Opponents of WL Community Forest step up their fight

In a almost year long battle between the City of Williams Lake and Big Lake residents/Cariboo Regional District Area F Director Joan Sorley over a proposed Community Forest in the Big Lake area - the Big Lake Community Association has now called on BC's Forest Minister Steve Thomson to adjudicate the fight between Big Lake and the City of Williams Lake or to hand the dispute over to a 3rd party for resolution

Former BC Minister of Forests and Big Lake area resident David Zirnhelt told the Rush/Wolf:

“we’ve been trying for a year to negotiate some sense of involvement, some kind of ownership, some kind of control, some kind of meaningful say and they have not even been willing to consult about the boundaries of the blocks and our role in decision making other than a minor advisory capacity and a few dollars coming out of the potential profits of this.”

Zirnhelt says they were left little choice but to request BC’s Forests Minister defer the application and direct his staff to facilitate the creation of a revised proposal.

Read more here

As a result - the group wrote to the Minister of Forests on Nov 7th and Joan Sorley (Cariboo RD Area 'F' Director) on Nov 18th both asking Steve Thomson to refer the matter to his staff for mediation or to a 3rd Party for mediation/resolution.  The City of Williams Lake refused to comment on the story by the Rush/Wolf.  Read the Nov 7th/18th letters here

As a City of Williams Lake resident -- I'm deeply disappointed/troubled that the City is hell-bent on starting and picking a fight with rural residents of Big Lake, Horsefly and Miocene over a Community Forest license which was intended to benefit all communities affected and not pitting one community vs another.  My guess would be that Minister Thomson and his staff won't be touching this until after the May 2013 Election in order to help the BC Liberals' candidate in Cariboo-North, Coralee Oakes, have a sporting chance at election and also to ensure that this matter doesn't come up with Steve Thomson is trying for re-election in his home riding of Kelowna-Mission

SBF