ED STRUZIK, JOURNAL STAFF WRITER
Edmonton, The Edmonton Journal, November 13, 1998.

REPORT KEPT UNDER WRAPS

The flagship of Alberta’s Special Places program is so badly carved up by oil and gas, forestry and other human activities that its ecological integrity is in danger of collapsing, suggests a government report that was never made public.

Lakeland in east central Alberta was touted as a "lifeline to an ecologically sustainable future" and a model for Alberta’s Special Places 2000 program when the Duke of Edinburgh was on hand with Premier Ralph Klein as environment minister in 1992 to create the 590 square km provincial park and recreational area.

Special Places was intended to end the feuds between developers and environmentalists in the province by providing some measure of protection for areas of special ecological and heritage significance.

But so far, it has been a big disappointment to conservationists. All but two groups in the province have quit the committees that were assigned the task of consulting on the selection process.

A government commissioned report by Calgary based consultant Richard Thomas, the former district planner for the Lakeland area, caused a stir last spring when it suggested that deforestation rates in many parts of Alberta "almost match and exceed those reported for Amazonia."

His report on the Boreal Forest Natural Region for the Special Places 2000 Program so alarmed the government that it censored the document and restricted is distribution.

Environmentalists say they have tried unsuccessfully to get Thomas’s complete report through the Access to Information Act.

But a portion of the report obtained by The Journal indicates that in addition to oil, gas and logging, roads, pipelines and seismic lines now crisscross three quarters of the Lakeland area.

Thomas further points out that while Lakeland’s recreational area once contained 65 per cent of the region’s old growth spruce forest, clear cut logging has removed almost half of that already.

Thomas further warns that intense sports fishing, native trapping, illegal all terrain vehicle traffic, unauthorized float plane landings and frequent low level flights into the Canadian Forces base at Cold Lake are putting heavy strains on fish and wildlife populations in the area.

In light of these and other factors, Thomas recommends the government conduct research to carefully appraise the "intactness" of ecological sites. He also suggests that it is "clearly unwise and naïve to make the blanket statement" that Lakeland still constitutes a real contribution to the Special Places Program.

Thomas refused to comment on the report when contacted although he acknowledged that the chapter on Lakeland was reduced to four lines in the version that went to the public.

Vivian Pharis, the former director of the Alberta Wilderness Association, says she has tried three times to get Thomas’s full report through the Access to Information Act.

"It’s clear they don’t want any of this out because what’s happening in Lakeland is an embarrassment to what the province originally claimed they wanted to achieve with Special Places," Pharis said. "The sad part is that what is happening to Lakeland is happening to other important ecological sites throughout the province."

Jim Law, a spokesperson for Alberta Environmental Protection, acknowledged that industrial activity is occurring within the Lakeland region. But he insists that the Special Places program always recognized the importance of creating a climate for attracting investment and producing jobs.

Law said he doesn’t know why Thomas’s full report was never made public. "Possibly because his personal opinion doesn’t reflect that of the department or Albertans."

Peter Lee worked for Alberta public lands and environment for 18 years before he took on the job of Alberta director for the World Wildlife Fund, one of only two conservation groups that has stuck with the Special Places consultation process.

He says no one can deny what Thomas is saying because Thomas used information that the government collected and provided to him.