Clear-cutting decimating Stoney reserve

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Clearcutting on this southern Alberta reserve has decimated the equivalent of 25 years worth of logged wood over the past four months.

An estimated 500,000 cubic metres of wood have been harvested from Stoney Indian Band land, a staggering 2,631 per cent more than the 19,000 cubic metres recommended by Forestry Canada.

The rampant logging put hundreds of thousand of dollars into some band members' pockets who dealt with B.C. mills shelling out $50 a tonne for timber, twice the Alberta rate. But other band members aren't getting a fair price and are calling for a more equitable distribution of logging revenue.

Relations between band members opposing the wide-spread logging and members benefitting from it became so strained, a day-long meeting was held with federal Indian Affairs officials and band members to discuss the issues. Council passed a resolution allowing permits to remove cut lumber, and allow permit logging to continue only under controlled conditions.

During the past months, more than 200 trucks a day have been counted coming

off the 39,34 hectare reserve, each carrying between 25 and 40 cubic metres of wood.

The Federal Department of Indian Affairs issued a warning in early February for everyone involved in logging operations on the reserve to stop immediately or face having their equipment seized. The department was responding to allegations from an environmental group of illegal logging practices being carried out on Stoney land.

While private land owners are not required to obtain permits to sell timber from their property, band members are required to have a permit signed by their council and Indian Affairs before selling any tree. In addition, provincial Crown timber cannot be legally sold outside Alberta.

The stop-work order left approximately 1,000 loads of timber on the ground and concerns about who will pay to clean up the clearcutting debris.

Environmentalists are calling for a full-scale investigation by RCMP into logging practices on all Alberta reserves with forest.