High River council's joined with others in the area to ask the province to stop clearcutting in the Highwood Pass off Highway 40.

Councillor Bruce Masterman, who's also written a number of books and articles about his time fishing and hiking the area, says the original hearings into the license were held years ago and no one who's here now knows anything about them.

"I don't know how we got here, it makes absolutely no sense to me that something was talked about, 10, 15 years ago, was given approval, you know I've lived here and I don't remember hearing about this before, " Masterman says. "Yes, the current government can say it was the previous government that approved it, several governments ago, but the same party, the reigning government can say that, but now they've got a chance to fix it and they haven't so far, so hopefully they will."

Mayor Craig Snodgrass and Masterman met with the logging company and Snodgrass says he was surprised at how close to the watershed they're able to log.

Masterman says there are still a lot of unknowns when it comes to the impacts logging in the area might have through the Highwood basin.

"The rules that they're (Balcaen) following are rules that were put in place a long time ago, also rules that pre-dated the flood of 2013," Masterman says. "That river has changed an incredible amount just since 2013, and I don't know how anybody can say 'We'll be fine', prove to us we'll be fine, I don't buy that."

He says tourism has a much bigger impact than logging ever will.

Council will urge the Provincial government to put a stop to the logging until a full environmental assessment is done.

 

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