pending. Recommendations include "baseline monitoring of the conditions in the planning area, especially hydrologic regimes and sediment loads, is desirable. Any such monitoring program should be developed in consultation with competent hydrologists, staff from the MELP and the MOF", (pg. 39)

14. December 1997. MOF logging plans still include extensive cut blocks north of the Nangeese.

15.Nortec Consulting distribute ‘Kispiox River discharge/climate Analysis’(confirming with quantitative data that the community concerns regarding cumulative logging impacts on the river flows and fish habitat are well founded). The analysis notes a significant post logging (1963 to 1995) change in river flows, with an assumed loss of fisheries rearing habitats

approaching 40% in highly impacted reaches of tributaries.

16.Kispiox Band Council undertakes to facilitate the application for FRD funds to conduct a baseline stream study in the Upper Kispiox river watershed, February 1998.

It is well documented that the Upper Kispiox has 60% of the remaining fish values in the Kispiox River system . The data noted in item 11 above gives a compelling economic argument that fisheries values, assessed at over $5 million dollars in 1995 for the Kispiox River system, significantly outweigh annual logging employment values in the upper watershed study area. It is estimated, if the area is fully protected with no change to the Kispiox TSA for the initial 30 years no loss will be incurred, thereafter an annual loss of $0.38 million.

If 1ogging is permitted the upper Kispiox watershed, north of the Nangeese river, and it results in the same loss of fish habitat that intensive logging downstream on the Kispiox has, the Provincial economy will incur an annual net loss for this area. KWPC supports the call for baseline studies on tributary streams in the Upper Kispiox Watershed, prior to any road

building or logging development, so the results and recommendations arising from the study can become a part of the terms and conditions of any future logging plans. A halt to further logging activity should also be called to the tributary stream areas to the south side of Nangeese River catchment area, east of the confluence with the Kispiox River, as the same concerns and rationale apply.