We’re No “Bimbos,” Says Ahousaht Leader

We’re No “Bimbos,” Says Ahousaht Leader   Published Date: 2008/7/24 21:50:00 Article ID : 4686 Audience : Default --> Version 1.00 Published Date: 2008/7/24 21:50:00 Reads : 46 -->

John Frank, deputy chief of the Ahousaht First Nation, said local logging companies don’t plan to knock down every tree in the Hesquiat Point Creek. Click here to watch a video interview. (Keven Drews Photo)

By Keven Drews

TOFINO — Clayoquot Sound’s First Nations aren’t “bimbos” and know how to log and manage the environment responsibly, says the deputy chief councillor of the Ahousaht band.
John Frank made those comments Thursday, just days after BC environmentalists gave Coulson Forest Products and the First Nations-owned MaMook Natural Resources Ltd. an ultimatum: cease logging plans in the intact watershed at Hesquiat Point Creek for two years by July 28 or face action.
Frank said threats of another “War in the Woods” were akin to allowing an individual into his own sandbox and then being told how to manage it.
“They think that we can’t think,” said Frank of environmentalists. “We can think, and we’re not bimbos. We are a people that have a real strong sense on how environment should be, well-cared for, in the way it needs to be.
“It’s not as though we’re going to go knock down every tree.”
Hesquiat Point Creek is part of Tree Farm Licence 54, and is located on the east side of Hesquiat Harbour, just north of Maquinna Provincial Park.
Representatives of the Hesquiaht First Nation did not return the Westcoaster.ca’s call Thursday.
Ken Matthews, Coulson’s forestry manager, said First Nations bought the TFL off International Forest Products Ltd. back in the spring of 2007.
He said harvesting has taken place in previously logged watersheds. The companies are running out of fibre, however, and have to look at watersheds like Hesquiat Point Creek.
If they don’t, said Matthews, the Annual Allowable Cut will drop to almost nothing – a fact environmentalists understand.
Matthews said under Clayoquot Sound Scientific Panel regulations, 90 per cent of the Hesquiat Point Creek watershed is protected through reserves.
The Clayoquot Sound Scientific Panel was written by a 19-member group over two years following protests in 1993. It consists of five reports and 170 recommendations.
Matthews said the companies plan to log in only three cutblocks, some 30 hectares in total, and pull out 15,000 to 17,000 cubic metres of wood.
Frank said that will give First Nations the chance to benefit from the $17-million log barges that pass the community regularly.
He hopes the logging operations will employ as many as 15 band members.
“Ahousaht would never move forward if they’d seen something that wasn’t right,” said Frank. “That would be against almost the religion of the chiefs in protecting the environment first.”
Frank also had some tough questions for environmentalists.
“Environmentalists promised us $4 million,” he said. “They said…’we’ll help you create economic driving machine that will help you.’ But where is it? It still hasn’t hit my table. Those empty promises don’t mean jack shit to me. Because if you’re going to be saying that, step out of the way so we can move forward in a good positive way with the other industries that want to work with us.
Frank said First Nations will set high logging standards.
“If we get the chance to do what we need to do without interference from the outside world I think you’ll see a model that is so good that people will start following it.”

(Click here to read Thursday’s story on environmentalists’ demands.)

Keven.drews@westcoaster.ca