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Kirksland Restoration Society |
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August 17 |
Two large canoes and four small ones made up the flotilla of our River Tour. |
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September 2 |
Bad
news on the funding front, it seems our partners have decided not to go to the auction. If you care about the
Kirksland, the Hoffert's Property, the privately-owned benchland around, please call your MLA and express your
feelings, help loosen the strings binding our governmental hands! Maybe there is still a chance for the Community and the Wildlife to come-out ahead. |
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September 3 |
And
the news isn't much better from the Government Institutions, who have just heard of us in the last two weeks
although we have been working for this land-save for 3 years now. Some of us will be there to mark the breaking-up of an era - a peaceful, productive time that saw people share the land with wildlife! |
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September 10 |
Now we have an aboriginal trail broken
in 3 pieces, a flume on three different owner's ground, a wildlife corridor coming right-out into fragmented
"real-estate", what are we supposed to do with that? At the auction I talked to the planner for the
"developer". He said that we should have told them about this, well they had our pamplet and material
from April 18, 1997 on, but they would NOT talk about the northern half of Kirksland. The prices at auction represented the expectations of the new buyers: a concern from Calgary paid $2900/acre, $2000/acre, and $1850/acre for the 850 acres just north of Edgewater. They reported the buy as a "goldmine". Their plans were apparently along Golf Course lines. Developments along this line would bring people and heavy changes to the ground-cover to the critical winter-range. There is also a preconception amoungst some Albertan developers that the ALR is going to be history after the next election. We certainly hope not. Where as Alberta is almost all benchland, the Upper Columbia is mountain, hill or river, except for the invaluable winter range and working-land comprising the benchlands. That is why the ALR is so important here. Water was not mentioned at the auction at all, except that water-skiing was good on the Columbia (a protected wetlands). Other buyers quickly brought the price per acre down to $700, with an average of $1077/acre being paid for a total of $6,099,000 approximately for the north block. There were no local buyers that I saw. It was bought for either $3 Million or $10 Million depending on which statement is true. There were a surprising number of people at the auction, probably around 285, at nice tables with a bottle of wine, a movie of the property running, and several excitable runners who hooted and hollered the bids to the master-auctioneer. No real buyers' excitement developed, however, and gradually we saw Kirksland broken-up to 9 new owners who can't have much of a water supply (the river there being downstream to four sewer systems) or hope of developing under the present regulations. All this time, the regulatory body of the Kirks Ranch auction sale was in Calgary, the Real Estate Council of Alberta. Our representations to our own government agencies were not relayed to them. Their branch seems to be rightly concerned about the effects that unchecked land-speculation can have on the integrity of rural values. It's time for our two governments to work out whose responsibility it is: does an Alberta agent judge the importance of BC resident's concerns about their surroundings, or does the BC real-estate agency pick-up the traces and guide the wagon, steering it away from impending disintegration? It has been a long two weeks, but the campaign has to go on. Not many places have such a rooted, historical land use as does Edgewater. This land was all put together for the needs of the settlement here in the first place, it was projected as a "commonage" of non-irrigated pasture. (history of Edgewater tapes, documents and notes) |
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September 12 |
Marketing
and promotion were the key factors in the Kirksland auction. After months of a media blitz extending,
I am told, from Terrace to New Zealand, and huge billboards out here, the actual sale was set-up as a social event
with important dignitaries being introduced. The KRS reportedly got the ear of government in Victoria during the last days of the telephone campaign. We apparently have some people pulling for us. I think it would be wise to pursue the goals of the KRS especially now that attention has now been gained and attempt to have the Luxor Trail, the Game Corridors, and the Flume protected by covenant, showing the respect that these features should rightfully enjoy from all the citizens of B.C. and giving them protection from the agressive marketing methods now invading our valley. Some revisions have to be made to the Real Estate regulations so that the representations made by public societies have a positive effect on protecting public values during these massive breakdowns of protected land in the ALR and Managed Forest catagories. Decisions should not be made in Calgary on BC affairs, especially without representation from the people here. The breakdown of Kirksland could be fair-warning: valley supporters are urged to write or phone to our MLA Hon. Jim Doyle, at 342 4428, the B.C. Realty Council at 1 800 663 7867, or 604 660 2947 and to visit this website for updates as the situation develops... |
