The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Jonathon Naylor Editor Environmentalists fighting to halt a logging road through Grass River Provincial Park have lost an intense legal battle. The Wilderness Committee, a national environmental group, had asked the Manitoba Court of Queen's Bench to clarify whether a logging road constitutes logging. Committee spokesperson Eric Reder told CBC last week that the court sided with the provincial government's position that a road is different from actual logging. 'As of right now, this morning, the bulldozers are rolling back into our provincial park to resume their destruction,' he told the network. The committee had argued that if a logging road does comprise logging, it would violate Manitoba's ban on logging in provincial parks. Joe Foy, another committee spokesperson, told The Reminder last year that his organization firmly believes the road should not be built because 'it's all part and parcel with the business of logging.' The committee had also argued that the road, known as Dickstone Road, threatened woodland caribou habitat. For its part, the province has said the road was approved following extensive technical and public review of potential environmental impacts. The province also said the project was entirely within the law. Lumber giant Tolko was granted provincial permission to build the road in 2009, arguing it needed the route to ensure profitability by cutting four hours off transit time as trucks travel between logging areas north of the park and company operations in The Pas. Looking ahead, Reder told CBC it is too early to say if the committee will appeal the court ruling. With its western borders around Cranberry Portage, Grass River Provincial Park covers an area of 2,279 km squared. Among its lakes are First Cranberry Lake, Second Cranberry Lake, Reed Lake, Iskwasum Lake and Simonhouse Lake.
