Lannan Forest
by Frank Hovenden (Comox Valley Naturalists Society)
Lannan forest is a 40 acre parcel of second-growth forest located on the Comox peninsula on the east coast of Vancouver Island. As Crown land, it is rather unique in this part of Vancouver Island, where the E&N railway grant put most land under the control of a handful of large forestry companies. As older second-growth it is considered a rare ecosystem since most private forestlands are managed as short rotation plantations, old-growth is virtually non existent, and urban sprawl forms an almost uninterrupted ribbon from Victoria to Campbell River.
Lannan forest is representative of the very dry maritime coastal western hemlock sub zone (CWH xm 1). This zone is very under represented in terms of protected areas. According the Provincial Overview and Status report less than 2% of this sub zone and variant is in fact protected.
Unfortunately our MLA and former minister of Sustainable Development Stan Hagen feels that BC has enough parks. Initial efforts to sell this parcel by secret negotiation were thwarted by a petition campaign within the City of Courtenay. Not to be swayed by local opinion, Land and Water BC Inc. then put Lannan Forest up for auction to stimulate economic development according to its mandate. Despite a noble effort by the Comox Valley Land Trust working in conjunction with the Regional District of Comox Strathcona, the highest bid went to the Silverado Land Corporation, owners of the adjacent Golf course and development known as Crown Isle.
While the loss of this parcel may seem insignificant within the provincial scale, many here in the Comox Valley believe that the sale of Lannan Forest is very much a trial balloon for further sales of Crown lands throughout the province. We are appealing to the new minister George Abbott to review the decision, which would mean the loss this valuable public asset.
Last Update: Wednesday 23 July, 2008
http://www.cvlandtrust.org/lannan.htm
The end of Lannan Forest
Crown Isle starts clearing area for future housing development
Philip Round
Comox Valley Echo
Friday, January 29, 2010
A 40-acre woodland the community tried but failed to buy and protect for future generations is being cut down to make way for a housing development.
Lannan Forest is at the edge of the Crown Isle estate, which bought it from the provincial government for just over $1 million almost six years ago.
It was a hotly-contested sale, with sealed bids that included one bringing together the former Comox Strathcona Regional District, Comox Valley Land Trust and many individual donors.
They believed the forest and its trails were a key recreational amenity that contained sensitive ecosystems - but they were outbid by around $400,000.
At the time, the golf resort company made no secret of the fact it wanted the land for eventual new home building, and has shown that intention on its public maps since its purchase.
But nearby residents were still shocked this week when contractors moved in, taped off the land at popular access points, and erected warning signs prohibiting entry to well-used trails.
Shortly after, heavy machinery started the clearance process.
Several residents contacted the Echo distressed about the clearance and wondering what was going on.
The land lies within what is now Comox Valley Regional District and is zoned for rural residential use. But its RU-8 designation would only allow for two very large lots, and that is not what Crown Isle has in mind.
For the company, director Ron Coulson said they were not planning any immediate development, but were getting the land prepared for a future application.
He envisaged they would be looking at a time frame of 12-24 months, by which time he hoped the land would be annexed into the City of Courtenay.
The company wanted to see the site incorporated into the existing master plan for the entire Crown Isle estate, which already has the City's endorsement.
He recognized some people would be disappointed about the clearance, but the land had been bought for development.
"We bought the land - the highest price got the prize," said Coulson.
"Since then we've paid taxes on it every year, and if people think we invested that much money just so they could continue walking their dogs, then they're wrong. Landowners have rights, too."
There are no tree protection orders on the land, so the company is free to cut down as many as it wishes, although Coulson said they intended to leave a 25ft wide buffer of tree growth behind Britannia Place, which backs on to the forest.
All the logging and clearing would be to code and to high standards, maintaining the tradition Crown Isle had established from the beginning, he said. The logs would be carted off to the Union Bay log sort.
The sealing off of the woodland was necessary on public safety grounds, and security staff would strive to ensure the site was kept secure so no one got hurt during the clearance.
He added the company had been interested in the Lannan Bush, as he preferred to call it, since 1989 when they first approached the ministry about acquiring it.
He acknowledged there had been public concern over the process being followed to buy the land in 2003, leading the province to invite sealed bids.
For the past five years the company had not objected to people using the land "as a personal park."
"We never took a position - right or wrong, we let it continue on."
But they now needed to move forward as part of the estate's longer term planning.
Coulson said the new development would add another phase to Crown Isle that had already seen more than $400 million worth of property built, and within two years that total would be pushing $500 million.
"And every year, close to $5 million in property taxes are paid to local government by property owners and our companies," he noted, underpinning many local services.
The next two years would see significant new development, including a start on three new phases of residential properties within the existing Crown Isle area this year alone. There would also be significant commercial development, he predicted.
Not only would this increase the tax base further, but would also create a lot of jobs, said Coulson.
"We're setting the pins for what we believe will be a great 2010-2011," he added.
What might be a positive for Crown Isle is, however, a negative for some of those who worked to save Lannan Forest in the past, at one stage raising enough signatures to block a bid to annex the land into Courtenay.
Former rural Area B director Barbara Price was a leading campaigner on that issue - and on the fundraising to try to buy the land.
She commented: "I am absolutely shocked and horrified that logging is going on there.
"It is widely recognized as an area that is ecologically sensitive - including by the province before they sold it - and the impact of logging on Brooklyn Creek and other drainage channels in that area can only be imagined.
"But more than anything I have a feeling of overwhelming sadness that such a wonderful place is being destroyed for housing.
"As far as I am concerned, the sale of Lannan Forest by the province was a scandal."
© Comox Valley Echo 2010
http://www2.canada.com/comoxvalleyecho/n....27-463e1eb20565
Politicians in Lannan protest
Christiana Wiens
Comox Valley Echo
Tuesday, February 02, 2010
Three Valley politicians more accustomed to waging battles over the boardroom table than the backwoods temporarily stopped logging in the former Lannan Forest Thursday.
Courtenay councillor Ronna-Rae Leonard, Comox councillor Marcia Turner and former Comox Valley Regional District director Barbara Price faced off with the onsite logging manager, a local security company and RCMP with Dawn Christian, Gwyn Frayne and a handful of concerned residents.
"I've never done anything like this before," said Barbara Price. "I've never even had a parking ticket."
While the group's numbers eventually dwindled, Leonard and Price stayed in the woods until sundown - until it was too dark for loggers to work in the woods.
"This is a rally to stop the chainsaws and start the dialogue," said Leonard.
She had already spoken to RCMP Inspector Tom Gray about her intentions that day, and had received assurances the group would not be arrested Thursday.
Leonard and Price are especially concerned about sensitive eco-systems on the site, including protected species.
They acted Thursday in the spirit of Melda Buchanan, Ruth Masters and Fran Johnston who stood in front of chainsaws to save the MacDonald Wood Park in Comox.
"We could either go though the process of grieving or go out and say let's do something." said Price.
The cutting resumed Friday and Saturday, when much of the felling took place. A public protest followed on Sunday, with Leonard raising it for discussion at Courtenay council Monday.
"The message has to be that you do not do this and then expect to be annexed after you've raped and pillaged the land," she said.
Leonard says that when the Lannan Forest was sold to Crown Isle for $1.06 million she was told not a single tree would fall before the site would be annexed into the City of Courtenay.
While the land is still in the Regional District, Crown Isle director Ron Coulson told the Echo last week he planned to use it for additional housing after annexation in 12 to 24 months.
Though the land once belonged to the province and had well-used public trails, Coulson said he has paid taxes on it every year since owning it and wasn't doing it for the pleasure of dog walkers.
"Landowners have rights too," he said.
Water in the area flows into the Little River watershed, which already floods residents in heavy rains, and sits near the Brooklyn Creek headwaters.
Next door, the consultants working on the Longlands project to build more than 900 units in a phased project have worked hard to maintain 70 per cent of the forested area on their land.
Longlands consultant Mike Harris says the group sees itself as a more sustainable option to urban sprawl that needs to be investigated here.
"The Valley has an alternative," said Harris.
The development was sent back to the Electoral Areas Services Committee meeting for discussion last month and could be held off until after the regional growth strategy is complete.
It relies on a constructed wetland to manage water flows and reduce environmental impact.
"How the design proceeds could impact our project significantly," said landscape architect Paul de Greeff.
They already have just under a dozen water monitoring stations onsite and downstream from their property. That data is being given to the Brooklyn Creek Streamkeepers for future use.
"We have pre-logging data and if we keep it going we will have real-time data on what's going on upstream," he said.
© Comox Valley Echo 2010
http://www2.canada.com/comoxvalleyecho/n....1c-43cd263a5293
Will we see democracy?
Gwyn Frayne
Comox Valley Echo
Friday, February 12, 2010
The saying "Whether you're rich or poor, it helps to have money" kept coming back to my mind last night after I left the Courtenay Council meeting. Yes, Mr. Coulson of Crown Isle has more money than most of us who were in the bleachers at the meeting. I left feeling like the Council looks on us as chopped liver.
Democracy is supposed to be of, by and for the people. It is not supposed to be at the command of the rich, even though that is often the way things happen.
The issue here, in summary, is that we the people had a lot of crown land in B.C. and, since 1991 it has been given away to developers who are friends of the government. Yes, they paid some money for the purchase but that's not the point. The point is that that was our land "in perpetuity" - or so we thought.
Part of the crown land, which we've lost locally, is the Lannan Forest. Although many local people and the Regional District wanted to buy it as a park, our MLA at the time, Stan Hagen, let it be bought by Crown Isle. Then two weeks ago, Crown Isle cut down 30 acres of huge trees in one fell swoop. They did this because they want to be annexed into Courtenay, where they can sell small lots whereas at the moment, in the Regional District, they have to leave larger parcels of land.
At the Courtenay Council meeting last night, Ronna-Rae Leonard and Doug Hillian had a motion which would have safeguarded our land from this happening again. But a last-minute letter from Mr. Coulson postponed that motion. This motion, by the way, was the one that had been passed a week ago but the next day was made null and void by the powers-that-be who said that not enough notice had been given. Now, this motion will come up again at the Council meeting on March 1.
Will we see some democracy on March 1? I'm not going to hold my breath.
Gwyn Frayne
Courtenay
© Comox Valley Echo 2010
http://www2.canada.com/comoxvalleyecho/news/opinions/story.html?id=6008148a-94e0-4179-8380-29a3743031bd