A4 - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, January 7, 1998

STANDARD

ESTABLISHED APRIL 27, 1988

PUBLISHER: ROD LINK
ADDRESS: 3210 Clinton Street Terrace, B.C. * V8G 5R2
TELEPHONE: (250) 638-7283 * FAX: (250) 638-8432
EMAIL:,standard@kermode.net

The challenge

OF ALL the challenges facing the city and sur-
rounding area over the next few years, the largest
one remains the future of local government.
Although the vote last November to combine
Terrace and Thornhill was defeated the margin .
— 58 per cent said ‘no’ — signified that a bit
more work was needed to put together an accept-
able package of how a future local government
structure should work.
' There are simply too many common issues
facing Terrace and Thornhill for the two bodies
to continue to exist separately. The lack, for in-:
stance, of large plots of commercial land within:
the City of Terrace will drive businesses to
Thornhill. This may be regarded as good news in
Thornhill but the resulting demands for
municipal-type services may overpower the’
ability of Thornhil! to provide them. That in turn
will frustrate developers to the point that the area.
will suffer because new businesses and new ser-
vices will be dissuaded from locating here.
Recreation services within the city limits will
continue to be strained by the limited financial
support of those who may use those facilities but

who live outside the limits. Simple fairness dic-.

tates that this can’t go on forever.

There’s also the matter of responding to the

larger issues outside the control of local govern-
ments, A larger and united Terrace-Thornhill
will speak louder than could two distinct entities
when it comes to the future of the region.
‘A new year brings new opportunities. A
renewed look at what could be possible with a
merger of Terrace and Thomhill might be one of
‘them.

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Bad taste

‘SO HERE’S SOMETHING we don’t under-
stand. Each year the provincial government
‘spends a lot of money telling people to not drink
and drive. It’s a campaign which intensifies dur-
ting the Christmas season to the point that classes
‘of students are recruited to paint sobering mes-
‘sages on the paper bags in which alcohol is
packed and carried out of state-owned liquor
‘Stores.

Yet at the same time, consumers can go into
practically every one of those state-owned liquor
stores and be confronted by a smiling individual
offering a shot of something alcoholic. To be
sure, the amount proferred isn’t sufficient in it-

self to bring tears to someone’s eyes or set them.

back on their heels. But the very offering of the
libiation would appear to be contrary to the over-
riding state concern about combining alcohol
with the operation of a motor vehicle.

What’s worse is that the government is most as-
suredly charging alcohol-producing companies a
fee to dole out their liquids. This isn’t to suggest
the state is making a huge profit out of these
adults-only lemonade-type stands but it is
enough to leave a sour taste in some mouths.

a A
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Wilk caribou herds survive?

VICTORIA -~ Once upon a
time, hundreds of woodland
caribou roamed the Teikwa
Mountains and surrounding
forests near Smithers. Fewer
than 10 are left. Extinction
rears its ugly head.

‘We had no cows breeding
this year,’’? says Sean Sharpe,
head of the provincial caviron-
ment minisiry’s regional wild-
life section. ‘‘There’s no
bulls.”

It may be loo late to save the
sad remnants of the once

healthy herd, but the ministry
will try. This winter, they plan —

to capture about 20 caribou in
the Itcha-Ilgachuz Mountains
to the south and relocate them
to the Telkwa region.

Wildlife officials hope that
any transplanted bulls will

. mate with enough cows so. that
o fevsa new. generation of, calves, will
be born. But even if, that hap-

pens, there’s no guarantee the -
calves will be able to survive.
The reason for the decima-
tion of the Telkwa caribou
herd is human disturbance,
Like other parts of British
Columbia, the Telkwa area has
been drastically altered by
man. Large areas of forest,
once inhabited by caribou,
have been scarred by roads,
clearcuts and other industrial
activity,

FROM THE CAPITAL

HUBERT BEYER

Caribou depend on older, un-

_ disturbed forest: for survival,

particularly in the winter
months. Roads are a problem
because they make it easier for

wolves. lo prey on caribou.
“Poachers also find’: “thiéin aco
boon. rae

Government officials aren’t -
unaware of what has led to the .
sorry state of the Telkwa herd. -

. Rick Page, a rescarch scientist

with the forest ministry, has
this to say:

“In North America, every
herd of caribou has declined
once the forest has been logged

— no exceptions — over the

course of the last two

centuries. And in eastera North |
America, most of those herds

are now extinct.’’

So does that mean the choice
comes down ta logging or
caribou? Not so, according to
B.C. Wild, an environmental
organization that has done alot
of work in the area of wildlife
habitat,

Saving British Columbia’s
remaining caribou, says B.C.
Wild, requires ‘‘a commitment
on the part of the provincial
government heretofore not
seen,’ including the protection
of older forest frequented by
caribou and the introduction of
revised, low-volume,  low-
impact forest practices,

B. C. Wild acknowledges
that the creation of new parks
by the NDP government over
the past few years, including
the 109,000-hectare protected

area, in. the Itcha-Ilgachuz,
Mountains, .was a. -laudable,

“endeavor, but adds that the

boundaries don’t protect the
local caribou herd.

While most of the herd can
bee seen within the park
boundarics during from early
spring to late summer, the
caribou move outside the park
into the surrounding forests
during winter, and that urea is
open to varying degrees of
habitat disturbance, —alll

detrimental to the survival of,
the animals.

We have an estimated 1,500
caribou left in British Colum-
bia and have set aside 109,000
hectares of protected land for
the animals. That’s 72 hectares
per animal,

By comparison, .

Ontario has set aside 3,000.

hectares per caribou for the
remaining 300 animals within
-its provincial boundaries.
Cynics point out that species
have evolved and died out by
the thousands since time im-
memorial. That may be so, but
they lived and died as the
cycles of nature dictated. The
destruction of a specics at the
hands of man is un-
conscionable, particulary if

we bave the means to prevent

it.

I have often been critical of

Greenpeace, not for its aims
bul: ils methods, ; which include.
- intimidation and scare ‘tactics. I,

‘don’t believe in tthe dictum ‘that.

the ends justify the means. _

B.C. Wild, on the other hand,
makes ils case much more
powerfully, and does so
without organizing boycotts of
B.C. lumber abroad. B.C.
Wild’s concern for the survival
of our caribou should be
shared by us all. -

Beyer can be reached at:
Tel: (250) 920-9300; Fax:
(250) 385-6783; E-mail:
hubet@coolcom.com

Two gifts better than one

ANOTHER YEAR, another
round of children’s birthdays,
another argument over whether
or not — in a family with just
two kids — both should
receive gilts,

I’ve always opted for two,
identical gifts. ve seen the
disharmony when only one
child receives a gift, let’s say a
bride Barbie. The ecstatic
recipient wraps her arms
around her new acquisition
like tape around a hockey
stick, unwilling to share it for
even a rainute,

Thwarted, her sister runs
bawling to Mom demanding
the plastic person be pried
away from her selfish sister.

Beleaguered Mom, blood
pressure about to blow like a
steam Whistle, orders her pos-
sessive daughter to give up the
doll and let her sister play with
it for ten minutes.

Reluctantly, with heart-
rending wails and a torrent of
tears, the birlhday child sur-
renders her precious tiew, toy

So7WHAT PART
OF THE SOUTH
ARE YOU FROM?

ME?

| EHROUGH SIFOCALS”
CLAUDETTE SANDECKI

‘vith the grace of adhesive tape
peeling from a hairy arm. Then
she hovers, a coyote circling
wolves feasting on a fresh kill,
prepared to dart in and snatch
the doll away.

So what have we now? One
child with a runny nose, a
soggy sleeve, and a prize she
can’t enjoy because she has to
keep her back to her sister and
one eye on the clock; a
birthday child deeply dis-
traught clutching a soggy lis-

LONTGET I! T
DRESS LIKE You po!
CUSS LIKE YoU Do!
DRIVE A Hx CHEW
SNOOSE. AND DRINK
Bee! BUT YoU sTiLt
KNOW’ A SOUTHEENER!

sue; and a hair-tearing Mom
feeling rotien and mean.

How much simpler, happier,
and restful to give cach child
an identical toy in the first
place.

Though identical toys are
ideal —- if financially possible
— there are times when a gift
is so customized to a child’s
special interests — a telescope
for a budding Galileo, hockey
pads for a future Kirk Mclcan,
a snorkel for a Cousteau fol-
lower — the sibling woulda’!
necessarily appreciate an
identical gift, Then something
different, and not especially af
equal cost, can save Family
peace,

Whenever two children have
gifts even if the gifts are
unique, both children have a
bargaining chip. They may
agree to swap for a time, and
can do so without squabbling.

Familics with more than two
children needn’t be as con-
cemed bout cqual treatment.
The children who must go
” we e wt

yee wwpsnierp! )

without share a common dis-
tress; their hurt is thus easier to

bear. Parities, too, with their .

extra participants and gifts
ease the sting of being only an
observer.

Proponents. of gifts only for
the celebrant argue giving to
the sister robs the birthday
child of feeling special. Kids,
they maintain, need to Lear to
wait their turn, to admire from
a distance without coveting.

That’s easier to take if the
two birthdays are relatively
close; waiting a week or two
for her turn is bearable. But
when birthdays are six months
apart, waiting one’s tum cath
seem unduly tedious.

Canadian novelist Margaret
Laurence, known to be ex-
ceedingly attentive to the feel-
ings of others, wrote, ‘‘If you
give a birthday present to a
small child you should also.
give a present to her even
younger sister whose feelings .

might otherwise be crushed.” -

My sentiments exactly,

Efe

TL

FIVE