Powell River Regional District rural directors have no objection to a proposed log dump on Powell Lake. Western Forest Products has applied to the province’s Integrated Land Management Bureau for a 30-year licence for a log dump, barge ramp and log storage facility over 2.2 hectares of Crown foreshore. The location is on the southwest side of Powell Lake, roughly 4.5 kilometres southwest along the shoreline from Olsen’s Landing.
Walt Cowlard, Western’s operations planner for the Stillwater division in Powell River, provided directors with an overview of the operation at the January planning committee meeting.
The area behind the proposed log dump has a number of trees that have been attacked by the Douglas fir bark beetle, Cowlard told the Peak. “Part of this logging is aiming at going in there and clearing that up,” he said. “More specifically, what we are looking at doing is falling some of the right-of-way wood and let those logs act as trap trees.”
If the company’s application is approved, it plans on building the roads behind the dump starting this spring, Cowlard said. “What I’m trying to do is get the project approved early enough so we can get the road building done before there is a lot of recreating going on in those cabins that are right close,” he said.
Logging would take place next winter, if the company obtains all approvals, Cowlard said.
