After watching two orphaned cougars get hauled off to captivity, it’s time to talk about Alberta’s ethics and conflict of interest... again

🧵 Two years ago, we did a post about concerns raised over Todd Loewen, a Hunting Outfitter Co. beneficiary, being put in charge of Alberta’s wildlife.

The ethics commissioner denied the concern and Loewen soon after, allowed trophy hunting outside of hunting season.

Yesterday our fears were realized. @westfraserEWP has confirmed their intentions to clear-cut Moose Mountain / West Bragg Recreation Areas and their plan is massive (~833 Soccer Fields)! @westfraserEWP Starting in 2026, the following trails will either pass through, or next to clearcuts:
Fullerton Loop
Snakes & Ladders
Bobcat
Sugar Pony
Strange Brew
Snowy Owl
Ranger Summit
Sugar Daddy
Sugar Mama
Pneuma
Race of Spades
7-27
Elbow Valley
Sulphur Springs

The irony in justifying a clearcut logging operation on top of Alberta’s most popular recreation area, because it brings in money, isn’t lost on us.

calgaryherald.com/news/local-new… The quote for, “$32 million into its coffers and add $225 million to Alberta’s GDP.” is in reference to the entire forest management agreement signed with SLS spanning 3,511km.

The area that we’re asking not to log is 9km2.

cochranenow.com/articles/first…

What is happening with the massive clear-cut logging plans in Kananaskis???

...we try to provide an update

1/ Moose Mountain and West Bragg Trail Networks were built through donations and decades of hard volunteer labour.

Despite it being built on crown land and supported entirely through volunteer donations, the UCP added the $15/day or $90 K-Pass Fee to use this area.

/2

This article is so damning...

The teams tasked with preventing and fighting wildfires across AB have been overwhelmingly unprepared for this year’s wildfires, a direct result of the UCP's efforts to dismantle and defund AB Wildfire."

thenarwhal.ca/alberta-wildfi… “Maybe we couldn’t have prevented the starts and rate of spread, but we’re running at a 50% capacity to contain these wildfires,” says a firefighting crew leader who’s currently working on the frontlines. “We don’t have enough resources, period.”

The Gov just announced $8 Million dollars to be given to two trails groups to build and maintain OHV trails.

1/ 🧵 When the gov first announced the Kananaskis Pass, minister Nixon had said that OHV users in Kananaskis would be exempt because a separate Trail Fee would be coming soon.

When the Trails Act was announced, the Trail Fee had disappeared.

Where’s the snow?!?? You’re probably sick of hearing your ski buddies whine about this but are they justified in sounding the alarm?

Well without a doubt and despite a good start, it’s really dry out there, especially compared to last year. While Kananaskis is definitely at the bottom end of normal, what is really abnormal is the Bow River Headwaters.

Unless we get a really wet spring, the talk of 2023 will be drought and wildfires. Flooding, not so much… despite it being the 10yr anniversary.

After pressure to show where the Pass money went, Alberta Parks released the following…

We have questions. -Staffing - This increased where? Parks budget was cut.

-Operating Facilites - This increased where? Parks budget was cut.

-6 CO’s were added, this cost $1.5M: $250k each? Alberta Average CO salary = $71,932, w/ benefits, pension, equipment max $126k Park’s Budget was cut.

According to this map, we have to pay for all of the non-motorized areas in Kananaskis now but McLean Creek Off Highway Vehicle area (an area that often has massive bush parties, wrecked vehicles, destroyed land and garbage left in the wilderness), is free. So it will now cost $90 to leave these tracks in Kananaskis...

There are so many issues with a developers plan to DOUBLE the population of Canmore.

The most alarming is wildfire!

vimeo.com/517408827/d849… The proposal lies in the middle of a predominantly high/extreme hazard area

Wow!!! Lougheed’s coal policy is back in effect!

fb.watch/3xd-c0Bl4G/ @CBCFletch asking the important questions... What impact will this have on projects that received exploration permits?

No future approvals pending consultation. With respect to current exploration, it's up to the companies on how they manage their coal explorations.

Sparwood, a Coal Mine Town across the BC border produced a report on its liveability,

“Liveability Study - What We Learned Report”

I hope we can learn from the shocking details in the thread below...

sparwood.civicweb.net/document/87409… Air quality:

“visible dirty streets, decks & patios”

“lack of concern about air pollution”

“Pollution and air quality is getting bad. there is a thick layer of coal dust that sticks to the snow that makes you wonder what is in our lungs.”

After the gov got caught trying to remove park’s protective status and sell off our parks, they used our tax dollars to create a website that told us we didn’t see what we saw... now they’re doing the same thing with coal mining.

Albertans are smarter than this! Our concern has never been with Category 1 land that has duplicate protective status. Our concern is with Category 2 land that was protected from Strip Mining under Lougheed’s Coal Policy.

Australian coal companies are investing heavily in Canadian coal.

Canadians are basically cold Aussies and Alberta is hurting for jobs, so why not sacrifice some mountains, rivers, wildlife and invite our cousins to come build coal mines??? Read on… Grassy Mtn Coal Proj is 1 of many coal mines applying for approval since the gov rescinded the Coal Policy banning strip mining in the headwaters. So who owns Grassy Mtn? Benga Mines, a subsidiary of Riversdale Resources, controlled by Hancock Prospecting, owned by Gina Rinehart

We want to try and address how HUGE the open-pit coal mine issue really is...

It's hard to envision how MASSIVE mines are. Here is BC's operational Teck mine (pink) next to Alberta's coal leases in the Livingstone Range (orange). They're similar but how big are they? There are 5 separate mine sites along 88km of the Elk Valley. You'd have to hike 86km to walk the perimeter of the largest site and it takes up 141sq/km of the once pristine valley.

Those are some big numbers but it's still hard to visualize... how big is that?

Thanks for acknowledging that you heard the thousands of people that are outraged over coal mines @sonyasavage but we weren't asking for you to cancel a fraction of the leases in Cat 2 lands... we were asking for you to reinstate Lougheed's Coal Policy that protected Cat 2 lands If rescinding the policy was simply updating and modernizing the Coal policy without removing protections, as @JasonNixonAB has claimed, then why not make the policy clear. Instead of, virtually no open pit strip mines in Category 2 lands... just say there will be none!

By now you've seen panicked posts about Coal Mines being approved in the Rocky Mountains with no public consultation. Where? What? WHY?

Here's a short breakdown along with a great map to visualize how many leases there are in some of the most pristine and fragile environments -44 years ago Con Premier Lougheed introduced a Coal Policy to protect AB's Rocky Mtns / Foothills. This policy categorized the land to protect the most important and fragile landscapes.
Cat 1 banned coal development.
Cat 2 banned open pit mines
Cat 3/4 were less restrictive