The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, September 17, 1997 - AS selective alternative Local logger looks to change the face of forestry in B.C. By DAVE TAYLOR SURVEYING HIS skyline operation with the pride of a new father, Ken Barnard doesn’t really look like a businessman driven with the entrepre- neurfal. spirit. ‘Nar, with a scruffy beard and gap- toothed smile, does he: look like some-. one who’s close to earning his regis- tered professional engineer’s certificate —‘forestry’s equivalent to a Phd. In fact, he’ s both, And he’s looking to change the way forestry is done in this pfevince, ‘I'm kind of a visionary, I guess,’’ he says. ‘I think forestry is changing. I really hope to see a large part of the cut going to selective logging.’’ Barnard, a Rosswood resident, has been running his own logging business here for three ycars, In that ‘time he has not done a’ single clearcut, Instead, he'and his crew practice selective logging. Their methods are precise, less in- vasive and more Jabour-intensive than con- ventional commercial clearcut logging. “Getting into selective logging comes from a personal belief on how the forests should be managed,” Barnard says. ‘‘It's expensive, labour intensive and the returns aren’( there in a quick way. But iv s also the best way ‘3 manage many areas.” -. Barnard says he thinks the day will soon come when 20 per cent or more of the annual allow- able cut will-be allotted to site-sensilive log- ‘ging. . And he argues that’s a good thing, pointing out that selective logging can {ced about three families per cubic metre of wood cut, as op- posed to just 0.8 families fed using the conven- tional grapple-yarder approach. Barnard also points out that selective logging “7 think forestry is changing. I really hope to see a large part of the cut going to selective logging.” —Ken Barnard— doesn't leave the ugly scars of clearcuts.. ‘It’s nice for people,’ he says. ‘They ap- preciate it, They can go into a forest and enjoy the scenery but know that other people still managed to feed their families using some of the wood.” Barnard’s skyline was “custom built in B.C., using.a modified old skidder. Activity centres around a 13 metre (40 ft) tower atop a 170 hp yarder. A°540 metre (1,700 ft) line runs from the top of the lower and along that line runs a little 18 bp radio-controlled carriage. The carriage transports a yarder-line, which workers hook oite logs. The yarder then reels the logs back to the tower landing. It’s basically .a miniature version of a large skyline operation. But for. large skylines to be profitable, they necd’ to haul-in huge amounts of . wood, Barnard’s machine, however, with a properly- trained crew and a well-engincered logging -plan, can leave the forest largely intact and still “be profitable. Ken Barnard College program could train workers Start-up funding needed to get classes going KEN BARNARD’S skyline hauls a + load of trees a across a piece of private property near Kit. selas while his choker-setters look on. Normally, the crew leaves more trees on the site, but this area is being developed into 10 acre lots, ‘Selective work is much more of a Gnesse thing,”” Bamard says, ‘“You don’t just hook on arid put your balls to the wall. You really have to know whal you're doing.’’ If the topography is right, Barnard’s crew can even selectively log an area and never have the trees touch the ground. Instead, the logs are ful- ly suspended from the skyline. “Its preat for environmentally sensitive mushroom areas,’’ Bamard points out. A great deal of science is involved in the engineering ofan area dcstined to be selectively logged. That means lots of work must be done up front, before any trees are removed. But Barnard says lols of time and money are saved afler the cul because post-harvest require- ments are much less. “You don’t have to worry about tree planting or spur-road deactivation,’’ he says. “And you always bave a crop of trees grow- ing. You don’t have to wait 80 years for sec- dlings to grow. The forest regenerates itself.’’ “People appreciate it. They can go into a forest and enjoy the scenery but know that other people still managed to feed their families using some of the wood.”’ —Ken Barnard— Another benefit of Bamard’s skyline is that it can use an intermediate support. Basically, thal’s a jack which acts like a sec- ond lower, allowing crews lo access areas where more roads would normally need to be built — saving more money on both road build- 4A CHOKER-setter readies the sky-lina car- riage for lift-off. Barnard's operation is much like a scaled-down conventional forestry sky-line. ing and deactivation. Running any business is difficult, but Barnard is also pioneering new techniques and merging science and high-tech equipment with old meth- ods, So far, the business has managed to survive three turbulent years, although Barnard stil) refers to the company as somewhat “‘financially challenged’’. But he sees a big future for selective logging and encourages other people to get involved. *'There’s still a place for clearcuts and big machines in forestry,’’ he says. ‘‘But there is a growing need for smaller operations and selec- live practices,’” ONE OF THE difficulties of selective logging is finding - trained employees. But that problem might soon” be solved if a new program at the college gels funding. ‘Those looking -to ‘get in- volved in selective logging face a classic Catch-22 sitiation, - They need trained workers ~ to do build their businesses, but loggers can’t. get train- ing because there aren’t any training programs. And there aren't any. programs because ‘there aren’t’ many. businesses to hire the workess. . “Selective logger Ken Barnard ‘s crew consists of a faller, two choker-setters, a loading bucker, a loader op- - erator, @ ‘yarding engineer arid a contracted trucker, ° Although these guys are experienced conventional loggers, they’re new to se- lective logging, It’s required time and training to get up to speed, but Barnard says they have been up to the challenge. Unfortunately, they’re also laid-off workers from the SCI shutdown, And since there’s no pool of trained selective loggers to pick from, Barnard © will have to train a whole new crew if these guys ga back tg their regular jobs. But Fred Adair from the Northwest Community Col- lege hopes that will all change soon. “fm a firm believer in Ken’s system,’ he says. “There’s no doubt: in my mind that’s the way to go.’ So Adair and Barnard have’ been working since January to develop a train- ing program. It’s scheduled ‘everyouc else- is to be 1,000 hours long, spanning two semesters al the college. That is, if they get fund- ing, “We should have a proposal.in to FRBC by the end of the month,” Adair says. ‘‘Money’s tight with them ‘right ‘now, But you never know what will hap- pen.” ‘Adair says ithe selective logging program would train: loggers for. multiple tasks —- skills that would be valuable in any job market. . “This system requires that everyone does everything,” he says. ‘You have to climb, set blocks, sel rig- ging, mun the machines, set beads and ‘do layout. ‘That way everyone knows what dolng. These people would be yery valuable in any logging situalion.’ Adair also says the pro- gram would be open to both men and women. ‘'We would love to get women involved,”’ he says. “You have to be fit for the job, but you don’t have to be huge.”’ Bamard’s also getting support from some local politicians like city coun- cilor Val George and MLA Helmut Giesbrecht. “You could log an entire hillside and probably not even notice,’ Glesbrecht says. “If that isn’t the way of the future I don’t know what js.”” Giesbrecht says he’s tak- ing the idea to forest minis- ter David Zimbhelt, to see what kind of support and in- centives he government can provide. “There’s less capital out- Ken Adair lay required, it’s more labour intensive and there’s less visual impact,’’ he says. “People ought to seriously look at this.’’ Ln cen tame aoiemmumdienin CORRESPONDENCE FOR THE TERRACE STANDARD The Mail Bag We're being manipulated Dear Sir: Task Jeff Bolingbroke, Sarah Glen and Earl Ratclifle: are you really against intolerance, prejudice and bigotry? If so, then consider how people, ever you, use injurious and derogatory labels. It goes without saying that terms like ‘faggot’, ‘queer’, ‘fal boy’, ‘squaw’, ‘four eyes’, ‘Jesus freak’, etc., are damaging, and totally unacceptable, Most would also agree stereotyping and: atlaching derogatory labels to groups of people is just as damag- ing and wrong. Ideas like ‘lazy Indians’, ‘Jew them down’ are unjustified and hurtful characterizations. Would you describe the actions of people who da such things as ‘judgmental, prejudiced, or bigoted’? But how is attaching to groups of people damaging terms like ‘bigoted’, ‘narrow-minded’, ‘homophobes’, ‘intolerant’, and now ‘outlandish’ and ‘fundamentalist’, any different? The fact is everyone in our socicly makes judgements based on their moral convictions about the rightness or wrongness of different kinds of sexual conduct. Consider your own moral conviclions regarding the following: sado-masochism, sex wilh anintals,: incest, pedophilia, pre-marital sex, pornography, adultery, promiscuity, rape, rude or degrading dirty jokes, homosexuality, prostitution, etc. Some of these activilies we as a socicty believe lo be wrong to the point that we judge and prosecute under the Jaw those who do them. Does believing that any one of these sexual activilics are wrong make a person a ‘bigot’ or ‘narrow-minded’, a ‘hale-monger’ or ‘whatever-phobic’? If so, everyone must be bigots. ] trust you can see thal it is absurd to think that a person is a bigol just because they believe that a certain kind of activity is wrong, But this is what people are being conditioned to believe. Why it is that only those who disagree with one par- ticular sexual activity and lifestyle, aamely homosexuality, are being demonized and labeled as bigots and intolerant? Why aren’1 those who oppose in- cest, or pornography, or prostitution, or pedophilia, or seeing women as sex objects, or promiscuily, or dirty jokes etc,, being givea the label of ‘bigots’, or ‘intolerant’, or “hatemongers’? The answer is obvious, if you willing to hear it; The activists promoting the homosexual lifestyle and the homosexual political agenda have been working very hard to change the altitudes of our sociely toward homosexuality, in particular. Hence, the attack on those who disagree with homosexuality, in particular. They know that to achieve their goals they must sway public opinion, gamer public support and silence or marginalize any opposition. The methods they are using, very effectively | might add, to change the attitudes and values of our socicty are highly manipulative psychological behavior madifi- cation techniques. Three in particular have been catalogued by. Robert Jay Lifton in his book, Thougit Reform andthe Psychology of Totalism: Desensitization, jamming and conversion. A pro-homosexual book by Marshall Kirk and Hunter Madison, After the Ball: Haw: ‘América will Conquer its Fear and Hatred of Gays in the 1990s, ex- plains how these techniques are now being used to change societies attitudes toward homosexuality. ‘Desensitization’ is the process of. normalizing whatever il is that you want people to accept. Subjects are inundated with information in all media forms that presents homosexuality as normal, The goal in desensitization is to lower resistance lo whatever it is that you want people to accept and to gel them to have an attitude of indifference toward it, ‘Jamming’ is the process of shaming people into a sense of guilt over their own altitudes and values. People are jammed into feeling guilty or that there is something wrong with them if they. do not accept homosexuality or have a positive altitude toward it. This is accomplished by presenting those who hold to a negative opinion of homosexuality or who, ‘for whatever reason, disagree with the homosexual agenda, as Villains. You must be made to think that you might be a bigor, prejudiced, prudish, or antiquated if you harbour some hint of rejection of the homosexual lifestyle, You must be made to fear opposing homoscxualily or even saying that you do not believe that it Is right or good. The end of these methods is a process behavioral psychologists call ‘conversion’. In conversion people are brought to a change in their emotions, mind and will about certain activities or ideas, People: must be made to feel both sympathy and warm regard for those who practice homosexuality. To do this two kinds of media images niust be crafled and presented regularly to society: the homosexual community must be seen as victims, and. the homosexuals who are presented in all media forms must be lovable or admirable. If the pro-homosexual activists who are promoting homosexual curriculum and agenda do nol besitale to use manipulative psychological techniques such as these, how can we trust that any so-called ‘tolerance’ or ‘antil-homophobia’ curriculum (hat is created under their influence will not use the: same manipulative psychological conditioning techniques? Citizens, how do you feel about the fact that. these techniques are being used to manipulate you, our chil- dren, and our society? (Fina Adis AB Mike Rosenau Active Citizens of B.C, Terrace, B.C, Beard policy harsh . Dear Sir: A friend, following many other jobless people, came from Prince Rupert in search of employment, Standing in line his turn finally came to submit his application for employment at the Real Canadian Wholesale Club, Before any consideration of his qualifications, he was told ‘Sorry, we don’! hire people with beards’. This company policy seems a lite harsh. There are many Sikhs in the three communities thal this new store will serve. Perhaps they should be aware thal this new store wiil nol Lire mate Sikhs. [ have a beard and not that long ago I-was.on the job market. This store wouldn't bave hired ine either, | guess I’ll restrict my shopping to its. competition, - Jack Cook Terrace, HC,