ST. JOHN’S, Nfld. – The Newfoundland Supreme Court has ruled against the province and Corner Brook Pulp and Paper and decided that under no circumstances is trucking logs through the park allowed.

The company’s trucks had been hauling logs along the abandoned rail bed through the Main River forest management district in the T’railway Park.

The firm didn’t exactly sneak around to do this either, they were issued a permit about three years ago from Sandra Kelly, then minister of Tourism Culture and Recreation. They hadn’t used the railway in over a year, but planned to resume the practice next year. According to forest management superintendent for the company George Van Dusen, the permit was still valid.

“We talked to the Parks and Recreation division about using the railway instead of building more roads. Upgrading it, instead of building more roads,” he explains.

Everything was fine until the Newfoundland and Labrador Wildlife Federation caught wind of the agreement and objected. When the Newfoundland Railway was disbanded the rail bed land was turned over to the crown. It was deemed a linear park and designated part of the Trans-Canada Trail, which runs from Newfoundland to B.C.

According to the Newfoundland Parks Act there is to be no logging whatsoever to occur in the park.

While the timber haulers argued they weren’t logging, just trucking, the judge consulted a copy of Webster’s Dictionary that is over 100 years old to define logging.

Justice Leo Barry pointed out the strict definition of logging not only means cutting trees down, but also the transportation of those trees. So the trucking of trees downed in other areas still amounted to logging in the protected parkland.

Rick Bouzan, president of the Wildlife Federation, says his concerns over the operation are not new, but through corporate wranglings, he’d been unable to pin it down on anything.

Every five years, he says, Corner Brook Pulp and Paper has to have a five year operating plan done, which is subject to an environmental assessment. Every year it also has to submit a one-year annual operations plan. When the plan was first brought up for review the federation voiced concerns.

“They came in saying, they have to change that and they have to change this and by the end of three-and-a-half years, they basically had everything they wanted to have done at the end of the five year plan,” says Bouzan. “The government rubber stamped it, allowing them to do whatever they wanted even though they aren’t allowed to amend the plan.”

He says the federation members were furious the company was allowed to haul wood out of the area, which was granted Canada Heritage Status. Bouzan tried to meet with both the government and the company.

“Their goal was, ‘Here comes Rick Bouzan…we’ll tie him up in meetings now for the next year, until we do what we want to then we’ll say okay we agree with you, oops it’s all done.’ So I hauled them into court,” says Bouzan.

There Bouzan read from the Environment Assessment Act and the Forestry Act to illustrate their point and the Supreme Court ruled in their favor saying the Minister doesn’t have the authority to issue them a permit.

Van Dusen says that Corner Brook Pulp and Paper was the only one using the railbed with a permit, but there are plenty of people doing it without official approval. That’s why they were targeted.

Bouzan says that people can’t even snowshoe on the rail bed, so why should they be able to haul logs on it?

The federation also complains the company wanted to harvest the old growth lumber from the Newfoundland Pine Martin. Bouzan says that the trees need to survive and that people shouldn’t have the right to wipe out any unique flora or fauna.

“We were using the railway for trucking wood through the park,” stresses Van Dusen. “We never had any intention of harvesting wood in the park.” n