Huu-ay-aht First Nation makes demands

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Leaders of the Huu-ay-aht First Nation on Vancouver Island's west coast say they are running out of patience with governments, Crown corporations and forest companies who have failed to deliver written promises of multi-year funding for the clean up of salmon rivers.

"Our communities have suffered grave social and economic hardships as a result of logging-related damages to our salmon rivers. We won't let our territory be logged further without a written promise by government and industry to adequately fund restoration efforts," said Huu-ay-aht chief councillor, Robert Dennis. "Let me be clear: No proper funding, no logging."

Recently, MacMillan Bloedel Ltd. proposed taking up to 1 million cubic metres of old-growth trees per year out of Huu-ay-aht territory. Worth tens of millions of dollars, the logs would fill a solid line of highway trucks from Victoria to Port Hardy.

"This activity generates millions of dollars in stumpage fees from the logging companies to the province. It's time more of that money was used to put people to work cleaning up rivers such as the Sarita," said Dennis.

The Road to Restoration, a report recently released by the Huu-ay-aht First Nation, highlights the social and environmental benefits of such work.

Fisheries workers with the Huu-ay-aht First Nation estimate that more than $5 million is required to clean up the Sarita River near Bamfield. The money would pay for the digging of salmon-spawning channels, shoring up slumping river banks, and creating new in-river havens for young salmon.

The Huu-ay-aht First Nation wants a firm commitment that $500,000 per year for 10 years will be dedicated to do restoration work. That money should come from an array of sources including the Crown corporation Forest Renewal BC, MacMillan Bloedel, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and others. It also wants an agreement that some of that money will be spent on those stretches of the Sarita cutting through lands owned by MacMillan Bloedel (See accompanying map). Currently, FRBC funds are supposed to be spent only on Crown lands.

"FRBC disburses hundreds of millions of stumpage dollars to various projects, including restoration work," said Dennis. "Under the circumstances, $500,000 is a small amount of money. We want the salmon back in our rivers. We want the company and government to help us do that. And the best way they can do that is to ensure that we have proper funding."