Page 4, The Herald. Friday. February 20; 178) fr TERIA RDEDEEAT ‘y General Office. 635.6357 Published oy Circulation - 435-6357 Sterling Publishers a Publisher — Garry Husak _ Editor — Pete Nadeau CLASS ADS TERRACE . 635.4000 CIRCULATION . TERRACE - 635 6157 Published every weekday a! 3010 Kalum Street. Terrace. BC Authorized as secand class’ mail _ Registration number 120) Postage paid in cash. return postage guaranteed - . es NOTICE OF COPYRIGHT The Herald retains full, complete and sole copyright in any advertisement produced andor any editorial or photographic content published in the Heraid “Reproduction is not permitted without the writtea permission of the Publisher se . . , ~ LETTERSTO. | THE EDITOR Today I read your article litled ‘Unreal situation result of ignorance”, which ’ is based on the “Access 81” seminar held 17 February and sponsored by 5.P.A.R.C. 1am concerned about the fact that [- have been misquoted. The phrasing of your article misconsirues ‘omy point and = thus "” misrepresents the medical - community of Terrace. Your article can easily by ’ taken to mean that physicians are deliberately contributing to birth defects | through indiscriminate " preseribing and diagnostic techniques. This is untreu and = unfair. As L explained to the group at the seminar, the TCEA promotes Fainily Centred Maternity Care (irrelevant tothe theme of the seminar) and the availability of in- formation on nutrition, drugs, alcohol and other literature pertinent to im- proving the chances of having a healthy, normal baby. My point was that prevention of disabilittes is _ an important part of the “+ Year of the Disabled theme. "working, very hard in con- =" junetion with both Public ct Health and the medical communily to improve ‘ peneral consumer 7 awareness. We are con- =: cerned that the Public .. Health-sponsored prenatal ct elaases offering advice on [improving pregnancy out- :. come only reach 20 per cent S: of the population. “4. birth ‘defects are in : many cases created by =: mothers and are often :* assisted by doctors in this > area,” . This stalement reads as if : doctors are deliberately creating birth defects! This is untrue, and | did not phrase any sentence in this manner. I did say, “that, some women will complain of nausea in early ‘: pregnancy. There | are doctors who will prescribe “Henedectin® (an ,anti- nausea drug currently linked ‘: with possible deformities in the unborn, ie. low-grade : teratogenic drug). I also “added that there are doctors > who would rather seek : allernalives, lhe extreme being hospitalization of a = woman suffering [rom i: chyper-emesis « iaeyere + vomiting? rather than rish’ 7 The TCEA has been “Benedectin”. “and if they have 4 headache during their pregnancies get a prescription from their doctors that damages the growing fetus.” The TCEA knows of no physician who would do such a thing, What 1 said at the seminar was, ‘“‘that there are women to take f.ex. aspirin, not knowing that this can severely compromise the fetus.”’ ; The paragraph on wtrasound and x-rays is not a direct misquote, but the phrasing is somewhal confusing. Ultrasound is a fairly recent diagnostic tool. It is invaluable, but has not conclusively been proven safe for the effects on the unborn human, There is some concern, that because it is a new and very exciting machine (one can actually see the felus as early as 8-10 weeks in utero an image on a screen}, it will be over-requested and thus expose the fetus to possible, unnecessary potential harm. When used in CON- JUNCTION with x-ray technology, it seems that perhaps we are exposing the fetus Lo two tests (both used to determine _—fetal gestational age among other things). One of these definitely has been proven polentially dangerous for the unborn (x-ray). The TCEA is anxious that a correction to the abovementioned statements be printed in the Daily Herald as soon as possible. We understand fully that you have only limited apace, and thal you are trying to get the point across in as few words as possible, However, the TCEA only wishes to - work with the medical - community in reaching out lo all expectant parents with current information that will improve pregnancy out- come.’ ; ‘ Qur position must be ’ earified. We do not make It our business to’ accuse physicians: we are working towards the same goal - 4 healthy baby and happy parents. . _ We shoutd be pleased to do an In-depth interview al a future date. , Marianne rorup-Weston ICKA Hep-Secrelary The Herald welromes its readers comments. Allietters to the editar of general public interest will be printed. We dp, however, retain Une right fo refuse to prinf letlers on grounds of possible litel or bad taste. , We may alsp edil letters for style und longi. Atl letters fo be considered for publication must he signed. ; | WICTORIAY "REPORT ~ | by. FRANK HOWARD . SKEENA MLA - Item. Hence the. rubbing ‘of hands and the an- | ticipation of higher safes tax revenue: to: the 4 provincial government. cb ee Let's look at a specific example. Suppose.an - Item cost $10 & year ago. Retall sales tax on that item would have been 40 cents. Let us also ‘sup- pose that same Item now costs $11, which “Isa reasonable assumption. The retall sales tax. Is now 44 cents, In other words the Social Credit government gets an extra four cents. +: COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho (AP) — Nine months ago, Mount St. Helens rained ash over northern Idaho, forcing residents inside. Now it seems to be ~ taining babies, say Kootenai County Memorial Hospital officials. Through Wednesday, doctors had delivered 65 babies al the hospital in February —- the ninth ~ month after the devastating May 18, 1980, eruption of the volcano. The hospital's 12-bed maternity ward has been “ filled to overflowing, and the mini-boom shows no signs of letting up, said hospital administrator Joe Morris. . _ “Al the currentrate, we'll be up to 107 babies, our biggest month ever,"’ Morris predicted, Nurses estimate 75 births to be the monthly average here. The volcano evenseems connected to the last rush of business at the hospital's maternity ward. “Tronically, our biggest month so far was last May when Mount St. Helens blew and we had 104 _ babies," Morris said. ; . PHOENIX, Ariz. (AP) -—- Police thought they has a crank on the line when the caller reported a eae sale lems -Foresters-support valt The Ministry of Forests has proposed creation of a provincial forest over approximately 20,000 hectares (50,000 acres) of the Kitimat Valley. This area is the logged land bounded on the south by the Kitimat Municipal boundary (Cablecar Sub- division), on the north by Onion Lake, and on the east and west sides by the base of the mountains. As part of this proposal the Ministry of Forests expects to hold a public meeting to discuss this project. The Association of H.C. Professional Foresters {ABCPF) supports the concept of a provincial forest and feels it is important the public be made aware of the provincial forest program. In this way _ public understanding is increased and [air debate will result at the forthcoming public meeting. The Prince Rupert Regione Public. Affaira Committee of the ABCPF has put together several articles dealing with the Kitimat Valley and its potential as a designated provincial forest. This first article is composed of extracts from the ABCP- .F brief prepared for the provincial government cabinet in November, 1900. It gives an overview of the value of forests to B.C.'s economy: the shrinking forest land base! provincial . forest legislation; and discusses removal of lands from provincial forests. ; ce THE VALUE OF THE FOREST RESOURCE The value of the forest resource to the British . Columbia lifestyle and living standard cannel be overstated. The statistic that $0 per cent of B.C.’s - economic product is generaled from wood products is well known but these are ore than just bare numbers. They can “té translated Into Crown revenues necessary to finance education, health, highways, as well as social programs of afl kinds. In addition, the foresis of British Coluinbla are . ' __ the essential resource on which wildlife, fisheries, ‘grazing, watersheds, recreation and aesthetic ‘values depend. The connection between these | values and the economic benefits of tourism, our number two industry. should be obvious. As the extent of the forest land base Is eroded, its abilily to produce timber and protect these other forest values will be eraded also. ODD, isn’t it? “three-foot grey and green lizard with a purple tail, going down my alley.” Even 50, five officers were sent to scoures central Phoenix neighborhood in search of the beast. - Sure enough, they spotted it perched'in a small tree Irom which it refused to budge. It took the — police, firemen and their ladder truck to rescue the- reluctant lizard, which turned out to be a pet iguana named Iggie. * . . _ “We tried to shake it down but it ran away,” said Sgt. David Cook. “The branches were too small to support a man, so fireman Joel Harris donned his helmet, gloves and heavy fire jacket, climbed up ‘the ladder and grabbed it" 0 s,, Iggie, a harmless, tropical lizard with’h spiny back, is the five-year-old pet of the Bill Clayton family. Clayton's 11-year-old son, Janss Ertel, said - _it was the first time Iggie had escaped. And firemen and police officers, who got out of the business-of rescuing animals several years ago, . said Monday was the first time they had been called fo caich'an iguana. . _ “We've had calls about snakes, loose horses, loose . cows and wild cats on top of telephone poles, but this is the first three-foot-lizard call,"' Cook said, . .. Association takes stand on proposal Ina national perspective, forestry is the source of one job in 10 throughout Canada. Forestry in . Canada contributes more to. our economy than mining and petroleum combined. It is one and one- half times larger than Canadian agriculture and 15° times larger than fishing. British Columbia produces over 25 per cent of Canada’s pulp, 70 per cent of the lumber and over 90 per cent of the plywood. The size of the B.C. forest industry is even more underlined when it is ap- preciated that roughly 50 per cent of the nations’ forest value originates in this province. : -Tt must be understood that-the, maintenance of these. multiple use values cannot bé guaranteed. if cur remaining forest land is to be subject tb con- Hnued wholesale alienation. : THE LAND BASE mo British Columbia's land base is approximately 95 million hectares, Approximately. one-half, or 47 million hectares, is forested. The actual forest land : base ig much smaller. we ; Of this, approximately five million hectares is inaccessible to logging and .an additional seven million hectares is expected to be needed for other . uses between now and the year 2000. This leaves 5 net forest land base of 35 million hectarés. PROVINCIAL FORESTS-LEGISLATION Legislation for provincial forestd is contained © within sections 4 and 5 of the Fores! Act of B.C. . Sectlon 4 states: i . “The Chief Forester shall classify land as forest, land if be considers that il will provide the greatest contribution to the social and economic welfare of ” the Province if predominantly maintained in suc-, ceasive crops of.trees or forage, or both.” . oer are aS bed ALL WEEK AT WORK THE MEN HAVE BEEN TALKING ABOUT SEX EDUCATION} THE ONLY RESULT WILL BE THE IN THE SCHOOLS... a L THINK (1's, Disgusting / CREATION OF A HEDONISTIC, ' —PRONNSCUOUS , IMMORAL SOCIETY. cay vane yomer -. Multiply that extra four cents by the number of $11 purchases made in B.C. and the result (s-a tremendous amount of extra revenve {0 ‘the. provincial government. For example,~the: government's budget for 1780-81 waa for @n_in- come of $680 million from the retail sales tax. The year before that it was $585 million. In other’ words In one year alone the government’s take _ Increased by $95 million, which Is a 16 per cent. Increase arising out of inflation. On the other side . Itls a loss to you and me as consumers. vt The same holds true with respect to income tax, When the NOP was government the provincial Income fax rate was 30.5 per cent of the federal rate. This year under Social Credit that: per- centage figure Is 44 per cent. The more money you earn the more you pay fo the provincial govern- > ment. . When .it comes to the expenditure side, the government doesn't pass this extra money on to you In the form of services. In fact Finance — _ Minister Curtis, because of the government's general mismanagement of our public finances, has been cutting and slicing service-oriented expenditures. ‘ Put all {his together and you can see why Curtis and Bennett would smile and rub their hands In glee. ‘ _ Section 5 states the management intent of the - + legislation: . “+ “Subject to the regulations, a Provincial Forest — shall be. managed and used only for: _ + 4a) timber production, utilization and related purposes; “ this eventuality under Section 5(8): “The Lieutenant-Governor in council may... delete land from a Provincial Forest on being. — satisfied that the land, if used for a purpose other than those described in Sub-section (4) or permitted- uiider the regulations, would result in a greater: contribution to the social and economic welfare of the province." ” oy _ This does not mean that each application will be ” approved; nor does it mean that all will be rejected... But it does provide and protect those options along ... ‘with the public's right to express them. and cam- :— peign for them. as they ‘might desire.” The association believes these rights are valid - and must be protected but at the same time, we are . * alsd unanimous that while many of these demands ; may seem legitimate in isolation, when. one con-’.- “0 "> sider. the results of the sum of them all, they: _., ; gonstitutea very real (and growing) threat to the’. _ forest land bace to the detriment of all forest users. = i" sigh SUMMARY ne © prov lorest program ts qn on-going” project. Only recently four more provincial Piatt totalling 2,000,¢00 hectares, were proclaimed. bringing the number of provinclal forests in B.C. to.: 101 and covering 30 million hectares. , __ The provincial forest program Is not intended to: _ establish forever-more the optimum use for every’. acre of land in the province, Instead it should: he ‘viewed as the initlal broad zoning to establish in = general terms the land base available for Integrated © forest management, as distinct from the land base . ‘available for agriculture, settlement and single use: Our growing population and the rising ex- pectations of our citlzens, combine to create A. steadily Increasing series of demands ‘on the Lind”. * base, There are demands for more fish, wildlife,’, . wilderness, roads, dams, grazing, aswel aé demande for more wood. The sum of these demanda® pow greater than the lanid’s capacity. £8) et itisin this context thai provincial forest statis far: the Kitimat Valley is proposed. Clearly, it- canhot?’ - lock up the ares into some form of “preserve’’, thus: infensive forest management, , recreation, ‘aid: ; viable industriel development need not be'in ‘cote: