Does a logging road constitute logging?

A Manitoba environmental group is taking a forestry company to court to find out.

The Wilderness Committee is trying to stop Tolko from building a logging road through Grass River Provincial Park near Flin Flon on the grounds that logging was made illegal in provincial parks two years ago.

Dickstone Road, as it’s called, would threaten woodland caribou populations and expose them to wolves, according to campaign director Eric Reder.

The non-profit Wilderness Committee was one of the forces behind getting logging banned in provincial parks.

Tolko was granted the licence to build after the ban came into effect, starting construction in 2011. The company told court the only trees cut down would be for the road — it’s simply a faster way to get to legal logging areas, shaving four hours off transit time.

The legal action, a Queens Bench 14.05 rule review, means a judge will determine the rights that depend on the interpretation of the logging ban law.

“The simple explanation is that we are asking a judge to give us a legal definition: is a logging road considered logging or not?” Reder said in a media release. “The Wilderness Committee and Manitoba Wildlands discussed this review with the Conservation Minister, and requested that the government pursue this judicial rule review with us. The Conservation Minister decided not to cooperate with us, and so the Wilderness Committee filed this action to clarify the law.”