“The struggle for justice on Perry Ridge continues through the long standing hard work of the Perry Ridge Water Users Association and their community work toward reconciliation with Sinixt Nation.

The Board of Directors has worked under a lot of pressure this past year.

We now do have evidence that the development is on gentle over steep terrain that will drain east (see slide show. BC Timber sales is now doing reconnaissance work further along the top, which will impact the headwaters of the creeks above hundreds homes and increase the risk to our properties and water. The Association is getting a legal opinion regarding our options as it relates to the further development into headwater areas above the densely settled area on the east side of the ridge.

Legal actions require substantial funding. For the justice system to serve Canadians it must be accessible. At present, barriers exist which make it difficult for many Canadians to access the justice system. Chief Justice Madame Beverly McLachlin was the keynote speaker at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law’s Middle Income Access to Civil Justice Colloquium on Feb. 10. 2011.

McLachlin said full representation is out of the question for many, with average legal fees hovering in the range of $340 per hour. Low legal aid cut-offs have made that option equally unrealistic for the growing group caught between two financial extremes.

“Do we have adequate access to justice? I think the answer is no. Among those hardest hit are the middle class and the poor. We have wonderful justice for corporations, and for the wealthy.

But the middle class and the poor may not be able, in many situations we have found, to access our justice system,” said McLachlin.

“We can draft the best rules in the world, we can render the most enlightened decisions, but if people can’t take advantage of that body of law, if they cannot have access to it to resolve their own legal difficulties, then it is for nought,” she said.

It has been a year of steady fundraising and meeting many supportive members in the community and worldwide support.

Our fund raising committee worked hard with raffles, posters and events to help continue enabling us to look at legal options to hold the government accountable for developing on Perry Ridge.

The appeal for the Sinixt Nation to have standing in the northern 2/3′s of their traditional territory and to protect the environment on Perry Ridge is still before the courts.  The Sinixt have not yet exhausted their legal challenge and BC Timber Sales continues planning and development in the sensitive headwaters on top of the ridge.

The government continually rejects the Association’s wilderness proposals stating that under the Kootenay Land Use Plan there are NO more protected areas. Therefore the only solution is for Perry Ridge to be removed from the cut due to the increased risk development poses downstream. Please send your letters to the government demanding that the remaining intact forests on Perry Ridge above the dense settlement be removed from the cut to prevent landslides caused by increased runoff as has happened in many places in the valley and caused loss of life in close proximity to Perry Ridge.

See attached e-mail list for your convenience when you write a letter asking that Perry Ridge be removed from the cut due to the increased risk development poses downstream.

The Association looks forward to 2012 being the year that the remaining intact forests and water sources on Perry Ridge are protected for their environmental and cultural values. In our work let’s remember what the famous anthropologist Margaret Mead stated:

“A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”

Perry Ridge Fundraiser, December 10th, Passmore Hall…

Music and Dinner Celebration

Come celebrate the season and help raise legal funds to protect Sinixt Cultural Sites and Water in the Slocan Valley.

Perry Ridge December 2011 Fundraiser

Maps Link Healthy Drinking Water to Healthy Forests

Editor

New Forest Service maps link healthy drinking water to healthy forests

WASHINGTON, Nov. 9, 2011
The U.S. Forest Service today unveiled a comprehensive series of maps that illustrate for the first time the crucial role forests play in sustaining the watersheds that are most important to the quality of American surface drinking water.

The Forests to Faucets interactive maps ( http://www.fs.fed.us/ecosystemservices/FS_Efforts/forests2faucets.shtml) also identify the extent to which those watersheds are threatened by development, fire, insects and disease. Communities can use the data to help determine the important role their forests play in providing clean drinking water to urban areas.

The Forests to Faucets project will also help identify watersheds where a payment for watershed services project (http://www.fs.fed.us/ecosystemservices/pdf/Watershed_Services.pdf) may be an option for financing conservation on forest lands. The cost of treating drinking water increases 20 percent for every loss of 10 percent of forest land in a watershed.

“Spending money on forest management upstream in a watershed saves money on water treatment downstream,” said U.S. Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell. “The Forests to Faucets project provides powerful information that can help identify forest areas that play a key role in providing clean drinking water.”

The project found that Appalachian forests critically impact drinking water in East Coast cities including New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington. Forests in the Sierras in California and the Front Range in Colorado are also home to crucial watersheds that provide clean drinking water for millions of Americans.

Watersheds on national forests and grasslands are the source of 20 percent of the nation’s water supply, a value estimated to exceed $27 billion per year. Another 60 percent of the nation’s water flows from private lands.

“We expect Forests to Faucets will support rural economies by steering funding to upstream landowners, encouraging healthy forests and healthy water,” said Tidwell.

The mission of the U.S. Forest Service is to sustain the health, diversity, and productivity of the nation’s forests and grasslands to meet the needs of present and future generations. Recreational activities on our lands contribute $14.5 billion annually to the U.S. economy. The agency manages 193 million acres of public land, provides assistance to state and private landowners, and maintains the largest forestry research organization in the world.

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USDA is an equal opportunity provider, employer and lender. To file a complaint of discrimination, write: USDA, Director, Office of Civil Rights, 1400 Independence Ave., S.W., Washington, D.C. 20250-9410 or call (800) 795-3272 (voice), or (202) 720-6382 (TDD).

Free Public Presentation by Dr. Robert Sanford

A free public presentation by Dr. Robert Sanford Hydrologist

Report: Guidelines needed to protect water systems

Climate Change Threatens Canada’s Water: Report

Coordinated national and regional water conservation guidelines are required to address the detrimental impact climate change is having on Canada’s water system, according to Simon Fraser University’s Adaptation to Climate Change Team (ACT).

“The days when Canadians take an endless abundance of fresh water for granted are numbered,” warns Bob Sandford, lead author of ACT’s new report Climate Change Adaptation and Water Governance. “Increasing average temperatures, climate change impacts on weather patterns and extensive changes in land use are seriously affecting the way water moves through the hydrological cycle in many parts of Canada, which is seriously impacting water quantity and quality.”

“If Canada doesn’t become a water conservation society, water security in many parts of this country will be compromised.”

The report calls for a dramatic reform of water governance structures in Canada by all levels of government to meet the new challenges posed by a changing climate, and sets out 12 broad-based recommendations to help protect Canada’s fragile water supply.

Climate change is causing increased weather instability, leading to more frequent, deeper and persistent droughts, as well as more intense rainfall and flooding across Canada. This results in greater property damage, higher insurance costs and a greater infrastructure maintenance and replacement deficit nationally.

Today, half of every dollar paid out by insurance companies is for water damage related to extreme weather events, which will continue to increase unless government and planners undertake the deep reforms necessary to manage water differently.

The growing economic impacts of climate change on Canada were confirmed by a national study released last week by the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy (NRTEE). According to NRTEE, the costs of climate change could range from $5 billion per year in 2020 to between $21 billion and $43 billion per year in 2050, depending on global greenhouse gas emissions and domestic economic and population growth.

“Canada is coping with climate change, not adapting,” says Sandford. “Our primary response to climate change has been focussed on reducing emissions. While such action is critical, it is inadequate by itself. Current and projected atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases will result in continued climate change regardless of our success in reducing emissions. As well as cutting emissions, Canadians need to adapt to the current and anticipated effects of climate change, which requires more effective management of our precious water resources.”

Water policy in many parts of Canada has not kept pace with changing political, economic and climatic conditions. The last federal water policy was tabled in Parliament over two decades ago and has never been fully implemented. And today, less than 20 percent of Canada’s groundwater sources have been mapped.

One of the key challenges limiting effective water resource management in Canada is jurisdictional fragmentation, as legislative power over freshwater is divided between the federal government and the provinces, producing a complex regulatory web that spans First Nations, municipal, regional, provincial and federal orders of government. This has resulted in serious policy and information gaps contributing to a lack of legally enforceable water quality standards and contributing to the decline of surface and groundwater monitoring, as well as water research in Canada.

The complexity, fragmentation and lack of coordination of water policies in Canada creates policies that are often inconsistent with respect to drinking water quality standards, ecosystem protection, allocation rights and climate change adaptation, concludes the Climate Change Adaptation and Water Governance report.

“The reform of water governance structures in Canada is essential if we want to successfully manage and protect our water supplies and minimize climate-related impacts on our environment, our economy and our society,” says Sandford.

Climate Change Adaptation and Water Governance Recommendations

The federal, provincial and municipal governments establish national and regional water conservation guidelines that values water appropriately and promotes its wise use and conservation

Governments at all levels formally allocate water to meet nature’s needs and ensure its use is consistent with sustaining resilient and functioning ecological systems

Strengthen and harmonize flood protection strategies nationally

Government at all levels should formally support the design and sustainability of water supply and waste disposal infrastructure based on ecological principles and adaptation to a changing climate, with special attention to First Nations communities

National and regional water monitoring needs to be improved to provide reliable, accessible, up-to-date information needed to effectively manage water in a changing climate

The role of education in public understanding of the importance of water to our way of life in Canada should be recognized and formally supported

Water must be recognized as a human right integral to security and health

A collaborative water governance model should be supported to holistically managing watersheds

Governments at all levels must recognize the importance of groundwater, understand and value its role in creating a sustainable future for Canada

Develop coordinated long-term national strategies for sustainably managing water in the face of climate change

Canada, in association with provincial, territorial and Aboriginal governments, should fully articulate and actively promote a new Canadian water ethic

Create a non-statutory national water commission to advance policy reform and to champion the new Canadian water ethic

For the full report, please go to www.sfu.ca/act

Mega Pit Mine planned for Ontario, 2,500 acres wide and 200 feet deep…
People of Ontario concerned for their Water!

Do you care about the safety and integrity of Ontario’s drinking water? We do and so should you. Check out this piece to get the facts on the Highland Companies’ application for a mega quarry in the…
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Sinixt Legal case Re:
Sunshine Logging (2004) Ltd. Tom Prior et. al.
BCSC File No. 15939 (Nelson)‏

Sinixt Appeal Documents (pdf)