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. if Vas ferGavn. is iS = TE NEW GOVT. WARNING US REDESIGN THE PACKS... Ke LABESS ON THE PAGKD } CAN LE WOK... BUT TRING ho ‘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, Production: Teerace, B.C. Chartes Costello, Gurbax Gill, ; "Linda Mercer, Ranjit Nizar Phone: 635-7840 Carrie Olson ee) Accounting: One yeer subscriptions: Mar] Twyford, Harminder K. Dosanjh Caan 00 Seniors in Terrace and District $12.00 Seniors out of Terrace and District $15.00 ton No. 362775 and cannot legally be repro- Adverlisers muet assume responsibility for er- rors (n any classified ad which is supplied to the in compliance with the 8.C. Human fights Act, ee 1960 2LTTIOTT TRU AILSIEI USAT ECLNTEE, I ELLEN a a LL r] y % an ty Z nig He mi Te ao iE ed WAZ on eg yy myth; HH 7. 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.