Joanne Hatherly, Canwest News Service, Friday, June 12, 2009 The second-largest estuary in the province -- and the largest on the Island -- is now in the hands of a national conservation group. Ducks Unlimited Canada, a non-profit wetland conservation organization, will announce today that after a 20-year effort, it has purchased the Chemainus Estuary, 12 kilometres north of Duncan, from a major paper producer.
The organization ranks the 200-hectare estuary, where the Chemainus River meets the ocean, as second among the province's 442 estuaries as a critical migratory habitat for waterfowl. The area provides food, resting and breeding areas for waterfowl. Ducks Unlimited ranks the Fraser River as the most important in the province, while the Cowichan and Nanaimo estuaries are ranked third and fourth respectively. Les Bogdan, Ducks Unlimited's B.C. manager of operations, said the property was first offered to the organization 20 years ago for $1 million by the St. Dennes family, but a forest company was able to put in a higher bid. The property changed hands several times, and each time eluded the group. This time around, however, the group was able to buy the property from Catalyst Paper Corporation for $3 million with the help of contributions from the vendor, B.C. Trust for Public Lands, and international partnerships in which the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service matches donations. About 50 hectares of the 200 hectares at Chemainus Estuary was leased by the forest and pulp company owners to local farmers. Ducks Unlimited plans to place conservation covenants on those lots, then sell them to the tenants. The purchase was made in consultation with North Cowichan District and the three First Nations groups in the area. © Cowichan Valley Citizen 2009 Ducks Unlimited buys Chemainus Estuary from Catalyst for about $3 millionBy Peter Rusland, Cowichan News Leader and Pictorial, June 11, 2009 Ducks Unlimited has bagged ecologically diverse Chemainus Estuary from Catalyst Paper for about $3 million. Ducks’ members and brass, Catalyst executives plus politicians, Native leaders and locals flocked to a tidal bank for Thursday’s official news. Ducks spokesman Les Bogdan pegged the spectacular estuary, sitting about halfway between Crofton and Chemainus, as Ducks’ most targeted of 442 wetlands, second only to the mainland’s Fraser River Estuary. “This was the missing piece in the puzzle,” he said of the estuary buy complementing Ducks’ habitat lands in Nanaimo and Cowichan River estuaries. Public use and more will be set out in an estuary management plan. A conservation covenant will ensure some traditional farming around the 200-hectare estuary will continue, he said. “It was surplus land to mill operations,” Vesey said. “We wanted to see it go to one party (Ducks) rather sold separately to various farmers.” Final legal details are still being ironed out about the 520-acre purchase, Bogdan said, but Ducks’ purchase, some 20 years in the making, was good news to North Cowichan Mayor Tom Walker. “Our council owns Chemainus Lake and it all ties in,” he said of valley habitat. “North Cowichan is very green and we’re looking to protect as much biodiversity as we can within municipal boundaries.” The buy bodes well for birds too; Ducks staff reckons Chemainus Estuary and adjacent lands host 1,000 waterfowl daily during migration and over-wintering. Ducks many partners in wetland preservation include the Nature Conservancy of Canada. "The NCC is proud to be part of the community that has come together to support DU in protecting the Chemainus Estuary,” said NCC’s Jan Garnett. “Important conservation successes like this don’t happen quickly or alone. Today we celebrate this latest addition to the a growing network of protected woodlands and wetlands in the Cowichan Valley that are only possible because of this region's strong conservation partnerships." Wally Smith, a director of the B.C. Milk Producers, also cheered Ducks’ for recognizing the importance of agricultural and wildlife lands. Dump kept out of deal Catalyst Paper kept a section around Swallowfield Farm where it dumped tons of fly ash and wood room bark in the late 1970s and ‘80s. The dump was closed in the ‘90s. The mill’s narrow section has leachate collection and treatment, Catalyst’s Michelle Vesey said. Results from mill monitoring for toxins at the site are sent to B.C.’s environment ministry. Halalt chief upset about Catalyst's sale of estuary to Ducks Unlimited  Halalt Chief James Thomas explains his disappointment June 11 about Catalyst's sale of Chemainus Estuary to Ducks Unlimited despite Halalt's expression of interest in the land several years ago with the company's Crofton mill manager. Peter W. Rusland By Peter Rusland, Cowichan News Leader and Pictorial, June 12, 2009 The chief of the Halalt First Nation is angry about Catalyst paper’s sale of the Chemainus Estuary to Ducks Unlimited. Chief James Thomas told the crowd — including Catalyst and Ducks brass — at Thursday’s creek side unveiling he respects preserving the sprawling wetland but believes his people had first right of refusal on the 200-hectare property. “We met with Catalyst about this land four or five years ago,” Thomas said. He was also dismayed the $3-million sale now prevents the estuary, part of the Halalt’s traditional lands, from being part of treaty talks between Thomas’ people and the provincial and federal governments. The chief told the News Leader Pictorial the Halalt had talks with Catalyst’s former Crofton mill boss Don McKendrick about possibly gaining and saving the estuary lands for food production, traditional plant gathering and more. Thomas believes the dialogue with McKendrick wasn’t raised by Catalyst agents during bargaining with Ducks Unlimited. “We asked Catalyst for the first right of refusal. We thought we had a gentleman’s agreement.” Catalyst spokesman Bob Lindstrom indicted the estuary sale was fair ball. “We respect First Nations’ rights but it’s still fee-simple land.” “The other sore spot,” said Thomas, “is the feds and the province were part of this deal and they’re not protecting anything for the treaty process.” Environment Canada and B.C.’s ministries of environment and agriculture are conservation partners with Ducks in the B.C. Trust for Public Lands. |
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