August 22, 2016

Journalist Jennifer Thuncher of The Squamish Chief newspaper interviews 2020 co-founder Chris Ludwig about the perception there is a double standard employed by the Ministry of Environment. The one for commercial interests allows trespass by mechanized park users into the wilderness conservation zone, the trammelling of park values and the extirpation of mountain goats from their ungulate winter range.

Read the Squamish Chief article here: http://www.squamishchief.com/news/local-news/double-standard-in-the-sea-to-sky-corridor-group-says-1.2326819

The article relies on research conducted by 2020. See the Spearhead heli-skiing custom map here: Spearhead Heli-skiing Custom Map

2020 Commentary

Ministry of Environment staff continue to deny that the heli-ski permit trespasses into Garibaldi Park's wilderness conservation zone. Yet, 2020 used the park zoning map in the government's own 1990 master plan for Garibaldi Park as the basis for the zone's boundary. It used the Spearhead heli-skiing permit boundary from the park use permit, the contents of which 2020 won from the government through a freedom of information request.

2020 overlayed the zone boundary and the permit area in Google Earth. Using Google Earth's sophisticated overlay technology, the overlays were stretched and oriented to ground reference points and the result is the custom map posted in the article and referenced above.

2020 is confident in the accuracy of its map but the Ministry of Environment continues to say the heli-ski permit area is entirely outside the wilderness conservation zone. We at 2020 challenge the Ministry of Environment to produce the map that proves it.

We suspect such a map does not exist. It leads us to one of two conclusions. Ministry of Environment never overlayed the heli-skiing permit area on the zoning boundary map so were unaware that the permit area trespasses into the wilderness conservation zone. Or, they were aware but approved the trespass anyway. The first suggests due diligence was never done, the second they willfully ignored their own zoning for the benefit of commercial interests.

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