 |
|
100 MILE HOUSE – The provincial government is granting $800,000 to the Cariboo-Chilcotin Beetle Action Coalition to help southern interior B.C. communities prepare and recover from mountain pine beetle impacts, Cariboo South MLA Walt Cobb announced today.
“The
$800,000 is an initial allocation to further land base and community
development planning and to invest in economic infrastructure stabilization and
enhancement, education and activities designed to support new and existing
small businesses,” said Cobb. “We’re hoping the strategies they develop will be
transferable to other regions.”
“The coalition was established to ensure that communities in the
Cariboo-Chilcotin remain fully engaged in beetle mitigation measures at all
levels,” said Williams Lake Mayor and chair of the Cariboo-Chilcotin Beetle
Action Coalition Rick Gibson. “I’m
proud to say that we have scientists and technologists and all the commercial,
environmental and entrepreneurial expertise we need right here in our region.”
100 Mile House Mayor Donna Barnett was equally pleased with the
announcement. “This contribution agreement between the Province and the
Cariboo-Chilcotin Beetle Action Coalition tightens our arm-in-arm working
relationship as we continue to battle the beetle and limit the local impacts of
the epidemic,” she said.
Additional funding will be provided to the coalition on successful completion of plans to deliver components of the province’s mountain pine beetle strategy. The Cariboo-Chilcotin Beetle Action Coalition will include participants from the municipalities of Quesnel, Williams Lake and 100 Mile House, the Cariboo Regional District, First Nations, the conservation/wilderness tourism sector, and the forest industry.
Ministry of Forests aerial overview surveys detected about 3.86 million hectares of mountain pine beetle attack in the Cariboo (the Quesnel, Chilcotin, Central Cariboo, and 100 Mile House forest districts) in 2004. Provincially the beetle affected about seven million hectares of British Columbia last year.
-30-
|
contact: |
Communications Director Ministry of Forests 250 387-8486 |
|
|
|
||
|
Visit the Province's website at www.gov.bc.ca for online information and services. |
||
