ED STRUZIK, JOURNAL STAFF WRITER
Edmonton, The Edmonton Journal, January 11, 1999.

Two environmentally sensitive areas that were being considered for designation under Alberta’s Special Places program will be opened to oil and gas exploration, according to government documents obtained by The Journal.

"Effective immediately, Alberta Energy will accept posting requests for petroleum and natural gas rights within these lands," says a letter from David Smith, assistant deputy minister of the Energy Department.

"Land use and resource development applications in these sites will be reviewed through normal referral processes."

The areas dropped from Special Places’ designation include the Pioneer and Berland River Donald Creek sites near Hinton, and the Bear, Clairmont, and Kleskun lakes sites in the Parkland ecosystem, covering areas in central and northern Alberta.

It’s a strong signal to industry that the provincial government is now basically done with the much criticized Special Places 2000 program it launched four years ago to protect Alberta’s wilderness.

The program was to have expired at the end of 1998, but was extended for three months. Last week, Environment Minister Ty Lund served notice that it will not be extended further.

Peter Lee, a World Wildlife Fund director who is a member of the provincial co-ordinating committee for the Special Places Program, said the Pioneer and Berland River Donald Creek region is of considerable importance. Grizzly bears and the non migratory woodland caribou use the area, which is home to excellent fish habitat. The province’s woodland caribou have been in serious decline in recent years.

Lee is disturbed that the province seems to be giving up on the Special Places program, saying it has been successful in preserving only about five per cent of the land originally targeted.

"The minister of Environmental Protection may argue that there may be a period of a year for the whole thing to wind down. But the reality is they are telling industry that ‘We are winding down now boys. Let’s do the cleanup and get out of town. These places are now open for business.’"

Several conservationists quit the co-ordinating committee, complaining it was heavily biased in favour of industry.

Lee, an official in the provincial Environment Department for 18 years before joining the World Wildlife Fund, is one of the few who stayed on.

He and other committee members have been told they will no longer be needed after March 31.

"We’re being disbanded, and the program is being ended, long before we had an opportunity to consider many areas of the province for Special Places," he said Sunday. "With so much work left to do, why is the government giving up on the program and on Alberta’s best sites for natural heritage?"

The fate of other sites still being considered for Special Places is now uncertain.

Lund could not be reached for comment on Sunday.

However, the government has sent out a signal that it will not be patient in determining the fate of those places which include the Whaleback in south western Alberta, Lakeland near Lac La Biche, and Chinchaga in northeastern Alberta.

The documents show interim protection measures that have been put in place for areas still under consideration will be listed by the end of this year. Following that, it will be business as usual for the resource industry.