We don’t run a front page headline on forestry
every week, but it’s a rare week when we don’t have a
major forestry-related story somewhere in the news-
paper. There are nearly as many forestry stories in this
area as there are trees, an indication of that industry’s
continuing importance to the well-being of Terrace’s
economy and the general high regard in which local
people hold the woods.

The culmination of several long-standing situations
in forestry is upon us here. Skeena Sawmills is the
third major processing operation in the area to make a
significant workforce cut due to the-high price of |
timber, following Westar’s Kitwanga sawmill and, it
appears, Erwin Stege in Hazelton who took over
Westar’s old Rim operation.

Blame is being flung all over the valley bottoms and
mountain slopes regarding who and what has brought
us to this pass. That sort of rhetoric, however, matters
little in view of the fact that we’re headed for a replay
o’ he early 1980's: economic indicators are slowing
d vn and we're still sitting in the same patch of
(2. uch-reduced) forest, pumping out the same prod-
ucts, and hoping foreign markets will continue to buy
them. Despite advanced technology, what comes out
of the end of the mills is still the same stuff, the same
30 percent of the Terrace economy depends on the
saleability of those products, and in summary, like
people who insist on rebuilding in earthquake zones
we seem to have learned little from history.

To the stieetside observer, the loaded logging trucks
appear to be parading by with unabated vigor. What
is anyone ‘o make of the arguments about annual
allowable cut, the fall-down effect, stumpage,
wastage, utilization and exports?

There is no single issue of greater importance to this
community, and it calls for a clear presentation and
understanding of the facts. In an effort to provide an
information base and in the hope that community in-
volvement in forestry can make a difference in our
collective futures, Terrace Review reporter Tod

Strachan, in collaboration with local foresters Rod Ar-
nold and Doug Davies, begins a new feature (page A7)
this week: Forestry Insights. We encourage our readers
to submit questions and provide insights of their own
for this weekly column.
At its most basic level, this issue is a matter of at-

titude.

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US REDESIGN THE PACKS...

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LABESS ON THE PAGKD } CAN
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‘Second-claas mail
ragistration No. 6896.

All material appearing in the Terrace Review is
protected under Canadian copyright Reglistra-

. Established May 1, 1985-
The Terrace Review is published
each Wednesday by
Close-Up Business Services Ltd.

duced for any reason without permission of the

- Publisher: publiaher.

Errore’ and omisalons. Advertising Is accepted

Mark Twyford on the condition that In the event of
Editor: typographical error, hat portion of the advertls-

OF. Ing space occupied by the erroneous Item will
Michael Kelly not be charged for, but the balance of the advar-

~ Staff Reporters: tisement will be paid {or at the applicable rate.

-Tod Strachan, Betty Barton

Advertising Manager: Terrace Review in handwritten form.

Mar] Twyford 9 advertisement will ne. published which
. acrimin ato age, .
are setting: rel ilo, pes lor, ex vat cally, anc ce try oF place
. of origin. _
Production Manager: 4535 Greig Avenue,
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Chartes Costello, Gurbax Gill, ;
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Accounting: One yeer subscriptions:
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Seniors in Terrace and District $12.00
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Adverlisers muet assume responsibility for er-
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in compliance with the 8.C. Human fights Act,

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by Bob Jackman

Wednesday ——
Perspectives

Our political columnists, in-
cluding the gentleman who usu-
ally occupies this space, have
tended to focus all their. atten-
tion on the Premier. Most por-
tray him as a modern-day Hitler
(he has occasionally said things
that have made even me cringe),
while others, more often letter-
writing Zalmoids than colum-
nists, have protrayed him as a
fearless, fore-sighted leader
who, like the Pied Piper of

- Hamelin, will save us all from

the rats among us by leading
them away behind his flute.
Zalm-fear or Zalmfir? Take
your: pick.

You could probably expect a
backlash from the ZalmZealots
who are with him all the way —:
right or wrong — but what I also
see happening is a growing
apathy toward the columnists.
Like the kid who cried wolf one
time too often, the columnists
are starting to lose the interest of
their readers. And if you can be
apathetic about the Zalm, what
in the world can you get excited
about?

@ I haven’t had to shovel the
grader dumpings out of my
driveway for a couple of hours
now, so this next couple of
paragraphs will be a little more
mellow than they were on first

draft. Still, one has to be a little -

‘amazed that the Chairman of
€ouncil’s Public Works Com-

~. mittee actually stated that she
was proud of the job the crews .

were doing removing snow from
Terrace streets recently. Com-

pared to what? The job Brian

and Michael are doing in wiping
out our national debt? The fan-

Me - tastic season the’ Canucks are _

having?

The condition of our City .
" streets for the past two weeks

has been, except perhaps’in the
mind of our Public: Works
Chairman, absolutely, without a
doubt; d-e-p-l-o-r-a-b-l-e. The
public works crews have not
done a good job of clearing our
streets. They may have done the
best job they can with the man-
power and equipment they have,
but that is not the same thing.

sorship and would be a great
disservice to’ those people who
care enough about how our City
is run to’ tune in on Monday
evenings. Those who would like
to see the transmissions cancell-
ed are exactly the same people
who can ensure that the cameras
and microphones do work pro-

perly.

‘¢ .. one has to be a little amazed that the Chairman
of Council’s Public Works Committee actually stated
that she was proud of the job the crews were doing
removing snow from Terrace streets recently.’’

The media criticism of our.
snow-clearing efforts seems to
have had the effect that jumping
to the defense of staff is. of
higher priority than ensuring
that staff provide the services
they are supposed to for the
benefit of the public. It’s
understandable that Council and
Administration may tend to get
chummy after four or five years
of working together, but still —
Council is elected to serve the
community, not the City staff.
Aldermen should make every ef-
fort to keep an open mind,
rather than feeling personally af-
fronted when staff are maligned.
If the Public Works Chairman
honestly believes that the mess
on Lakelse, Emerson and
Lazelle was “good work’”’ she
could perhaps ponder these
words,

@ Another Alderman seems to
have risen to the bait, suggesting
that if TV transmission of Coun-
cil meetings can't be improved,
then the cameras (and micro-
phones) should be removed
from the Concil chambers.
Wrong!
Scrapping the televising of
Council meetings smacks of cen-

Rather than helping to hide
Council deliberations and public
petitions by scrapping the ser-
vice, the Alderman in question
should be. demanding that
enough funds are allotted to en-
sure that the picture and voice
quality are of the highest caliber
possible. It ain't that tough! It
used to work. It worked well un-
til some politically embarrassing
issues were broadcast that some
people may have preferred to
keep under wraps (the issues that
get sent to Committee without
comment?). I would be willing
to bet that there’s nothing wrong
with the system that a decent
technician and a couple of hun-
dred dollars wouldn’t fix quite
nicely, (Or lapel microphones?)

@ I would be remiss if, in this
first column since their award, I
didn’t add my congratulations
-to Mark and Marj Twyford and
the staff of the Review for the
recognition they received as not
only the best paper in Terrace,
but one of the best in B.C. Keep
up the good work, folks!
Bob Jackman is a former
alderman for the City of Terrace -
and a frequent contributor to”
the Terrace Review.