Latest news with #YukonEnvironmentalandSocio-economicAssessmentBoard
CBC
27-02-2025
- Business
- CBC
Yukon miner's upcoming season in limbo as he waits longer than expected for permit renewal
A Yukon placer miner says delays in the territory's permitting process could cost him his mining season this year. Riley Gibson was born and raised in the Yukon and he co-owns a placer mining company that has been operating since 2016, first mining in the Kluane area, and now operating a site in the Duncan Creek area between Mayo and Keno City. Gibson said his 10-year mining permit expires this year so he applied last April for a new one through the Yukon Environmental and Socio-economic Assessment Board (YESAB), anticipating he'd have it in time for the start of the season this spring. According to Gibson, and confirmed by YESAB, a class 4 placer project's application can take between eight and 10 months to process. After the board reviews an application, it recommends whether a project should proceed and under what conditions. It's then up to a decision body — typically formed by the territorial and local First Nation governments — to approve the permit or not. Gibson says it's been 11 months and he hasn't received a response whether his permit will be renewed or not. He says his company employs a handful of people each year, and the longer his permit is held up, the longer it'll be before he and his employees can get back to work. "There's very little we can do on site," Gibson said. "We can't operate any machinery, we can't do any reclamation, we can't maintain any diversions of Duncan Creek we've done. These things need to be monitored. We can't do anything if we don't get this decision document." Gibson explained that once the mining permit is granted, he then has to apply for a water licence through the Yukon Water Board, something he said could take up to four months if everything goes smoothly. At this rate, Gibson said if he doesn't get his permits now, he and his crew may have to find work elsewhere this summer. "We've been trying to talk to everybody as respectfully as we can and it doesn't seem like we're getting anywhere," Gibson said. "I feel there's a lot of complacency and indifference in the permitting process right now and it's letting a lot of people down. "We're not fancy, rich miners. We're just trying to make a living." Working through the backlog Kent Bretzlaff, YESAB's executive director, said recommendations for Gibson's application were issued to the decision body on Dec. 9. Bretzlaff said he understands how Gibson is feeling but that he isn't the only proponent waiting in queue for an application to get processed. He said the number of placer mining projects increases on a yearly basis, and his staff are doing their best to keep up but sometimes there are delays. "We have double the amount of placer projects in our process now than we did this time last year," Bretzlaff said. Bretzlaff said in the past two months, his office has received 42 project applications. "The reality is, we keep getting more and more projects," Bretzlaff said. "We'll be as transparent as we can about expectations but for proponents, I encourage them to reach out to us too, to understand what's going on." Bretzlaff said YESAB has done its part and now the decision for Gibson's placer mining permit lies in the hands of the decision body — the Yukon government, and the First Nation of Na-Cho Nyäk Dun. Jay Chou, acting director with mineral resources branch of Yukon's department of Energy, Mines, and Resources, said that Gibson's application is still being discussed and he could not provide any details or timelines for when a decision will be issued. He said it has taken longer than expected but it's important to ensure First Nation governments are involved with the process and sometimes more time is needed to come to a decision. "The legislative timelines to issue a decision document under the Yukon Environmental and Socio-economical Assessment Act is 30 days," Chou said. "On average over the last few years, for the decision document for placer projects, we're seeing an average of 60 days or so." Chou said his department is actively working on Gibson's file, as well as many others at this time. He said on average his department consults on approximately 500 to 600 different projects a year.
CBC
18-02-2025
- Business
- CBC
Yukoner makes chairs from fire-killed wood, as association pushes for easier access to deadwood
Social Sharing From Ulrich Trachsel's driveway, just west of Whitehorse, you can see the deep orange slash of the Takhini burn — a visible scar from a past wildfire. Stands of trees that even from a distance look like toothpicks fringe the spine of a hill. Trachsel uses trees like these to make furniture. "I just see all this wood around and I want to use it," he said. "I just started to really appreciate dead standing wood and how convenient it is — and also how pretty it is." Most lumber sold in the Yukon is trucked up from places like Alberta and British Columbia. Trachsel, the owner of Ibex Valley Wood Products, said that doesn't work for him — the costs to the environment and climate are too great. Trachsel cuts deals with local harvesters targeting dead trees mostly destined for someone's woodstove. Right now, the majority of wood commercially harvested in the Yukon is sold as firewood. By doing this, Trachsel spares live forests and avoids greenhouse gas emissions linked to transportation. The wood harvested from Yukon burn sites is also perfect for his purposes. "It is already mostly dry," he said. Association pushing to get at dead trees quicker Peter Wright, executive director of the Yukon Wood Products Association, said he wants to see more local timber used not just as a heat source. Trees like white spruce are valuable in other ways, he said, and that could bolster local economies. "Every time that a truck brings something in, whether it's a chair, whether it's a table, whether it's a 2x4 that could have been made here, when that truck hits the road south, all of the revenue, all of the profits, all of the employment leaves with it," Wright said. There are longstanding problems, though, he said. Timber harvesting projects are getting mired in delays during the Yukon Environmental and Socio-economic Assessment Board process. The whole deal — from the submission of a proposal to the decision — takes on average about six months, said Wright, and that's not including likely extensions. Wright wants to see more trees in burn areas felled and the environmental assessment process move far more quickly. That's something the Yukon Wood Products Association is negotiating over with the Yukon government this year. "How can we identify and get into these areas much quicker, making sure that we're still doing all of our due diligence from an environmental side, from an information-sharing side, honouring First Nations culture and traditional use, and still being able to access it and get it so that we're still salvaging the highest volume like this?" Wright said. Wright said unlike places in the South, the Yukon doesn't have an industrial-sized kiln capable of quickly drying wood. That makes harvesting trees that are already dead an obvious priority. "We're not taking green trees that are still growing," he said. "We are salvaging areas. And every month that stands more of it is falling down naturally on its own. We're battling time." Conservation scientist says pump the brakes Hilary Cooke, a co-director with the Wildlife Conservation Society, said both dead and living trees play crucial roles in the territory's boreal forests. Of course, forest fires are part of a natural process, helping to regenerate woodlands. They also make for prime wildlife habitat. "There's life in these burns," Cooke said. "There's one species of black-backed woodpecker — this is what they want, you know. The same way we think of wetlands species. That's where they're going to nest. This is it for them. This is the buffet. This is like all the trees that they could use to put their nests in. "As they [forests] regenerate, it becomes habitat for moose, and a whole community of bird species that like that regenerating willow, aspen," she said. Cooke said the ecological importance of burns is understudied in the Yukon, and she'd like to see the territory take a more measured approach when eyeing these areas for timber harvesting. "The best thing we can do, and what we have an opportunity to do, is to think in advance about what values we want on the landscape," she said. "That's a process of regional land use planning and regional forest management planning. "It's where everyone comes together." Trachsel's business is small and just getting off the ground. He's confident there's a market for what he's making, like the set of chairs he was recently crafting out of aspen — the same type of tree that surrounds his home. To Trachsel, it's pretty simple. "What we can buy in this town is not good quality," he said. "It's usually from far away, and it's cheap because it's mass-produced.
