Newspaper Articles about Silver Star's Golf Course

Several newspaper articles were published in the local Vernon newspapers in the mid 1990's regarding the proposed Silver Star Mountain Resort Golf Course; yet when you ask local residents what they know about the Silver Star golf course, the vast majority have no clue where it was to be built, when it was scheduled to open, or how to get to it.

So much mystery surrounded the golf course, yet a large portion of Silver Star Provincial Park was deleted so the resort could build the course. It never was built, and the 510 hectares deleted from the park has not been placed back in the park, but rather has had NO TRESPASSING signs erected around it to keep the public out, and four of the fairways have been logged with their only purpose being for sewage effluent irrigation.

To view an advertisement that appeared in the Morning Star newspaper in December 1996, click the icon below.

You may want to right click and rotate the view until it is oriented correctly. Notice that the course was to be ready for play in the summer of 2000.

To view an article that appeared in the Okanagan Saturday on February 18th, 1995, click the icon below.

The article above mentions that Western Canada Wilderness Committee endorsed the golf course. In actual fact, this was not the case, as witnessed below by R.G. Pearson's February 1995 letter to the Morning Star editor. Click the icon below to read the letter.

To view an article that appeared in the Morning Star newspaper December 15th 1995, click the icon below.

To view an article that appeared in the Morning Star newspaper in April 1997, click the icon below.

 

You may want to right click and rotate the view until it is oriented correctly. Notice some of the statements Dick Munn makes; "this area has low park value", and "there will be no environmental impact", and "the planned site for the course is more than 50 per cent logged". Now look at some photos of the recently logged fairways and see if you agree with him.

 

Here is an advertisement that appeared in the Morning Star newspaper at the end of March, 1997. Notice that the Open House was scheduled on a weekday afternoon, which could potentially limit the number of people who could attend. To view the ad, click the icon below.

 

 

This article appeared in the Morning Star newspaper in June 1996. Click the icon below to view the article.

You'll notice that this article is concerned mainly with the Environmental Impact Assessment Review, which was promised by Moe Sihota in the 1995 Agreement in Principle. It turned out that the NORD directors' concerns were well founded, since the golf course was later ruled as a non-reviewable project by Paul Ramsey, and no Environmental Impact Assessment Revue was conducted.

 

Here is another article that appeared in the Vernon Sun newspaper in 1996, again dealing with the concerns regarding pollution of Coldstream Creek. Click the icon below to view the article.

From reading the article above, it becomes apparent that removing land from a Provincial Park is a very political process, and that unseen alliances and relationships among proponents and politicians can have a marked effect on the success of the venture. This in essence is the story of Silver Star Provincial Park, which has had large sections deleted after very little public input; instead, these alliances between politicians, bureaucrats, and proponents often play a pivotal role in decision making.  

 

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