BY KELLY CRYDERMAN, CALGARY HERALD AUGUST 20, 2010 3:02 AM
Public consultations will begin next month on a sweeping plan for Alberta's oilsands region that would see 20 per cent or more of the landscape set aside for conservation purposes, say government officials.
"There will be a change in the acreage that's under conservation," said Alberta Sustainable Resource Development Minister Mel Knight.
"That absolutely will happen. And that is, I think, a very tangible and very concrete thing."
In focus is an area the government has named the Lower Athabasca, one of seven regions created to manage land-use planning in the province. The Lower Athabasca encompasses the northeastern part of the province, including Fort McMurray, the Regional Municipality of Wood Buff alo, Lac La Biche and Bonnyville.
Knight, who toured the area by helicopter this week, said he hopes cabinet will approve early next year a Lower Athabasca regional plan that both municipalities and the provincial government must follow.
The region encompasses lakes, boreal forest, fluorescent green fens and bogs and rivers, including the winding and virtually untouched Clearwater. Alongside the natural dazzle are signs of Alberta's geological good fortune -- seismic lines, tailing ponds, mines, wells and upgraders.
Here and abroad, oilsands developments have been criticized for their massive energy consumption, the huge swaths of ground logged and bulldozed in the mining process, the use of river water and health concerns of mainly aboriginal communities downstream from the industry.
Both Ottawa and the Alberta government have been accused of not doing enough to manage industrial growth.
They have shot back, saying they are allowing economic growth while taking action on the environment, such as the regional land use planning.
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