Thursday, June 23, 2011

The questionable environmental conservation plan of the Marine Trail Resort

This contribution deserves its own post.  Mike D. from Victoria sent me the following picture and text:
Hi Tom,
Much has been said about Mr. Ilkay's promises to preserve most of the Marine Trail properties under a conservation covenant. CRD documents preach that "the proposal addresses protection of the park by dedication and covenanted protection of 86% of the site and would remove the possibility of clear cut logging and resource extraction from the currently permitted uses" [source: report to the Juan de Fuca land use committee meeting of tuesday april 19 2011].   
Sounds great, right? 
Well...I found this text buried in the legal documents for the Marine Trail Resort proposal being considered by the CRD: "no tree of any species, including bushes and shrubs.... may be trimmed, pruned, cut down, damaged, destroyed, moved, harvested or removed, except that a tree may be thinned, trimmed or pruned to preserve forest health or to provide a view from any of the Cabins which has been diminished by natural tree growth"[source: CRD board agenda June 15 2011, page 131]
Thanks for bringing that to our attention Mike! That's messed up.  This is no conservation covenant, its a license to clearcut at will. Mr Ilkay's own website for the marine trail resort confirms this plan for tree thinning (on the "sustainability objectives" page no less!)

"Some of the undeveloped area that is retained within the resort will have the forest thinned to allow light in and encourage understory growth. This will, in turn, provide foraging grounds for a variety of species."

Here's the picture Mike sent in:
Ender Ilkay promises that 86% of his Marine Trail Resort properties will be protected from logging under a conservation covenant.  Unfortunately, the covenant expressly allows for trees to be "thinned" and "trimmed" to maintain the view of the ocean from any of his cabins. This is conservation??

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