Stump(ed)!

A hot spring-day. I walk along the trail - green-on-green, except for deep logging-truck-gashes up the hill, next to the trail, just past the trestle-bridge (nobody talks about that!) - looking forward to the skunk-cabbage farther on, and long-green hair streaming around my legs in the cool creek.

There is talk that smoking skunk-cabbage root - while supposedly poisonous or possibly because of it - would get one high. I never try, neither does anyone I know. I do love the bitter smell from cupped-hands blossoms, the lacquered leaves!

Then across the highway to Cottonwood Lake. I can't deny: at its best with nobody else there. The still water a bit scary - stump-monsters below! - therefore - just in case - I stay close enough to the float. Stretching out on its warmth to doze after.

Never thinking about whose land this is - quite naturally mine while I am here - but vaguely aware that some unidentified part is privately owned.
Same trees, same water.

It has been public(ly available) info since Feb. 2018 that logging around all this is to happen - most likely sooner than later. While the automatic reflex may be wanting an immediate study on the (possible) environmental impact - nothing!
The EcoSociety?

In the meantime - in an attempt to leave my skunk-cabbage, my creek, my lake, my float as they are: there may! have been negotiations - initiated by the RDCK - when and how and reaching how far we are not told - for buying this area from the owner, who bought it specifically to log for the highest possible profit. Which he has a right to!

What we do know: neither Nelson nor Salmo - necessary participants in any such deal - are ready to participate financially. Regardless - the RDCK, Council and the City's CAO won't talk about more because of the "sensitivity" of the negotiations. What negotiations at this point after what we also are not told.

MLA Mungall has not responded to invites on the matter.
Go figure!

And while for nearly a year no public momentum has developed - not for the lack of news-reports: on Dec. 19 a sudden

"Emergency meeting energizes supporters of Cottonwood Lake recreation area"  Nelson Daily, Dec. 20
and
"Meeting hears appeal for community group to buy Cottonwood Lake land"  Nelson Star, Dec. 20

All this rather the faster they go - the behinder they get:
1.
Serious logging in/of the area supposedly will start around Mar. 2019. So what seems an "emergency" now didn't have to be if the public - or specifically interested individuals - had focused on this sooner. 
The RDCK? Who knows.
2.
This meeting's organizer does not necessarily come from altruistic motives only: he lives nearby!
3.
There is no workable "community group" as yet. Just putting one together - acceptably structured - will take considerable time, energy and focus. Getting swept along in a righteous, feel-good meeting is one thing - longer-term commitment to minutiae quite another.
Sooo... Councillor Logtenberg claiming that such group would be "faster on its feet" with negotiations than the RDCK is not only a bit too chest-thumping but also possibly eyebrow-raising in these here Smallishtown politics.
4.
The RDCK and several Council members are present at the meeting: but they still won't divulge specifics on the(ir) non-deal, even though clearly a non-starter.
Curiouser and curiouser - supposedly negotiations between the RDCK/City Hall and the property-owner are still ongoing - why else the secrecy: yet this private bunch - comprising whomever and (some) councillors, run by whom? - is ready to create a parallel? reality of also wanting to buy the property?
Presenting but not representing. Neither fish nor fowl.
Or what!
5.
Would the owner even talk to such an impromptu group at this stage of his game?
6.
Yet Councillor Logtenberg also enthusiastically proposes "crowdfunding (such as a GoFundMe campaign) and at the same time apply(ing) for grants from all levels of government, the Columbia Basin Trust, other funding bodies, and private donors." (Star)
Dream on! Having little experience in such undertakings - even just City matters: he seems naive, seeing that there's absolutely nothing in place to support any funding-applications - while logging is to commence in earnest in a couple of months. Meaning - the very experienced owner is set on go! 
With a solid business plan!
7.
While councillors know how much funding might be needed: if they don't talk about it to their (possible) group - why should anyone even consider contributing financially, with basic info deliberately withheld?
For overall transparent doability: launching another - funded somehow - plan now would first necessitate cancellation of the one originated by the RDCK/City Hall. 
And they communicating accumulated info to the group as a whole.
Everybody's role clearly defined in whatever-this-is - don't hold your breath.
8.
Ultimately - collectively buying a piece of land in the neighborhood will have no impact on logging in the suburbs. It is an expensive, self-indulgent gesture. 
This must be about province-wide legislation.
9.
What is it with these people?

   

While the large number of attendees at this "emergency meeting" attests to (a sudden) interest in the matter: how many have actually spent time regularly around the lake - if any - hiking-in quietly, instead of driving-in-and-out conveniently.
If more were hiking along the trail: the logging between bridge and highway could have received (more) attention/concern long ago.

Be honest now: what's more important - Cottonwood Lake or Xmas shopping? 

As much as I want the area to remain untouched-by-human-hands, just to have it there there when I am ready to go infrequently - to paraphrase Councillor Logtenberg, when he sees no problem with accumulated parking-fines of 16 years flushed down the toilet:

"Sometimes you just have to suck it up and move on." 

Nothing remains the same - even in Nelson.



Image Credits:
Bill Metcalfe
spoonflower.com
thecolorsofwater.com
amcaluminum.com


City Council
nelsoncouncil@nelson.ca

Ramona Faust, RDCK
rfaust@rdck.bc.ca

John Dooley, Mayor
jdooley@nelson.ca