Gander cabin owners gearing up for battle over birch trees
Derm Molloy is fighting a battle over a swath of birch trees near his cabin in central Newfoundland that he thought he won nineteen years ago.
Molloy's cabin sits near Home Pond, about 35 kilometres north of Gander. It was built in a section of managed forest that once belonged to the pulp and paper mill in Corner Brook.
In 1997 Molloy asked the company to spare the birch trees — and it agreed, setting up a birch reserve. Now he fears another company is coming to cut the trees down.
"There's rumour afoot that there's going to be commercial cutting in that area," said Molloy.
"Once you get commercial cutting, then you'll have domestic cutting and everything else that goes with it. Our birch stands, our pristine wilderness, will virtually be gone forever."
In a 15-year-old photo, Molloy's trees tower over him. Now he fears for what the next 15 years hold in store.
"Absolute desolation. All these big trees and so forth? That's gone," said Molloy.
"Flattened."
Fighting back
Molloy attended a meeting in Gander Tuesday night for cabin owners in the area, organized by Dennis Lannon after he heard about the plans to harvest birch during a forest management meeting.
"We find out that this is their goal, to lift the reserve," Lannon told CBC News. "It took the life out of me because it's such a beautiful pristine wilderness down there."
Lannon estimates the birch trees run eight to 12 kilometres along the side of Home Pond, in the same area as about 30 cabins, with 40 more applications awaiting approval.
He's asking cabin owners to contact local MHA John Haggie with their concerns.
"Our concern is that the reserve that was put in place in 1997 by Corner Brook Pulp and Paper is being lifted by the provincial government and being given to companies for birch flooring, cabinet making, and that sort," said Lannon.
Lannon said it's disheartening to hear Molloy's story about working to save the birch trees nineteen years ago only to hear they're at risk again.
"It's really sad that this day and age the government sees fit to, instead of preserve something and save it, to cut it down," said Lannon.
"That's the sad thing about it, they're not looking down the road for the generations to come to be able to enjoy this."
