The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, December 13, 2000 - Al3 Quicker-to-mature second growth forests called key to area’s future THE FUTURE of forestry in the region will be in the cutting of faster-growing second growth stands, speakers lold a packed northwest forestry forum Saturday. Skeena Cellulose forest re- source manager Archie MacDo- nald painted a brighter view of his company’s future than the audi- ence might have expected, Driving that optimism, he said, is the gradual transition from cut- ting mainly old growth timber to managed second-prowth stands. MacDonald says he has watched estimated growth rates tise from 2.7 cubic metres per hectare per year to 6.5 cubic metres per hectare per year. “The trees are growing to a merchantable size much quicker than anybody ever anticipated,” he said. The ability to use second- growth wood sooner than expected triggers a series of beneficial trends, he says, Right now, 50 per cent of the lops Skeena Cellulose cuts are Mediators urge docs take gov't pay offer THE PROVINCE. has upped its pay offer to rural docto1s, according to de- tails released in a medi- alion report last week, In addition to an annual bonus offer of $56,250 ta stay in Terrace, doctors can also keep the current 14.5 per cent premium they get on top of their re- gular billings. But to qualify now, doctors would have had to have expressed an interest in a first offer by Oct. 31, says health ministry offi- cial Jeff Gaulin. That first offer was re- jected by a majority of doctors and led to a strike in the fall in which doctors refused to provide all but emergency -services...in ee dec TAS EE aad 1 hospitals. The province of- fered rural doctors an an- nual bonus to stay and pay to be on call, ‘ Doctors rejected the package, saying it was still short of a deal for doctors in Prince George. The strike ended when doctars and Victoria ‘agreed to non-binding mediation, which led to the report released Dec. 8, - Mediators failed to get the province and doctors to reach an agreement. But their report essenti- ally backs up the govern- ment’s $40 million mon- etary offer made in the fall to 1,000 rural physicians. Mediators did say it wasn't necessary to have doctors sign a performance contract to pet the money. The rejected offer of the fail gave . physicians a choice — keep the 14.5 per cent or take the annual stay-in-town borius. Mediators are quite clear in saying that while they recommend doctors take the deal, they see it asashort-term measure. | The intent is to negoti- ate a long-term agreement for rural doctors to take ef- fect next April. If one can’t be reached by negotiation, the medi- ators say it should happen through binding arbitration. “We'll be meeting with the B.C. Medical Assocla- tion soon to set a date for talks,” said Gaulin. Dr. Marshall Dahl, pre- sident of the B.C. Medical Association, says doctors are being told to accept or teject the mediator’s report based on their own indi- vidual circumstances. “The reaction will vary from community to com- munity, but there are some things we can pull out on an interim basis and use them to negotiate a long term, province-wide plan.” Payments to stay in smaller towns and for on- call work are becoming the siandard across the country, said Dahl. When you can’t breathe, 7 ' nothing else matters BRITISII COLUMBIA LUNG ASIOCIATION® | 739-LUNG of 1.990-465-LUNG usable as sawlogs to become lum- ber, while the rest are chipped for the pulp mill. MacDonald predicted that ratio will gradually change until the company is able to use 90 per cent of its timber for sawlogs. That will decrease the compa- ny’s dependence on pulp markets, he noted. Faster re-growth rates also have other effects, he said, For one, the company would be able to produce the same amount of pulp and lumber using a much smaller land base. MacDonald also predicted the company will see its average sawlog values increase and its logging costs decrease. Costs will drop, he said, be- cause the company will be able to use timber closer to sawmills, and it won’t have to build big new road networks to the extent it did in the past. Savings could reduce the cost of producing a cubic metre of lumber by as much as $60, he said. “The future does not fook good for lumber [prices], so the only way for us to compete is to reduce our costs,” MacDonald noted, More work must be done to create new markets for northwest hemlock, for which worldwide de- mand has nose-dived, he said, and to retool northwest mills for smal- ler sized second-growth wood. The transition to secand- growth, he added, should also make SCI a lower priority target of environmental groups opposed to old growth logging. “Second growth gives us free access into markets,” he said. West Fraser chief forester Bruce MacNicol said his compa- ny’s operations in the northwest are much stronger than they were three years ago. But he said West Fraser has no plans to expand production at its Terrace sawmill beyond the pre- sent one shift sawing lumber and two shifts of custom chipping for Skeena Cellulose, * He also said there are no plans for new capital injections. He said the threat of environ- mental opposition to operations here remains acute. Environmental groups are using the Internet, he said, to track down customers of producers like West Fraser and then pressure them to slop buying. MacNicol said the just-com- pleted Kaltum Land and Resource Management Plan is a good land- use compromise in the region. “I believe a well-balanced agreement is being put forward and it deserves your support,” he said. He said there’s still a danger that deal could fall off the rails. “There are a lot of people and organziations out there that would just love to see this current pro- cess fall apart,” he said. Those groups would then seek to create some kind of new pro- cess they could better control, MacNicol said. MacKay’s Funeral Service Ltd. Serving Terrace, Kitimat, Smithers & Prince Rupert Monuments Bronze Plaques Terrace Crematorium 4626 Davis Street Terrace, B.C. 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