Cottonwood
ction

cottonwood provides the begin-

We have all witnessed the natural _
: beauty of a morning mist hanging
low over the Skeena. There are
thousands of photos and paintings
of similar scenes that give you a
certain sense of being close to
nature. What most of us don’t
really understand, though, is just
how complicated that peaceful
scene is. And how important it is
hot to disturb its basic elements.

- In the beginning, this natural

beauty was nothing more than a
gravel bar formed by the river.
As in most areas of Terrace and
Thornhill a flood plain was being
formed by the uncontrolled energy
of a receding Ice Age river. In
appearance, it would have been
similar to the Copper Flats —
basically, nothing more than a
gravel bar with the beginnings of
life.

The first growth on early river
banks and islands we see today.
was Cottonwood trees. Cottonwood
likes all the water it can suck from
the nearby river and thrives on
spring floods that cleanse its roots
of natural acids. But the
Cottonwood does much more than
just sit around, drink plenty of
water and have annual baths. The

ce

nings of a brand new ecosystem:

" These lowland gravel bars are a

natural spot for river deposition —
the settlement of river silts and

sand — which is beginning of a

soil base on a developing river
bank or island. Leaves from the
cotionwood mix with the silt and
help to form more soil, which
attracts the growth of alder, a
natural nitrogen fixer, and worms,
fungii and bacteria, all of which
help turn the soil into rich humus.

All of this sounds fairly straight-
forward, but Mother Nature had a
difficult problem to solve. If left
alone, none of this early suc-
cession would take place. Spring
floods would wash everything
away and any kind of real forest
would never begin growing,

The cottonwood provided the
solution, though. A cottonwood
tree is a natural "water pump", A
single three-foot-diameter
cottonwood can "pump" as much
as 5,000 gallons of water on a
sunny day with a light breeze. The
process is called "evaporatranspira-
tion” and serves several purposes.

First, if every  three-foot
cottonwood removes 5,000 gallons

by Tod Strachan

of water from the passing river,
the combined effect of a small
forest of cottonwood lowers the
water table. This means that the
fiver bank ‘or island is flooded
much fess often and other plant
species can take hold in the newly
formed soil.

Second, the cottonwood expels
all this water it sucks up from the
river through it’s leaves and forms

an ideal habitat for a new forest.

Some of the evaporating water
rises into the atmosphere to form
clouds and fall as rain on distant
slopes. But much of it circulates
under the canopy of the
cottonwood plantation. This main-
tains a cool, humid environment
suitable for the growth of many
species of plants, an atmosphere
that is at the same time unattract-
ive to insects.

In this super-rich environment,
then, new plant life begins to take
hold. In fact that is why this type
of ecosystem is so difficult to
manage. Almost everything

imaginable grows, everything

- The view from
Victoria —

by John Pifer

VICTORIA — Talk about
keeping your election options
open!

The provincial Budget
delivered last week by Finance
Minister Mel Couvelier does
just that — in spades.

But to dub it an election
Budget, as some pundits have,
is going too far, methinks.

Sure, there are no direct tax
increases. Yes, there are some
little extras for homeowners
fighting higher school taxes.
~ T also agree that there is an
attempt to show environmental
concern and responsibility.

But there are no real ‘‘good-
ies’’ or handouts usually
associated with election
budgets. They are not man-
datory, but they can help,

- And yes, by preaching about
its fiscal responsibility through-
out, the Social Credit govern-
ment could take this Budget in-
to an election almost im-
mediately, and beat the drum
about being the only party
capable of dealing with an im-
minent economic downturn.

It could, but it may not be
within a matter of weeks as

matiy are predicting.

Don’t ever forget that
Premier Bill Vander Zalm is an
avid fan of former premier
W.A.C, Bennett.

The Zalm believes tactics and
election strategy employed by
Wacky will still work 40 years
later in keeping power for the
Socreds,

Ol’ W.A.C. always expound-
ed on hitting the voters where
they live — in the heart and in
the wallet.

Find an issue which appeals
to their emotions, toss in fears
about thoughtless overspending
by ‘‘the socialist hordes’ and
their Big Government philoso-
phy, and you have a formula
that has worked for the free-
enterprise coalition all but once
in four decades.

The modern-day Socreds feel
they have the “wallet” issue in
the buoyant state of the
economy coupled with hints of
economic problems ahead
which only they can manage.

Now the decision must be
taken on what the “heart”
issue will be — one which
could be a winning one come

election day.

This correspondent believes
that it could be the GST.

Mr. Couvelier hammered Ot-
tawa on several occasions dur-
ing his Budget speech, but
never so strongly as when he
turned on the goods and ser-
vices tax.

- He told the House that the
federal government “‘has not
listened to the taxpayer, The
GST will be a serious blow. In
the face of massive opposition,
(Ottawa) is determined to press
ahead with this tax. This tax is
unacceptable to British Colum-
bia.’

If a provincial government
could cash in on that massive
Opposition to the GST, it could
sail to an election victory
regardless of its record,
regardless of any scandals old
or new, regardless of its past
alienation of whole sectors of.
the electorate.

And it’s the kind of mother-
hood issue which affects both
the heart and the wallet, now
isn’t it?

This fall, with the year-end
implementation date for the tax

contributing its own special offer-
ing to this early forest. You can
find thimbleberry, red osier dog-
wood (red willow), devils club,
and in cool shaded places, ferns.

As this growth continues, so does
the build-up of soil, and in time a
portion of the shore or island is
well above the level of the river,
Here, cedar and spruce begin to
grow. Excellent examples of these
Stages of growth can been seen
today in the Skeena River, where
islands range from gravel bars, to
young cottonwood stands, to stands
of spruce and cedar with
cotionwood still growing on the
shore.

If you have ever heard
cottonwood referred to as a "nurse
crop" you may now be starting to
understand why. Even on these
more fully developed Skeena
islands the cottonwood continue to
"pump" the water; keeping the
stands of cedar and spruce high
and dry. .

When man intervenes, though,
anything can happen. If too much

looming ominously, might be
just the time to rail against it
even more, and to offer pro-
posals to fight it, or to deflect
it, or to be seen to be standing
up to “‘the rotten easterners’
unfairness’’,

Don’t ask me how — I
haven’t figured that part out
yet.

But with Mr. Couvelier
promising to conduct a ‘‘major
review”’ of B.C. taxes, and ad-
mitting that one option he kind
of likes is a separate B.C, in-
come tax, it would come as lit-
tle surprise to find that the
government is actively trying to
figure it out,

One of the most confusing
things in this Budget, as it was
last year, is whether it is
balanced or not.

The Budget Stabilization
Fund is the culprit. Mr,
Couvelier uses this ‘book ac-
count’” to balance revenues and
expenditures. But even he ad-
mits there is no real money in

cottonwood is cut, the water table
rises and the river bank or island
can lose years of natural suc-
cession. If the work is particularly
careless, the whole process has to
begin again. These special forest
sites require something called
"selection cutting". That is what
we're going to look at next week:
forest management in lowlands.
Following that, we'll work our
way up the slopes and look at
other ecosystems that cach need
their own special care.

Forestry Insights is regular
weekly feature of the Terrace
Review, written by staff reporter
Tod Strachan in consultation with
Registered Professional Foresters
Rod Arnold and Doug Davies. We
encourage our readers to become
involved in forestry issues by sub-
mitting questions, comments and
contributions of their own. Write to
Forestry Insights, cfo the Terrace
Review, 4535 Greig Ave., Terrace,
B.C. V8G 1M7.

it; and it was he who dubbed
to the aptly-named B.S. Fund.

I have no intention of trying
to explain whether or not the
Budget forecast for the 1990/91
fiscal year is balanced, because
‘of an injection from the B.C.
Fund.

Suffice to say the govern-
ment says it is and can prove
it; the Opposition says it is not
and can prove it... and they are
both right!

Parting Thought: At the
traditional post-Budget recep-
tion at Victoria’s stately Em-
press Hotel, one individual was
noticeable by his presence —
Rick Hansen, everyone’s
favorite Man in Motion. What
would you say if I were to sug-
gest that Mr. Hansen will be a
Socred candidate in the general
election? Well, it looks likely,
and who would want to run
against such a hero? surely he
would be unbeatable? Stay
tuned,

Aggregate contract awarded

Terrace cliy council has split the
1990 Aggregates Contract between
two local contractors, From April
16 to Dec. 31 this year, Far-ko
Contracting will provide the city
with crushed high-fines surfacing
aggregate and well-graded base
course aggregate at $4.40 per cubic
Meter, and seciccted granular
sub-base aggregate at $1 per cubic
meter. Bedding sand will be pro-
vided by 16-25 Transport Lid. at

$.79 per cubic meter. The contracts
were awarded 10 the lowest bidder
on cach of the four aggregate
products,

By comparison, last year’s prices
per cubic metcr were $3.80 for
crushed high-fines surfacing aggre-
gate, $4.65 for well-graded basc
course aggregate, $.98 for selected
granular sub-basc aggregate, and
$.98 for bedding sand.

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