November 26, 1998 Montana Standard article: GREEN RIVER, Wyo. (AP) Canadian loggers oppose Yellowstone Yukon corridor Wildlife conservation zone, backed by the Sierra Club and other organizations, would cost Canadian jobs, Critics say.
A group of Canadian timber industry officials is criticizing a proposed wildlife corridor into Canada that would begin in Yellowstone National Park.
An 1,800-mile long corridor; known as the Yellowstone-to-Yukon Conservation Initiative, would jeopardize 80,000 Canadian jobs and take $5.4 billion out of the economy, according to the Forest Alliance.
"With all that British Columbia has done to preserve wilderness and ensure that our forest practices are environmentally sound and sustainable, it's amazing to me that U.S.-based environmentalists have the nerve to come up here and propose that half our province be locked up in the so-called...corridor;"[see standard map of reserve and corridor system] said alliance Chairman Jack Munro.
Jack Munro, "Environmentalists not only have the nerve but they have at their disposal the Bureau of Land Management, The National Park Service and the Forest Service, to name a few, armed with The Endangered Species Act and a well conceived plan based upon the idea of "a grain of sand at a time".
This cancer began on the west coast with the spotted owl and the closing down of the timber industry in California, Oregon, Washington and, now like a cancer has silently spread to the states of Idaho and Montana using the vehicles wolves, grizzly bears, bull trout [playing on our natural instinct to protect our environment] as environmental focal points and now is creeping north into Canada-no respecter of international borders
The sad sad state of affairs here in the United States is the agencies charged with managing the land for the greater good have been captured by environmental interest groups you mentioned. When you go to the agency for assistance you are no longer talking to a governmental agency sworn to look out for all segments of the population.
This paralysis starts with President Bill Clinton, Vice President Al Gore and the Secretary of Interior Babbit and permeates all levels of this nation's government trickling down to Regional and Forest levels. (Just look at the training of the individuals in line positions in these agencies.)
Let's stop sitting around like "fools hens" and allowing the "greenes" to knock us off one by one. We are all fighting the same battle whether it appears to us as trail and road closures, land management style issues, reintroduction of bull trout, wolves or grizzly bears. and now the praire dog.
UNITE! An old proverb says: United we stand! Divided we fall!
End CAG CommentsThe corridor would connect a patchwork of parks along the Rocky Mountains and is aimed at preventing wildlife extinction by bringing isolated populations of animals together.
It is sponsored by about 100 conservation groups including the Sierra Club, the Greater Yellowstone Coalition, the Wilderness Society and the Defenders of Wildlife.
Forest Alliance representatives contend that supporters have not considered the damage to Canada's economy.
The corridor would directly affect a third of the province's timber harvest, jeopardize more than 25,000 forest sector jobs and indirectly affect another 55,000 jobs, according to Chancellor Partners Management Consultants.
"We had serious concerns because the people promoting the (corridor) did not do eco- nomic impact reports," said Donna Freeman, media relations official with the Forest Alliance in Vancouver; British Columbia.
A study commissioned by the Sierra Club earlier this year indicated a positive economic impact on local communities, said Louisa Willcox, grizzly bear ecosystem project coordinator for the Sierra Club in Bozeman.