A4 - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, August 10, 1994.

TERRACE.

STANDARD

ESTABLISHED APRIL 27, 1988 ‘

ADDRESS: 4647 Lazelle Ave., Terrace, B.C, * V8G 188
TELEPHONE: (604) 638-7283 * FAX: (604) 638-8432
MODEM: 638-7247 _

Uncle Al

THINK OF industrial strength in the northwest

and the first thing that comes to mind is Alcan’s
Kitimat Works. Without Alcan, the northwest
would be a much poorer place. Direct and in-
direct spending provides jobs and income
beyond the municipal limits of Kitimat.

Kitimat wouldn’t exist without Alcan. Terrace
would not be what it is today without Alcan.
Theré would be at least 10,000 fewer people.
living up here. The highway connecting the two

places came as a result of Alcan. The airport, all:

but mothballed after the Second World War, be-
came active in the early 1950s because of Alcan.
Alcan hydro-electricity has served domestic uses
in the northwest. A significant number of cultur-
al and recreational opportunities in the northwest
owe their existence to Alcan.

But for all of this, Alcan (or Uncle Al as it is
known by some) has weathered its fair share of
life’s crises over the past 40 years. Its birth near-
ly broke the parent company. Uncle Al
weathered recessions, strikes and competition
and in the last 15 years, a mighty battle to add to
its hydro-electric capacity through the Kemano
Completion Project.

The development of Alcan mirrors the develop-
ment of post-Second World War British Colum-
bia. Industrial expansion brought with it people,
jobs, money — all in the utter and complete
belief that the full-speed-ahead drive for profits
would make everything right and good.

But as Alcan’s experience with Kemano Com-

pletion shows, what was accepted 40 years ago is burgermeister of Williams HUBERT BEYER quicksand, according to Chris. _ professional forester, and I find ~
no longer the case. Large corporations learned Lake, Chris doesn’t think me a - The trees that are now between his reasoning rather convinc-. °
complete idiot. that anyone who believes we 150 years and 250 years old, ing. ae

that their responsibility extends beyond self-
interest, The wealth created by industry indirect-
ly financed the development of competing inter-

‘ests. The environment can’t be treated as a raw’
esource for infinite exploitation nor a con-—

‘venient repository for the side effects of industri-
al production.

So it is in this kind of atmosphere that Uncle Al
approaches middle age. With the passing years
comes a certain maturity. The company is still

Hil. How ABOUT
A MOVIE AFTER
THEY HAVE HALTED...

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CORE could be all wrong

VICTORIA -—- Got a call
today from my friend and up-
country conscience. Chris
O’Connor is woodlands man-
ager for Lytton Lumber. He’s a
registered professional forester
and he invariably reads my lay
contributions to the Great
Forestry Debate.

I can always rely on Chris to

call me on the carpet when I .

stray from what he considers
the straight and narrow of
forestry-related facts. And un-
like Walt Cobb, the oratorical

Chris also doesn’t accuse me
of having a conflict of interest
just because my wife happens
to work for the Commission on
Resources and Environment.
Maybe that’s because Chris
knows me, and Cobb doesn’t.

' (Editer’s notes Williams
Lake mayor Walt Cobb has
said Hubert Beyer is in a con-
flict of interest when writing
about the Comrmission on
Resources and Environment

i 4

FROM THE CAPITAL.

can keep up the current annual
cut is living in a dream world.
A reduction in the annual har-

vest .Jevels, I said,..was in-,... the z: vel
., fibre.per year that they are put-

evitable if we are to,achieve a.

sustained yicld anytime in the

future. -
Chris -argued very con-
vincingly that we will run out

of first-growth timber regard- .

less of any reductions now in
the annual allowable cut. -
“The down-fall effect has

and 250 years old. Another 10
per cent or so is 250 ycars and
older, Most trees in the pro-
vince’s Interior reach maturity
at about 100 years. More than
70 per cent of al] trees standing
loday fall within that category.
The whole argument for
sustained yield rests on the as-
sumption that we cut back on
the annual harvest now, so that
current inventory of trees will
last us until the next growth is
mature enough for harvesting,
But that argument is built on

he says, won’t be around for
another 100 years. Many of
them are dying now. Most of
them have started to lose more

ting on, ;
The only reason many of
those old stands are still
around is attributable . our
heroic efforts lo put out forest
fires, without which a full 50
per cent —- irecs over. 200
years old —- would be claimed

be harvested,

If Chris is right, we might as
well cut down as many of the
old trees as we can and derive

some cconomic benefit from -

them, before old age kills them
and makes them useless. for
anyone but the pine beetles.

I will undoubtedly get letters
and calls. from _
mentalists: the day after _ this
piece appears in print, telling

me that. Chris is all wrong... °°

Well, I'd like to hear the argu-
menis. As I said, Chris is«a

I'd even welcome a cali from’:
Walt Cobb, “but only if he. °°"
promises ta lay off with the»
_ conflict crap. I don’t know
whether his views depend on_
‘what his wife does, but-I can —
assure him that I call them as I ~

see them.
Ihave a lot of time for
Stephen Owen and I still be-

lieve that his proposed land use .

plan for the Cariboo beats the

hell out of the endless bicker- - —

’ A : because Eleanore Beyer, been known since the Sloan by fire or bugsin very shortor- ing and fighting between’ the
the biggest guy on the block and it now Tealizes Hubert Beyer’s wife, works on Commission in 1944-45, We der. ' forest indusiry and the en-
that the neighbours also have a stake in what the commission.) can cut back on the annual har- —‘IE Chris is right, a lot of the — vironmentalists,

should happen.

Phone Danny |

COUNCIL MEMBERS will do themselves and
local residents a favour by phoning ex-alderman
Danny Sheridan. Several years ago he had a heck
of an idea about providing more downtown park-
ing.

Mr. Sheridan’s idea was to beg/purchase/steal a
chunk of Canadian National land just off of
Greig Ave. and convert it into a parking lot. The

location is within convenient walking distance of .

town and would certainly go a long way to
resolving the growing parking problem in the
downtown core.

Mr. Sheridan’s idea roughly matches one item
in a series of parking suggestions recently sub-
mitted to the city by the chamber of commerce.
That idea is to develop one lot for the western

portion of downtown and another for the eastern two grownups, two kids, a CLAUDETTE SAND ECKL even somelhing as small as tresses and barbecue lighter
portion, Mr. Sheridan’s idea may not be perfect tight rope walker’s balancing  swaddie you like a body in a tent pegs invariably led to out- farther out of sight before -
— the more parking. that’s provided will pole and three hundred pounds carpet. hi os the tom F of-proportion arguments fol- enthusiasm overwiims me.:
. > . i A sm night, as the tenl’s walls lowe tim-lipped silence. ‘The exertion often revives
ultimately encourage more vehicle traffic as oF _issorted gear into sucked fn and out with more Silence, however, had its up . phantom pain of swollen kid-.
surely as a dog will chase its own tail — but it at Each sundown we elbowed snap than a tall ship’s mainsail, side, It allowed us to savor the neys and hemorrhoids that
least represents a starting point to a vexing and other cranky tourists register- we lay awake calculating how spontaneous reveling .-of . Hared after each campout.
ing for overnight space before many miles our ten would drunken neighbours. who | To. ‘keep - my camping

frustrating situation.

—) :
GK'5 PUBLISHER/EDITOR: Rod Link
ADVERTISING MANAGER: Mike L. Hamm

PRODUCTION MANAGER: Edcuard Credgeur

eons

More on the alleged conflict
later. Right now, I want to talk
about Chris and his latest set-
Hubert-straight offensive.

What prompted Chris to call
me was a paragraph in a pre-
vious column in which I said

vest levels all we want, and

Still have no first-growth trees _

left to harvest,’? Chris said.

Of the entire inventory of
forests in the Lillooct Timber
Supply Area, some 40 per cent
consists of trees between 150

assumptions on which CORE
has based its recommendations
would be invalid. It wouldn’t
really maticr a lot if we
reduced the annual cul, at Icast
not until the new growth
Teaches a level at which if can

And if the plan has flaws, I

stand to be corrected, bul in an

intelligent manner, not by way -

of red herrings and dark hints
of conflict.

Days of outhouses, bugs

FOR ALMOST 30 years, out
of consideration for my wussy
family, I’ve stifled my
enthusiasm for camping.

Camping is best left to hardy
souls, boy scouts, Marines, and
parents of twins, Several
camping trips following seven~
leen years of growing up on a
farm in an era that lacked elec-
tricity and running water Ieft
me with indelible memories,
memorics I prefer not to dis-
turb,

Our family campouts always
began optimistically, stuffing

the campground ran short of
moots and rocks upon which to
pitch a tent.

When it came lime to pitch
ihe lent, even a calm day could
muster a sudden cyclone to
snarl the canvas into knots or

THROUGH BIFOCALS.

travel if uprooted in the gale.
Any roof rips always leaked on
to our pillows, thereby keeping
sleeping bags dry,

In the morning we competed
to sse who could brush his
‘tecth in the smaller cup, who

could wash in the least amount
of waler. We were environ-
mentally conscious even then,
Graham Kerrs blinded by
wood smoke cooked braille
meals over an open fire, their
every motion monitored by
mosquitoes intent as safecrack-

. Cn.

- ing any phase of the packing

If any vital piece of equip-
ment was forgotten or lost dur-

process, it led to spirited name
calling as cach person declined
to take all the credit. Forget-
ting sugar, the baby’s bottle, or

hooted, hollered and smashed
beer bottles on stumps: weil
into the night. Those were the
days before campgrounds hired
supervisors and invited RCMP
patrols.

Of course, the common expe-

tience that evokes the true test
of a camper is the visit to the

outhouse, With its strangling -

odor and hippo-sized holes,
each visit was planned with
more lead time than the Com-
monvwealth Games. Gas masks
were ‘never supplied. We
brought our own balancing.
pole for an exira touch of
security, though it pains me to
admit this idiosyncratic weak-
ness. oe

Whenever mental images. of.
these wilderness treks tantalize
me, I scurry to hide alr mat-

enthusiasm sublimated, I don’t
even read stories writlen by
Patrick F. McManus, for. fear
Pll involuntarily ‘reach - for
Preparation H and bug spray.

enviran-.

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