Lubicons to block proposed logging

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The Lubicon Lake band will stop a High Prairie lumber band will stop a High Prairie limber company from building an access road to timber-cutting areas, says the Lubicon chief.

"We're not going to stand by and watch them. We're not going to allow any more logging," said Bernard Ominayak.

Buchanan Lumber is preparing a logging road which the Lubicons claim infringes o their traditional hunting and trapping area.

But Peter Kinnear, executive assistant to Foresty Minister LeRoy Fjordbotten, said Buchanan has timber rights in the area and is operating under those rights.

Kinnear said the Lubicons are "claiming rights to a very large area and the land Buchanan is working with is not part of their claim."

He said if the band interferes with "a legal logging operation, it'll be up to the RCMP to deal with them."

Dana Andreassen, spokesperson for Attorney General Ken Rostad, said the Lubicons will "be dealt with accordingly if they commit an illegal act."

Lubicon adviser Fred Lennarson said the 500-member band "aims to get them out.

"While the Lubicons have been trying for years to resolve this jurisdiction dispute, the other side is on the ground destroying our traditional land.

We won't allow this to continue."

Neither Lennarson nor Ominayak would reveal specifics of the plan.

Gordon Buchanan, spokesman for Buchanan Lumber, could not be reached for comment.

The Lubicons are claiming a 10,000 sq-km area around Little Buffalo, 360 km northwest of Edmonton, as their traditional hunting and trapping land.