C4 Terrace Review — Wednesday, May 9, 1990

Women in Timber: a balanced look at forests:

by Stephanie Wiebe.

Recently, a small child came
home from school crying, because
he had leamed at school that his
daddy is a bad person. The teacher
said that people in the logging
industry chop down trees and pour
poisons all over, killing small
animals. Every tree chopped down
means the little animals would die
and there would be no clean air
left to breathe, The message was
clear: his daddy was bad.
‘The child was not, told about
reforestation techniques, he was
not told that trees can grow back
again, he was not told that his
daddy likes trees, too, and that
there are people whose job it is to
replant trees and make sure the
forests are managed wisely. He
was not exposed to Project Learn-
ing Tree, an educational package
made available to all schools by
the B.C. Forestry Association.

"Our basis is education," said Pat

- Fechtner, chairman of B.C.

Women In Timber, at a public

meeting in Terrace last week.
BCWIT, whose m
includes male and female citizens,

is a branch of Canadian Women in

Timber patterned along the lines of
a U.S.-based group which encour-
ages a balanced look at the use of
forest resources. Their belief is
that these resources can be har-
vested in harmony with nature to
provide a continuous supply of
forest products.

Brenda Armstrong said at the

‘same meeting that the group ‘she

represents — Share B.C. — has a
slightly different focus. Share B.C.
is an umbrella group for the many
smaller regional groups concerned
about the future of communities
and the diminishing role their
concems play in the natural
resource allocation and manage-
ment. "I don’t like propaganda. I
think people should be able to
make up their own minds." These

membership |

decisions should: come from an
educated weighing of the facts,
according to Armstrong, not from
emotional reactions or biased
media views. .

Addressing an audience from
Terrace, Kitimat and Prince
Rupert, Fechtner and Armstrong
represented a voice not often heard
in recent news reports. With heavy
media attention on environmental
issues, logging is not a popular
industry, according-to Fechtner and
Armstrong. After pulling up roots
from northern. British Columbia,
both now reside in the Lower
Mainland. They’ve noticed most
anti-forestry campaigns begin in
large urban centers.

"If you walk on concrete all day,
you want to know there’s a forest
out there somewhere," said Arm-
strong, referring to this concept as
an "existence value", and citing a
conflict between urban and rural
values. What few people in urban

centers realize is that the wilder-

a

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"Education,

we think,

is the answer."

ness preserves are just that —
preserved wilderness. "There are
no roads, no logging, no mining,

‘no hunting — I have yet to hear
‘the guide-hunters respond to that."

Other than aboriginal hunting and
fishing, access to wildlife pre-
serves is cut off. No one is
allowed to even see it.

"We agree that. there are some
areas of forest should be set
aside," said Fletchner. "We feel

that locking up a huge amount cf

our forests is unnecessary."
Fechtner conceded that logging is
not always a pretty business.
"Slash burning is ugly — there’s
no doubt about that. The forest
industry has had to re-assess every
aspect of its practices." But she
also noted that the unattractive
photographs commonly used in
environmental campaigns are old,
showing the same often-used pho-
tographic example of slash left
behind after logging an area 11
years ago. "They don’t have a
more recent one, because its green-
ing up now — it’s growing back."
Reacting to "Stop all logging"
campaigns, Terrace resident Edna
Cooper commented, "They don’t
understand that a tree is a living

thing. They think they can preserve

it." She compared logging with
planting a garden: harvesting last
year’s carrots to plant new seeds.
Fechtner and Armstrong agree
that the forest industry has become
a scapegoat for environmental
concerns. As an example, they
discussed a problem in the Tsitika
Valley, effecting Robson Bight
near Port McNeil. Nearby logging
has been accused of chasing away
local whale populations, though the
logging is kept at a minimum
one-mile distance from the shore.
Fechtner said, "Nothing’s happen-
ing within one mile of those
beaches — no logging. When the
whales are in the area, February
through September, I think it

there will be no logging at all
within sight at that time of year."

Armstrong noted that even
powerboats or fishing fleets do not
bother the whales, due to the fact
that these boats don’t approach
near the foreshore. "The problem
with the whales is that people
bring kayaks to the beach. They
will leave when the kayaks are
there." But the general misconcep-
tion is that logging is the disrup-
tive force to the whales.

The forest industry has also been
fingered as a major dioxin prod-
ucer, although a study in the U.S.
showed that municipal solid waste
incineratin produces 60.3 percent
of annually released dioxins, with

‘the pulp and paper industry pro-

ducing only 0.8 percent, even less
than the 1.4 percent produced
annually by hospitals.

While tourism. is’ commonly
touted as a major dollar-producing
indusiry in B.C., the forest indus-
try’s financial contribution is often
ignored. According to statistics, the
forest industry generates $15 bil-
lion annually in our province,
while tourism produces $3 billion.

With all we have to protect, the
harvesting of our forest demands
some careful planning and control.
Women in Timber and Share B.C.
feel that this is not a war of good.
guys against the bad guys, and the
public needs to hear that. "Educa-
tion, we think, is the answer," said
Fechtner.

In simple terms, Share B.C is an
information resource for local and
regional lobby groups. Canadian
Women In Timber develops and
co-ordinates the distribution of
educational materials, A related
group is currently being organized
in the Terrace area. Their first
meeting will be on Tuesday, May
15 at 7:30 p.m. in the Public
Library meeting room. Interested
persons should contact Maureen at

is, (635-9780) or Diana (638-1602).

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