4 Castle logging protesters arrested
CBC News | Posted: February 1, 2012 11:02 PM | Last Updated: February 1, 2012
Environmentalists and locals had set up a protest camp in January to block loggers
Four people have been arrested at a logging protest near the Crowsnest Pass in the southwest corner of Alberta.
When RCMP arrived, about 50 people — including protesters, police, media and officials from the Alberta government’s Sustainable Resource Development (SRD) — were at the site.
A protest camp was first set up last month to block access to logging roads in the area. Last week, people were served notice that they were considered trespassers.
RCMP said most of the protesters voluntarily left on their own today. Four others were arrested and taken to a local RCMP detachment and released. No charges were laid.
The battle between the conservationists and logging project in southwestern Alberta has been coming to a head for a while now.
The government is going ahead with the logging plans in the Castle Wilderness area, work contracted out to Cochrane-based Spray Lake Sawmills which is set to harvest 120 hectares of trees in the area before the end of April.
Protestors have been fighting it for months and set up a picket line near the proposed site in January, delaying the logging.
Protestors say the Castle area, which has seen little logging over the past two decades, is an important ecological and recreational area for Albertans.