by Ned Jacobs

Two days before protestors were arrested at Eagleridge Bluffs this spring, 31 BC environmental scientists and consultants sent an open letter to Premier Campbell. “We cannot remain silent in the face of the substandard environmental management practices currently applied to, what your own government has referred to, as ‘the most unique ecosystem in the Sea to Sky corridor’...”
They criticized the province for accepting “piecemeal” management plans which “do not consider critical interactions and dependencies between adjacent ecosystems,” and warned that “the Eagleridge coastal bluff arbutus grove will not survive in its present form if fragmented by a major highway.”
They also charged that provincial laws, federal laws and the international convention protecting migratory birds while nesting, are being violated due to “no known mitigation measures,” and because “contracted environmental consultants have been too cursory to identify active nests.” The scientists also said that the 2003 Environmental Assessment is “deficient in scope and content,” does not refer to “rare and endangered...plant communities” and the “blue-listed northern red-legged frog known to occupy the Larsen Creek wetlands.” Baseline surveys were not carried out during all four seasons, and “a proper and thorough rewriting of the 2003 EA is essential.”
Professional integrity drove two leading international tunnelling and road construction consultants, Evert Hoek and Clair Harry Murdock, to write the premier that in their experience (which is vast) a four-lane divided tunnel would be safer and probably less costly than Kevin Falcon’s steep, winding, fog-shrouded overland route. The transportation minister (“minister responsible for promoting sprawl and car sales” would be more accurate) could not suppress the letter, which was also endorsed by nine prominent engineers.
These objections and many other appeals ran into a concrete barrier in Campbell and Falcon, who would not budge in their decision to force the 5 km Eagleridge diversion of the Sea to Sky highway on West Vancouver and its residents (80 percent opposed). After the 41-day blockade was broken on May 25 with the arrests of 23 citizens, crews employed by US construction giant Peter Kiewit and Sons worked to clearcut a 30-metre swath through the old-growth arbutus woodlands before birders could document nest sites, which might have held up work until August. Falcon declared that there were no nests in the trees that had been felled – which was absurd – and birders subsequently pinpointed a series of nests on either side of the clearcut.
Residents in earshot said it was agonizing to listen, day after day, to the clear-cutting of those exquisite groves. And for what? After more than two years of struggle, protesters knew at last that their well-informed arguments had fallen on deaf ears because the purpose of the overland route – indeed the entire Sea to Sky upgrade – is not to improve safety or even speed traffic to Whistler for the 2010 Winter Games. Those excuses allowed the government to accelerate the project by four years, which according to the auditor general has increased costs by more than half a billion dollars.
The prime motive is now clear. It is real estate development. After a government spokesperson denied there had been discussions, in June The Province newspaper quoted a confidential letter by West Vancouver’s environmental co-ordinator which said: “...It has come to our attention that the Ministry of Transportation and the private landowner [British Properties] are negotiating access from this new road to their land.” For what? A sprawling development of 1,800 luxury houses.
Squamish, hungry for property-tax revenue, is using the Sea to Sky upgrade to promote itself as a bedroom for Vancouver, and developments are planned up and down the 100 km corridor. While congestion on this route will mean fat profits for the maintenance contractor, it will also clog the Lions Gate bridge, fuelling demands for a third crossing and a downtown freeway to Highway 1.
It will worsen what it was supposed to fix: the winding two-lane stretch between Lion’s Bay and Porteau Cove will be even more dangerous, and the Eagleridge diversion will be one of the most perilous paved roads in the province.
The protesters are not giving up. Their appeal of the injunction is before the court. By locating active nests of protected birds, they have delayed the destruction of the Larsen wetlands. They continue to call for a halt to this dangerous diversion and to the breaking of our Olympic promise.
Coalition president Dennis Perry has warned that Eagleridge is the “canary in the coal mine.” Citizens who are justifiably alarmed about the Gateway program, Deltaport expansions and depletion of the Agricultural Land Reserve, and who are similarly frustrated by lies, insincere “consultations” and secretive P3s are joining forces in a regional campaign of civic education and action.
The Eagleridge protesters could have been consumed by rage and despair, but they continue to be motivated by their love of nature and concern for human safety. These defenders of our environment and the public trust deserve our full support.
Ned Jacobs, who lives in East Vancouver, was one of the 23 protesters arrested on May 25. For more information and images visit
www.eagleridgebluffs.ca

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