The once picturesque view of the lake, mountain and sky from the west end of Lac des Roches and little Lac des Roches has been changed forever by 2 weeks of clear cut beetle kill harvesting above the lake. With disbelief, residents watched the logging crew work its way over the crest of the mountain and make a swath through the forest, down toward the lake, highly visible from Highway 24, McCarthy Road and Gerald Crescent. While west portions of the cut block seemed to have been designed to mitigate the visual impact from private and public locations east of McCarthy Road, the view from the highway, roads and residences to the west is extremely disappointing and described by one resident as “horrendous”. One resident estimates that over 100 acres of trees were cut from the north face of the mountain which are headed to Interfor’s mill in Chase, B.C. It is still unclear to residents whether the logging is in compliance with forest stewardship plans for the site. Several residents have registered complaints but have been advised that although the cutting was complete at 4 a.m. March 13, inspection and determination of compliance will be done upon completion of all logging operations which includes the skidding, processing and loading which is still in progress. Sadly too, after discussions with Ministry of Forest personnel, International Forest Products (Interfor) personnel and Member of Parliament, Donna Barnett, residents have learned that they missed their opportunity to provide input into the consultation process for designing this logging site plan when they did not respond to Interfor’s advertisements in the local paper last fall. They learned that only registered users of the land directly affected by the logging operation such as grazing permit holders or trap-line licencees are contacted directly by the Interfor, or other logging companies, for input. All other individuals or groups must either have previously advised a potential logger of their particular land interest or respond to public notices. This oversight by area residents has proven to be a very sad and unsightly lesson to learn. Members of the Friends of Lac des Roches and Birch Lake will be sending notification letters on behalf of all lake residents asking to be recognized as official stakeholders for all forest stewardship plans in the Lac des Roches watershed for future forest harvesting and development. The group is also committed to let other citizen groups know of this incident so that they may take similar actions for their communities. There are plans to follow-up with the forest ministry on policies regarding notification and compliance.