Road Rage

There's no telling what this road might lead to.

Dean Crocker fears it may lead to the demise of his business.

Crocker owns an outfitting lodge approximately eight km into the backwoods near Clarenville.

The Department of Natural Resources, Forestry sector, is gearing up to start work on a road that will make the timber adjacent to Beaver Pond, near North West Brook, accessible for cutting.

The area was targeted as a priority for harvest in the department's five-year forest management plan(2007-2011) for forestry unit 2, due to the advanced age and species content of the timberstands in the area. The block contains approximately 38,200 cubic metersand harvesting should be completed over the next five years.

To provide access to this timber stand, the department plans to upgrade 4.2 km of Tower Road, widen 5.8 km of the train railway and construct 2 km of new accessroad near Beaver Pond.

The old railway bed is the narrow trail Crocker follows to his lodge, using his all-terrain vehicle. He brings in tourists from all over the world, taking them on biggame hunts, wilderness adventures and snowmobile safaris, giving them a feel for the remote life - all via the railway bed.

Apart from the railway there's little sign of man, once you reach the depths of the forest near Crocker's lodge.

He's heard rumors of this impending road development for some time, but never imagined the day would come.

"Nobody ever contacted me or let me know anything about it so I just figured well... it's not going to happen," Crocker admits.

Natural Resources Minister Kathy Dunderdale wasn't available for comment on the issue. According toan email reply, provided by the department's public relations officer Tracey Barron; in September 2007, the forest management plan was registered with theDepartment of Environment and Conservation for Environmental Assessment (EA), which includes inviting public comment. It was released from theEA process in December and is publicly available.

This doesn't cut it for Crocker, who feels he was left in the dark on the matter, until after tenders were awarded to the construction companies and the project was basically underway.

"In my opinion, the reason they didn't come to me and give me a chance to speak on this matter is because they didn't want our voice in there. If I spoke, then right away tourism wasn't going to sign off on it.

"It's not like they didn't know I was here. When I first started at this two years ago Natural Resources was here at my door every second day checking for licenses and stuff like that," Crocker says.

It's a matter of unfortunate oblivion for Crocker, as he suspects the Department of Tourism didn't even realize his business was there when they signed off on the plan.

The mountain to be harvested is in plain view from the front deck of Crocker's lodge.

"If you cut one stick of wood between me and that mountain then you are affecting the total value of this tourism industry to me," Crocker contends.

His business thrives on the natural state of the environment. The mental vision of construction workers and wood harvesters and heavy equipment ruling this land turns his stomach. He can only imagine what his guests might think of it, or how it will affect the wildlife.

"Nobody wants to wake up in the morning to look at a tree farmer and an excavator on the side of the hill.

"Even though this is so close to Clarenville, you still feel like you're in the middle of nowhere out here. It's a total experience. It's not all about the hunting; people come for the scenery as much as anything," Crocker explains.

While the road is being developed, primarily, to make the forest accessible to logging, Crocker is convinced that it will lead to much more than that. When the tracks were lifted on the railway a few years ago he still recalls the jump in numbers of hunters and anglers who began to wander all the way in from the highway on ATVs. He can only imagine what a full-fledged road will bring.

"Once that road goes in there, what wilderness we've got is as good as gone. Once the access gets in here, then this won't be any different than people driving down through the middle of Clarenville.

Crocker's fears are as real as real gets, and he intends to take his concerns to those in charge of this new road. His business may only employ three or four people but he feels that its significance needs to be known, for what it's worth.

"We may delay it or curtail it, I don't know if we'll ever stop it. But we should definitely get a voice in on what gets done here.

"I'm just looking to at least stop this for right now so we can have some discussions and find something that's agreeable to everybody. Once this process starts it's going to be a hard thing to stop."

Crocker takes credit for helping to bring a lot of business to this area.

Apart from his own exclusive clients, he says he works with other local businesses to arrange adventure packages, spreading the money to many different towns and businesses like boat tours, golf courses, Historic sites and hotels, to name a few.

"If you had to look at the value of what all that forest is worth there, compared to what the tourism value is over the next 10 years, then I'd say that this is worth 10 times what that is."

He's not a tree hugger, but he does believe in having a certain amount of respect for the woods and wildlife. He's aware that forestry is referring to the targeted area as being "advanced" in age, but in his mind that's not the case, they just want the wood and they'll do or say whatever it takes to get at it.

"If that's the case then why can't they turn it into a domestic cutting area, where the cabin owners in the area can go and thin out the trees?" Crocker suggests.

He hasn't yet had the chance to properly voice his concerns to Natural Resources. Although it's late in the game, he's not willing to step to the side.

Government has halted construction of the road until the spring bear hunt is over. Public Relation director Tracey Barron also noted in an email, they are considering mitigative measures toalleviate Crocker's concerns.

gsimms@thepacket.ca