Article content

B.C. Timber Sales is about to tender cutblocks in the Skagit Valley right beside Manning Provincial Park. Roadbuilding for logging high in the subalpine is ongoing as we write. This is against the interests of B.C. Parks and the requirements of the Skagit River Treaty. Premier John Horgan can stop it with a telephone call to the responsible minister.

Almost 50 years ago, alert citizens in Seattle discovered that Seattle City Light planned to raise Ross Dam and flood B.C.’s Skagit Valley. This launched one of Canada’s first great environmental battles, but in 1984 the dispute was resolved by the Skagit River Treaty between Canada and the U.S. The Treaty scuttled High Ross Dam, in return for B.C.’s sale of equivalent power to Seattle.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Ken Farquharson and Tom Perry: Horgan should cancel logging plans for Skagit Valley Back to video

Hundreds of organizations and thousands of individual citizens in both Canada and the U.S. had worked to protect the Skagit from a provincial government too ignorant to realize what it had signed away for a pittance. The 1972-75 NDP government of then-premier Dave Barrett took the first steps to save the Skagit, but ultimately the Socreds, and especially the late Rafe Mair, sealed the deal.