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ALGONQUIN PARK
Wilderness or Industrial Logging Zone?
Many visitors to
Algonquin Park, the flagship of the Ontario Parks system,
are unaware that 78% of the park is an industrial logging
zone, crisscrossed by an estimated 8000 km of logging roads.
Algonquin is the only park in Ontario where such activities
are permitted.
The new Ontario
Provincial Parks and Conservation Reserves Act makes the
maintenance of ecological integrity the first priority of
park management, and specifically bans industrial activities
such as logging, making an exception only for Algonquin
Park. This exception is unacceptable. Industrial-scale
logging, accompanying logging roads, logging bridges and
gravel pits destroy ecological integrity and hence are not
appropriate in any protected area.
The Environmental
Commissioner of Ontario called for a review
of logging in
Algonquin Park in his
Annual Report of October 2006, and
again in his
2007 Annual Report. The Ontario Parks Board has
recommended a significant decrease in the area of
the park
that is open to logging. In addition to supporting the above
recommendations, CPAWS (both the Wildlands League and Ottawa
Valley chapters) and other conservation groups are calling
for a plan to phase out logging in Algonquin.
It is the
position of CPAWS-OV that the Ontario government should:
-
Conduct a
comprehensive public review of all logging in Algonquin
Park, (as requested by the Environmental Commissioner).
-
Implement the
Parks Board recommendations to reduce the area that is
open to logging in Algonquin Park.
-
Establish a
timeline for the elimination of all logging in Algonquin
Park and the removal of associated infrastructure.
- Designate
the Algonquin interior as a wilderness zone as logging
is phased out.
For more information on the Algonquin Park campaign or to
get involved, please contact Ian Whyte - Committee Chair at
ianrwhyte@jgwhyte.com
or by phone at (613) 729-7643.
Links:
Documents:
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