eee ee ne Herby This week: hatches the Plan | erby Squish was grateful H for the solitude, Milton Jovial was wandering the halls of the legislative buildings in Victoria, hoping for an audience with forest minister Bugs Weevil or premier Woody Waffle. This meant Herby could begin work on the Management and Working Plan for Milton’s coastal forest licence without the aggravation of Milton’s interference. Milton, if he ever managed to comer either of the above, wasn’t likely to get anywhere in his bid for a pulp chip export licence but that didn’t bother Herby. "Better them than me,” he thought. "I've got important work to do." Herby began typing: Five year. Management and Working Plan, Jovial Logging Inc., coastal Forest Licence #12345, Kalum Forest District. Prepared by Herbert P. Squish, RPF. He then entered the first heading: 1.0 MANAGEMENT GOALS. Much of this contained exactly what he had described to Jovial the week before, the difference being that this particular plan was for only one of Jovial’s two forest licences and would therefore reflect only half the startup and operational costs. . For Forest Licence #12345, then, the two-year construction phase of the sawmill meant 175 man-years of work with wages totalling around $8.75 million. Once operat- ing, the Cedarvale sawmill would employee 50 workers who would earn a total of $2.25 million an- nually, and create 125 service related jobs worth $6.6 million a year in wages. In addition, of course, there was Jovial’s greatest cause for concern — an additional guaranteed source of pulp chips to safeguard the security of that in- dustry. All in all, the proposal was an obvious boon to the economies of Terrace and surrounding com- munities. Also to be addressed in this part of the plan were future expansion plans. Here Herby noted that cur- rent plans already included a value-added component, a chipper, dry kiln and finger-joint operation, and there was no reason to believe this couldn’t be further developed in the future. In addition, simply having more raw product close at hand offered opportunity for other entrepreneurs who wanted to begin or add to value-added ventures of their own. A mill expansion, though, was not anticipated. Jovial would be utilizing all available timber from. the outset. The Ministry of Forests would want to know about the effect of Jovial’s operation on range land. That was easy. There was mone. Public involvement in the planning process, however, would need to be spelled out, Here Herby entered his standard phrase: "The public will be involved in all stages of planning prior to the submission of the Development plan." For harvesting priorities, Herby listed. salvageable timber such as blow-downs and insect infested trees first. He listed overmature timber, trees 250 years and older, second. Overmature timber, trees 150 to 250 years old, third. And thrifty mature, trees between 120 and 150 years old, fourth. The final consideration for this section of the plan was the most controversial and often the greatest headache — integrated resource management. Here, Herby entered his usual text explaining how water, habitat and fisheries resources would be protected for the parallel’ use'of trappers, hunters See It... by Stephanie Wiebe My daughter pointed out the tabloid headline in the grocery store: "Teen Drops Dead From Killer Math Test". I was not surprised, I knew it would happen sooner or later. Math hes always scemed dangerous to me. Like Monday mornings and blood tests, math is something to grit your tecth and tolerate, but not necessarily took forward to. Yet, ever since I can remember, one person or another has tried to sway me toward liking math. I can't understand this math-loving compulsion. | realize mathematics is a facet of life that I can’t ignore, but I don’t have to like it any more than I _ like flossing my teeth — I do it, but I don’t look forward to the event. To me, math is a logical pain in the derricre of my mind. Urging someone to enjoy math is like urging someone to enjoy garbanzo beans: ridiculous — _ either you like them or you don’t. Compassion keeps me from pushing garbanzo beans onto anyone, and I expect the same understanding from others about math. Then there’s calculator guilt, commonly put upon math-haters by snooty mathematical elitists. "What?? You're using a CAL- CULATOR?? C’mon, use your The Way I brain!" Often, this comment does incite some brain activity, generally involving garbanzo beans shoved into the snooty mathematician’s nostrils, but math affection? Never. Oh, I know that I probably should like math. And garbanzo beans. I know that if I liked math and garbanzo beans, | would be a better person. I would calculate garbanzo beans all the time, be a logical mathematical genius (probably young, blonde and _ slim), and maybe win the Nobel prize. Flowers would bloom, music would play, and property taxes would fall to an all-time low. Life would be perfect if I liked math, but some things you just can’t force. I recall, a few years ago, when some government studied females and arithmetic, the results showed that women were often conditioned by our society to shun math and science. Now, I really enjoy science, but the math part of the study got to me. For a while, I was determined to conquer my math-distaste, just to rebel against the statistical norm. | really tried. Finally, I realized that, regardless of statistics, there are some males, females and others who simply are not mathematically inclined, and I _ was one of them. And then I thought of my friends, mainly women, who are fairly mathematical. . Actually, most of my friends are mathematically inclined. Hmmm...a startling revelation here —- was I subconsciously selecting friends with competent mathematical ability, to compen- sate for my own lack of expertise? I did marry an accountant, after all. Wouldn’t this be paratlel to a garbanzo-bean-hater choosing a group of peers who particularly enjoy garbanzo beans? Why would anyone do that? Do I hate garbanzo beans because I’ve been conditioned by society to hate them? Or is it simply because they taste so awful? Do statistics show whether garbanzo-bean- lovers are more mathematical than the rest of us? I can't imagine where to search for answers to these age-old questions — 4 psychologist, a mathematician, or a nutritionist? ’ Consumer research indicates that calculator sales are good, but so is the market for garbanzo beans. I’m not sure what that means. So calculate this: If you have 71 kilograms of garbanzo beans, and 25 people who consume 500 grams each, how many garbanzo beans do you have left over? More than enough. There's no need to calculate further — don’t forget that tabloid headline. Trust me, it's safer this way. by Tod Strachan, in consultation with Rod and fishermen in the area. How specific portions of the licensed area would be open and accessible to hikers, skicrs and snowmobilers. And how in fact, through good en- vironmental practices, Jovial might even be able to enhance inventories of animals and fish for other ministries. In short, concluded Herby, Jovial was going to follow the Resource Use Plan for the Kalum Forest District in an environmentally consistent way. What else could be more clear? i second part of the plan: 2.0 TIMBER MANAGE- MENT. "We will be doing a total chance plan of the area," Herby wrote, “using as a guideline the TSA plan for the Kalum Forest District." A "chance" plan is an overall plan for the area indicating all cut blocks of economically operable timber, and the infta- his brought Squish to the structure, roads; bridges, .etc.,- for: harvesting. He continued by explaining that Jovial’s ‘coastal Forest Licence #12345 involved an area of 40,000 hectares of land that contained an average of 450 cubic metres of wood per hectare. And of the 18 million cubic metres of fibre grow- ing there, six million cubic metres were harvestable, giving a 20-year supply with an Annual Allowable Amold and Doug Davies \ Wobrade Rébitew “ Wednesday, Febhlaty 30\'1991 AT Cut of 300,000 cubic metres of wood, Harvested trees would be mini- mum of 10 centimetres (four. inches) in diameter at the top, 17.5 centimetres (seven inches) at the bottom, measured at a butt height of 30 centimetres (12 inches) above the ground. The minimum log length would be 2.6 metres (cight feet, six inches) and they would utilize dead trees that were two-thirds sound and offered a potential for 50 percent lumber - recovery. And finally, firm-wood (healthy trees) would be harvested for com- modity lumber if they were two- thirds sound, pulp chips if they were half to two-thirds sound, and anything less than 50 percent sound would be left in the bush. Again, all this was pretty much standard format. Herby paused to rest his eyes. He was satisfied with his day’s work to this point. pe en Fen) of le re $ Next week, Herby continues. to develop Milton’s plan by .addres- sing engineering, harvesting and silviculture considerations. This will be followed on a segment on forest protection, and Herby will then complete Milton’s Manage- ment and Working Plan with a few other sundry items such as other resources, special projects — and contracting out. VIA to market Skeena run as tourist draw According to a report in the most recent issue of Passenger Train Journal, a senior VIA Rall executive has confirmed a rumoured plan to get back some of the transcontinental passenger rail market that VIA lost in the Jan. 15, 1990 round of funding cutbacks. ; Although details are still sketchy, VIA intends to operate a through-routed Vancouver- Jasper-Prince Rupert train later Pifer — Continued from page A6 In February 1991, documents bearing his handwriting and his signature show clearly that it was he who was ‘‘handling’’ it. Lying about one thing brings into question everything uttered before and after, I suggest. This man is the Premier. He should no longer be al- lowed to be. this year, The train will operate separately from the Vancouver- Jasper-Toronto transcontinental (the Canadian). The intention is to market the "new" service as 8 tour train, drawing passengers not just to the Vancouver-Jasper segment of the line, but en- couraging them to take the full tour to Prince Rupert and return, over the route of the Skeena. Demand for space on the Vancouver-Jasper leg of the tri- weekly Canadian has far out- stripped supply. The equipment for the Jasper-Prince Rupert Skeena is operated in-service as part of the transcontinental train between Vancouver and Jasper, but still cannot handle passenger demand because of the train length limits applied to the com- bined train. Operating the new train separately and on alternate days from the Canadian will allow VIA to soak up a greater percen- tage of the market demand.