A The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, January 22, 1997 - AS Local volunteer helps feed the needy By DAVID TAYLOR ON GOOD days he can put several months worth of food on the supper tables of local families, - Sometimes that job simply involves a short drive and a little hard work, Other times it involves dodging locomotives on long. snowmobile rides in minus 40-degree weather. ’ A’road paver in the sum- mer months, Rex Rema has the’ unique winter job of picking up moose that have been killed by trains, He then delivers the meat to needy local families. The 53-year-old has been collecting moose for seven years. This winter alone he’s delivered 11 animals to people who might otherwise not be able to afford meat. And he does it for free. “There are a lot of hungry people out there,” Rema says. “I like to help them out when I can. Plus, [ don’t like to see these moose suf- fer. Nothing should have to suffer.’’ When moose are struck by - carson the highway, Can- servation Officers usually pick them up. If no CO’s are available, Rema will gather the roadkill himself. However, he’s the only person who goes out to fetch train-killed animals. In a moose-train encounter the moose always lose, al- though they often gel away with just a broken leg, Un- fortunately, Rema says a broken leg is a death sentence in the deep snow and cold of winter. That’s why he has a spe- cial permit from the en- vironment ministry which allows him to put down in- jured moose and haul away the carcasses, When a call comes in about a moose-hit, Rema heads out on the train tracks either by snowmobile or ATV to look for the injured peo NOT JUST anybody can grab a road-killed moose, toss it into the back of a pick-up and take off. That's illegal. “If you see one, or hit one yourself, call it in,” says Conservation Officer Doug Forsdick. ‘‘We will deal with it.” Forsdick says stealing roadkill is against the law, and people can be fined if they are caught making off with moose. “We have guidelines covering who gels the meat,” he says. ‘‘We sal- vage as much of it as pos- _sible and make sure it gels ENOUGH MEAT to last until next Fall. That's Rex Rema unloading a train-killed moose for Gordon Lang. Rema picks up moose off the tracks and delivers them to needy families in the Terrace area. animal. Then he tows it back to his truck and loads it onto a moose-sized trailer. Train operators know to look out for Rema when he’s on the tracks, but he carties a CN radio just in case. *] have to keep my eyes open,”’ he says. ‘‘I don’t walt to butt heads with an engine going 50 miles an hour.” The number of moose Rema gets in a season depends on how active the animals are and what weather conditions are like. Sometimes Rema says there will be spelis where he doesn’t get a mimule’s rest for a month — but then there will be two weeks when he doesn’t get a single phone call. to people who need it the most.”’ Conservation Officers pick up dead or badly in- jured moose from roadways ‘T's really an ex- cellent meat — very lean and low in cholesterol.”’ -Conservation Officer Doug Forsdick- all winter long. The worst area in the region tends to be the Kilimal-Terrace cor- ridor along Highway 37, es- And since the job is entirely voluntary, Rema doesn’t get any compen.sa- lion for his work. He even has to pay for all the gas and maintenance on his pickup and snowmobile out of his own pockel. Still, he insists his efforts pay off in the end, “It’s warth it,’? he says. “T delivered a moose to one family on the 23rd of De- cember, and the lady literal- ly cried because they had no idea what they were going to eat for their Christmas dinner.” Last Wednesday, be brought a moose out to Gor- don Lang and his wife, Wanda, Lang is on a: dis- ability pension and can’t work because he Smphysemas.. kill meat not pecially around Williams Creck, where there are plenty of moose. Those moose like to travel along our plawed roads he- cause the deep snow in the bush can make walking dif- ficult. Unfortunately, . their wauderings are also a hazard for themselves aad for area drivers. Farsdick says 90 per cent of the animals are killed at night, whea driver’s visibility is limited. The nioose also tend to freeze up in car headlights and might not try to get out of the way until it’s too late. When CO’s can’t get lo an has “It's a Godsend for us really,”’ says Lang. “This makes the difference be- tween cating well and eating Kraft Dinner for the last half of every month.” Lang says the 450 Ib moose they received will provide the couple with enough meat to last until the Falk, He has to cut and wrap the meat himself, but he says that’s not a big deal. “Tf the meat’s tender I cut it for steaks or chops,”’ he says. “And if it’s tough, I grind it into hamburger. Plus we do lots of canning.’* The Langs are just one of many families on the Con- servation Officers’ list of eligible meat recipients. To get on the list, families have condition that prevents them from eating commercial beef, Moose meat is also delivered to community groups who help out the hungry. Aud while the job is only voluntary, Rema doesn’t lake it lightly, Last year while picking up a moose, Rema slipped on the ice and hit his head on the bumper of his pickup. That sent him to the hospital with a broken jaw and checkbone. The next day he got a call that three moose were down, In spite of his in- juries, Rema went out, ‘picked up the moose ands. delivered it to a family. “My wife dam near divorced me over that,’’ he — to cither be on some form of Says. “I just can’t stand to Social assistance, or have a sec the meat go to waste.” free-for- all animal, they are grateful to have Rex Rema’s help. He has their permission to pick up the moose. "He provides us with a valuable service,’” says Forsdick. ‘‘A lot of people out there can be thankful to him for their meal.”’ Forsdick points out that the meat the officers disirib- ute is never spoilcd, and can be quite tasty, “The animals don’t sil out there for long, and the cold . them stay — weather helps fresh,’' he says. ‘‘It’s really an excellent meat — very lean and low in cholesterol.’ Doug Forsdick Moose population unknown LOADING A road-killed moose onto a truck In Jackpine Fiats. That's John Trewhitt and Rob Seatan of BC Parks with Conservation Officer Ken Fujino. THE MOOSE population i in the Skeena region is not likely being decimated by car and train accidents. But just how many of the animals are living here is anybody’s guess. The last count was done almost a decade ago, and biologists aren't especially confident with those num- bers. ‘We've done two moose surveys in the Terrace area,’’ says Smithers wild- life biologist Rick Marshall. “But those were cight ycars ago. The population could have done anything in that time,”’ The last study surveyed some 800 moose in the Terrace-Kitimat — corridor. Back then, the bull to cow ratio was quite good, which means the bulls weren’t being dramatically over har- vested. “We hope to do a new survey next year, but that might not happen,’ Mar- shail says. ‘It’s really tough to do inventory surveys today because of a lack of funding." This year biologists ex- pecied a high road and train kill count. because of the’ deep snow, but that didn’t happen. “Tt turns out that moose tend to move around a lot less when the snaw is deep,’ Marshall says. And Marshall points out the number of moose mn down by trains and cars in the Terrace area is only a small percentage of the total number killed. He estimates about 50 moose are hit by trains each winter west of Smithers and close to the same number are killed by vehicles on roads. Meanwhile, hunters take about 906 of the animals. Marshall also says that al- though his office has a good idea of how many moose are bagged by licenced hunters, they have almost no idca how many are shot by unlicenced hunters. Those hunters include both First Nations peoples and poachers. “We hope to get native hunters to monilor their har- vests in the fulure,’’ Mar- shall says. ‘“The potential is there to damage a herd be- cause a lot of native hunting takes place in the winter when bulls have dropped their antlers. And that makes them hard to tell apart fram cows,”’ far on Waste — CORRESPONDENCE FOR THE TERRACE STANDARD The Mail Bag Angler misinformed Dear Sir: J am writing this letter in response to Rob Brown and his columm, the Skeena Angler of Jan 8, 1997, It was of great interest to me to read your reflections on the last Sport Fish Advisory Board (SFAB) mecting that you attended in Terrace. At one point during the meeting Elmer Fast of DFO proposed a gear restriction (flyfishing only) as a solu- tion to a poaching problem on a small section of the Gitnadoix river. He was of the opinion that this would be preferable to a closure, These means were proposed by DFO to prevent people from illegally fishing for chinock salmon. Unfortunately all that a flyfishing only regulation would accomplish is to have these poachers keep a flyrod on board and retrieve it when they heard a boat approaching. This is an enforcement issue. Perhaps DFO should step up their presence in this area rather than applying more restrictions to an already saturated fishing synopsis. As you so duly noted, I do believe that there is an elitist core of flyfishermen lobbying for their cause. [ also flyfish, and have since they imposed this regula- tion on the Lakelse river 20 years ago. Now these same anglers are causing problems in this system by repeatedly catching and releasing steclhead and stomp- ing all over the spawning beds while they fish. Their claim is that this is a less harmful method of fishing than all of the others. What is wrong with casting a spoon of spinner from the beach without crushing fry underfoot? Is a single barbless fly less harmful than a single barbless spoon? As to how we wooly thinking, inexperienced, sclf- interested anglers at large gather input from out con- stituents, we do our best to discuss these issucs with the many anglers that we meet. We hang out in the tackle shops, in restaurants, at boat launches and in many other venues, You say that the other members ‘‘represent organized interests”. I certainly know whom you represent. Un- fortunately you obviously do not understand that the vast majority of anglers do not belong to any “organized interest groups’’. For the record Bobby, I represent the Terrace Rod & Gun Ctub which boasts a far larger and more diver- sified membership than the local chapter of the Stecl- head Sociely and the local feather jerking club com- bined. also found very interesting your depth of knowledge of the Terrace SFAB and its members, considering in my 6 or so odd years with this board this is the first time that I have been graced by your presence at one of our meelings. ] think that you owe an apology to all those members who contribute so much time & energy to protect fish- ing opportunities for all anglers. In closing Bobby, I suggest that maybe you should spend a liltle more of your energy on protecting op- _ portunities for all people. If you can’t, then you. should. ” put your head back in your waders. Fred Straw Terrace, B,C, About more than losers Dear Sir: On Dec. 30, 1996-1 read an editorial in this paper entitled ‘‘Spare Us” which ] found disappointing. The editorial dealt with the issues of vandalism and violence at Caledonia, more specifically, during spares. As a student at Cal, I know that there are still a small group of students who have yet to lear the difference between right and wrong, and their actions have caused numerous problems in the school. However, students at Cal with spares should not be targeted as the culprits. As more research into the arti- cle would have uncovered, a fair number of the prob- lems occurred cither during lunch or during a break, not during spares, and the students are also fed up with the pranks of our peers. Contrary to popular belief, most students with spares don’t have a time management problem, and are quite capable of occupying themselves with something use- ful. As mentioned in a previous letter, sometimes stu- dents have spares because of conflicts in their schedule and this problem is unavoidable, I suppose, in a way it is good to see a local newspa- per taking an interest in the school. But why do a few losers make front page news while a major undertaking like Fiddler On The Roof gets buried in the back? Lea Langille Terrace, B.C. Wreath will be missed Dear Sir: This letter is directed to the grinch or grinches who stole the beautiful Christmas wreath from our front door in December. You were not aware of this at the time, but my pine cone wreath with the large red velvet bow was hand- - made for me 10 years ago. In the years 10 come ] hope you enjoy displaying my Wreath on your front door as much as | did every Christmas season. Linda Ashbaugh Terrace, B.C, Time to go nuclear Dear Sir: My 1997 congratulations go to the “Focus North Socicty’’ for asking questions about the high natural gas prices in the north. Eleven years ago somebody from Dease Lake could not get a licence to sell firewood for domestic use and ended up in the Terrace Correctional Centre chopping firewood instead. When cheap natural gas arrived it was no wonder everybody jumped on that band wagon. Such disparity can be attributed to the laws passed in the last 15 years to stop burning wood. That’s monopoly — you pay now for what only I sell you, because all other forms of cheap heating has been eliminated through democratically passed environmen- tal laws. Since oll, coal, natural gas and wood are all hydrocarbons and pollute the atmosphere, perhaps nuclear power Is the best source for the future if a safe way can be found to store the waste, Manfred Bader Terrace, BC.