eee Ai2 - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, May 21, 1997 SEEKING CONTROL: Terrace parent Gordon Schuss is distributing a Parents Rights Declaration that aims to shield students from being taught tolerance for homosexuality in public schools. FROM FRONT Parents balk at gay tolerance Frank Rowe says promoting tolerance is different from ad- vocating homosexuality. “T personally voted in favour of the motion,”’ Rowe said. “Tt’s the obligation of the public education system to pro- mote tolerance and acceptance within our society.” School board chairman George Neumana says the situa- tion is being ‘‘misunderstoad by alarmists.”’ The board already has policies against harassment, racism and all forms of discrimination. He doesn’t think any new policy is needed, and says the material being dis- cussed by teachers would primarily be used by teachers doing research on non-instructional days. Neumann says it is possible that the education ministry will include material on homosexuality in Carcer and Per- sonal Planning courses, Those are mandatory courses all students have to take — unlike van Dyk’s Family Manage- ment class, which is an elective. That’s what Schuss is concerned about. He says when teachers in other provinces began talking about teaching tolerance towards gays, it was included in the basic cur- riculum a few years later. He says some people from parent advisory committecs have also contacted him, some worried about the pos- sibility of new curriculum and others in favour of it. John Perras, head of the district parent advisory council, said he’s fi elded a few calls, but so far there hasn’t been much concern from parents. “People out here are watching the situation,’’ says Petras. He predicts they’Ill make their opinions known when and if any new curriculum comes out. Harold Cox, director of instruction for the school district, said no schools in the district were teaching tolerance of homosexuality specifically. When queried about Caledonia’s Family Management class, Cox said teachers might mention homosexuality, and discuss different types of families. “There are a variety of norms now,”’ nowledged. He said there were no books that dealt with the topic in Terrace schools, at least that parents had complained about. However, he said parents could challenge material they find inappropriate, “We teach tolerance and understanding all the time,’’ he said, FROM FRONT second growth miracle reported “Tt was pretty impressive,’’ Love says. The botiom line, he says, is that old growth forests never grew at their full potential for wood production, so they're a poor measure of what can truly be accomplished. It used to be that foresters talked about the forest as a crop that took about 90 years to mature. “The rotation age is a lot less than that,’’ says Love. ‘40 or 50 years is a number that I don’t think too many people would dispute now.” The quicker growth is good news on other fronts as well. So-called ‘‘greenup”’ requirements state that seedlings have to reach a certain height before adjacent cutblocks can be logged. Faster growth means adjacent cutblocks can be cut sooner. District manager Brian Downie says there are still many other factors that could undermine the gains made in pro- ductivity. Thase include disease, insect damage, porcupine damage and other problems. But be admits the numbers so far look good. “From a pure productivity point of view, things look rosy,’’ he said. “We can be optimistic about our growing capacity.” But he says it’s far too early to say whether the inaproved growth estimates will translate into a higher cut level in fu- ture years, The district is now beginning preparations for the next timber supply review, to be complete late in 1998. Chief forester Larry Pederscn scts the annual allowable cut on the basis of that, After the last review, Pedersen ordered a reduction in the annual allowable cut in the Kalum South Timber Supply Arca from 480,000 cubic metres per year down to 465,000 cubic metres per year, That took effect in January. And that review — based on the old projections — called for reductions in logging to be phased in over decades to a long-term level of 400,000 cubic metres per year. Two more optimistic scenarios — based on a 50 per cent increase in productivity —— suggested a less drastic short-term reduction in logging, followed by a higher long- term cut of around 600,000 cubic metres per year. If in fact the area’s forest productivity is more than 50 per cent better, those scenarios could improve following the next timber supply review. Skeena Cellulose forester Kevin Derow agrees the sec- ond growth productivity is phenomenal. But he’s less op- timistic it will help the forest indusiry. Rather than lead to a greater cul, he says, the produc- tivity improvement will probably pay for land taken out of the forest base for parks and other land-use pressures. Cox ack- : “James W. 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