‘Island and porary logging pause to appease the environmental lobby could turn into the permanent extinction of the coastal forest industry, ' “Is disastrous,” said Darrell Wong, president of the Industrial Wood and Allied Workers of Ca- nada’ (IWA) local 21-71, in re- . Sponse to secret talks leading to- wards an 18-month coastal log- ging moratorium. “There has never been a tem- porary set aside that hasn’t turned Valleys eyed for freeze named "VALLEYS on both sides of the lower Skeena River on the road to Prince Rupert and many more down the Douglas Channel south of Kitimat are on the list of areas ‘where logging may be’ paused. "The. list, obtained by the: Terrace Standard, shows the fight over the so-called Great Bear Rain- forest — up to now concen- trated in pitched environ- ‘mental battles much fur- ther south along the coast . = has begun to affect this area’as well, The wish list names 140 watersheds from near the northem tip of Vancou- ‘ver. Island to near the Alaskan border, and in- cludes some on Vancouver the Queen Charlottes. Along Hwy 16 west of Terrace, the list takes in tributaries to the Skeena like the) Exchamsiks, Khyex and Ecstall Rivers, Ayton. Creek, Johnston Creck and Khtada Lake. Most of those are areas under licence to Interfar, with lopging and road building. carried out by Terrace-based Bear Creek " Contracting Ltd., owned by the; Munson family. ‘Bear Creek also logs for Interfor further south on hotly. contested Princess Royal Island. A number of watersheds there are also on the list. “-Tn-all 30 watersheds are listed affecting Interfor. “Another 21 affect West Fraser and its contractors in this area. Most of those are down ‘the Douglas Channel or Gardner Canal. “They include valleys . like Chambers CreekBish Creek, Jesse Creek, Foch ‘Lagoon, Giltoyees River, Brim River, Barrie River and the Kowesas River. “Also affected are Doman Forest Products, “the minisiry of forests’s small business program and MacMillan Bloedel, which is being taken over . by Weyerhauser. The list, compiled by Greenpeace last August, is described as a ‘“preliminary list” of large intact valleys and smaller ‘ecologically important areas, From front those areas again.” into a permanent set aside in B.C.,” Wong said. “If they volun- larily put a moratorium on they're never going to be able to log The result, he said, may be short-term peace in the market- place in exchange for a long-term loss of jobs and forest lands. Terrace city councillor Val George said he’s also’ concerned and questions the wisdom of the six companies that: are ready ‘to agree to a cease-fire with environ- mentalists. “I think the companies are crazy to be talking about this sort of compromise with the environ- mental groups,” George said. “All that’s going to happen: is once they settle this theyll just look-for the next place to hit them.” West Fraser, in particular, should realize appeasement stra- tegies don’t work, he-said, noling the company voluntarily gave up . cutting rights to the 317,000 hec- tare Kitlope watershed in 1994, The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, March 22, 2000 - AS Industry is digging its own grave, critics say FEARS are running high a tem- “They gave up a huge chunk of said. land down there bul environmen- talists want mare,” he said. Wong said the ecosystem man- agement model being proposed could have been -tried on a smal- ter scale without -freezing logging in vast areas of the north and cen- tral coast. “We're nol going to agree to “any deal unless there a hell of a lot’ of guarantees for working people and communities,” Wong JOHN ‘ALMGREN, logging supervisor for Alm-Wood Contracting, points out Barrie Creek, a watershed near Kemano now off limits where the company was to begin road buliding this year. Truce plan already affecting loggers Huge uncertainty for contractors of West Fraser, Interfor Stories by JEFF NAGEL TERRACE loggers who work the forests managed by West Fra- ser and Interfor are stunned the two com- panies may soon be part of a deal to halt logging for 18 months on much of the’ coast.’ Word leaked ‘out ast Wednesday of the secret © talks between six big companies and three en- vironmental groups to halt logging for a year and a half in exchange for a similar pause in the inter- national campaign to boy- cott B.C, forest products. That’s left Jan Munson of Bear Creek Contracting scrambling for answers he can give his 120 mainly Terrace-based employees who log and build roads in Interfor’s holdings around here, “I had 42 messages this morning,” Munson said Friday. “The phone’s ring- ing off the hook.” Bear Creek workers are worried any logging stand- still agreed to on the coast will mean less work and fewer paycheques for them. ; They’re already coming off two difficult years in which they’ve had just a Customers are weren't protected. “They were under such tremendous preessure from their customers they were just going to get their pulp somewhere else,” said local Sierra Club member Bruce Hill, who handled arrangements for the Germans’ visit to the Ecstall River valley west of Terrace. _ Big retailer Home Depot has also said it will phase ’ out sales of lumber from B.C.’s contested coast. © MacNicol said West Fra- “They were under such tremendous pressure from their “This escalating pressure has brought the industry to Cus tomers.” ine Stewart. forcing change . millions of dollars worth of contracts if uncut valleys ser has slarled to encoun- ter protesters targelting its chain of Revy home centre stores. the table,” said Green- peace campaigner Cather- * It’s not the first time West Fraser has contemplated surrendering to environmental demands. major new environmental demands. ..“We believed that would happen,” MacNicol said. “Maybe naively but we did believe that would happen.” *MacNicol sald it now appears likely the comapiy “will end up giving up more timber. ; The company had hoped its 1994 decision to give up without compensation cutting rights to the 317,000-hec- ~ tare Kitlope valley south of Kemano might absolve it of it's disappointing,” he added. “We already gave at the office.” few months of logging work, and don’t need more uncertainty, Munson said. “They can’t afford to sit around,” he said. “Some of them have second mort- gages on their houses. It's pretty tough.” Bear Creek logs on Princess Royal Island and on tributaries of the lower ; Ske: na River. like Scotia . Creek’ ‘and AylomCreck, They’ ve been = told “Ayton is now off limits due to the pending agreement, despite having built a $6.5 million logging road to ac- cess the valley from the Scotia Creek logging camp, Likewise, West Fraser has told Alm-Wood Con- tracting Ltd. its 60 workers won't go into the Barrie Cieck watershed near Ke- mano, where they’d plaa- ned to start tree years warth of logging. “We would have been building road in there this year and potentially log- ging this year,” Alm-Wood controller Justin Rigsby said. “Now we won’t be.” «He said there should be enough, other areas avail: * able: that: loggers” won't be affected. But road building might be curtailed: this year, and the available logging areas — where roads are deve- loped and cutting permits are approved — could be- come scarce next year. _ “It shouldn't affect our cut for this year,” he said. “But obviously it’s. going to affect us for next year.” Truck Loggers Associa- tion spokesman Rick Jef- frey said preliminary esti- males suggest. the logging pause could result in a re- duction-in a 10 to 75 per cent reduction in the vo- lume of coastal logging from. its present level of around 5 million cubic “metrés pet‘year. 2 oy py i “We're very concerned _about the standstill and the ! ramifications of it,” he said. Munson said he thinks the licensees are cutting the deal in an attempt to secure a year or two of un- obstructed profits as the forest industry. and pulp prices rebound, Secret talks cast doubt on local land use plan A NEARLY complete land use plan shouldn’t be dit- ched now that industry is negotiating directly with environmentalists over the future of logging on the coast, say local partici- pants. Eamon O’Donoghue, coordinator of the Kalum Land and Resource Man- agement Plan (LRMP), says the process - to be finished by June —- has taken nearly 10 years to thrash out. He said government of- ficials have told the com- - panies and environmental proups that have been meeting secretly that Vic- toria doesn’t want to see the local work towards a consensus plan thrown out and replaced by something without local backing. “They would hope that the Kalum process would stand and it would repre- sent the decision from these communities,” O'Donoghue said, the indusiry and NGO (non-governmental organi- zalion) process would. re- cognize and respect that LRMP and their discus- sions would take place outside of that area.” ' Area representatives who meet up to three days a month don’t want to see their years of work squan- dered either, “The people have spent all this time making these decisions and do not want to have. another: process come in and usurp all: that work,” O’Dosoghue added. Justin Rigsby; of Alm-. Wood Contracting, is ore of the local reps whia has “That - Justin Rigsby spent years at the table. “Here we are trying to put a plan in place yet there appear to be outside forces affecting how our plan would be implemen- ted,” Rigsby said. He said the other nego- protected with no lopging allowed - was largely hammered out in February, he said. The group had been contemplated adding a sizable number of such areas that would boost the ' percentage of parks or pro- : tected areas in the region tiations afoot may give’ LRMP participants: - more incentive to quickly con- clude the plan so a local deal governs logging -here,- rather than oneé hatched in’ secret by industry and en- vironmental groups. “Maybe . it’s’ a: race against time ta get this plan agreed to," he said. West Fraser chief for-.: ester Bruce MacNicol says “his company hopes there | the two- processes . won't conflict. . “Hopefully whatever comes out of- the LRMP. will mesh with what-hap- pens in these other talks,” MacNicol said. The. Kalum LRMP Is to have its: final recommen- ¢ dations finished at‘its June meeting and then take the. plan to public hearings over the summer, O° ‘Do- | noghue said, ~The major work — tect. ding which areas should be from a present 18,22 per cent ta 21 per cent. Al the end of the day, O'Donoghue said, they settled on a much smaller number of protected areas, bringing the regional per- centage up to 18.5 per cent, “The table added 0.36 per cent,”°*he said. “There were a lot of areas on the table, But the table felt it could manage those areas in-other ways without pro- tecling them.” ~ Most of the-areas to be protected are in the off- shore areas south of Kiti- mat managed by West _Fraser,- and include some watersheds -flagged by Greenpeace that are now . the subject ‘of talks with industry. Final recommendations from the LRMP- will also include decisions on en- . hanced timber zones, griz- zly bear and- ungulate management areas, and objectives for biodiversity and visual quality. ' A number of those items are still-in progress. And ratification of the whole package. still hinges on its effect on local jobs. That should be known very soan when. a socio- - economic. impact - study that-assesses” timber and Job i impacts is: ‘finished. . EE ee eS CORRESPONDENCE FOR THE TERRACE STANDARD’ The Mail Bag | Smoke ban warning © Dear Sir: Tom Brophy is a triend of mine and while 1 know he is not perfect he was not talking through his hat like the two fellows who -rebuked him ina recent issue of the paper. Tom was saying that anti-abortion activists: are being arrested for praying ‘in front of abortion cli- nies. ’'m sure that-if letter writers Heinimann and Read had read his letter they might have seen his observation that there really is a‘ slippery slope here; the latest chink in’ Big Brother’ Ss armour being the new ban-on ‘smoking. If you smoke you can be: fined or go to’ ‘jail, For ' the past few years they’ve heen: talking of kids re- = ceiving second hand smoke from their parents. and '' going after adults on their own properly. As for Godless “Jews” and Catholics/Protestants you must forgive ‘Tonytor reading ‘the-exhortations ‘ of Jesus who condemned such people in John 8:44 when they claimed they were not born of “fornication” because: they have one Father, who is God. Jesus’ rebuke was.a curt: “You are of your fa- ther the devil and the lusts of your father you will do, He was a murderer: from:the beginning. and abode not in the truth, because there.is no truth in him. When he speaketh a. lic he speaketh of his own for the is a liar and the father of (lies).”. I’ve used the Authorized King James, which from my research is the only Bible that has not been contaminated by the evil leaven that perme- ates new versions such as the New International Bible and the New Living Bible which the ungodly | seminarians plan to replace the NIV with. Mark my ward on this, it’s only a short time away when the ik NIV is out of fashion. Under these circumstances I cannot condemn Heinimann and Read who have probably been vic- tims of satanic ritual abuse. that passes for “Christian” services under the guise of new “biblical” versions these days. Despite all the false propaganda against it, the AKJV is the only au- thentic word of God we have in English. Brian Gregg, Terrace, BC Been a target, too Dear Sir: Thank you Tom Brophy for your letter to the editor. As a resident of Terrace for the past 40 arses years, I have witnessed going from bad to worse, If you dare tell the truth, you become a target. For being outspoken 1 was framed on three. different occasions for things [ did not do. Freedom of speech, my foot. Any opinion ex- pressed against the establishment at all levels and you become a target. Accusations and gossip sub- mitted to the constabulary: -become facts with the .,d0-gooders laughing. Someone: ‘listgntd joi thé iy [I am a person, not a sheep, FAG, ita from Aim 7 to time submit constructive crili sy ere due. ri is unfortunate we drifted for some time from a free country to a so-called democratic dictatorship. Most teens and even some baby boomers know the situation and try to beat the system in any way they know how and serious aftermath to follow. HI appears to me only the visible minority knows how lo bring about change. Is it possible that our educa- tion system is failing or are we sold down the drain? Think about it. Manfred Lubke, Terrace, B.C. In praise of mothers Dear Sir: The anniversary last December of murders of the young female students at a Quebec university reminds one of the terrible details of the time. Such a senseless action by a deranged person. Whatever could have motivated him? Not to lessen this heinous act, but I can see it as a part of a far greater picture of the female gen- der in our sociely today. It begins at an early age of education when our children are tutored toward higher learning and eventual career. It's about this. time when natural love and affection should be- come instilled, but is instead at this crucial time replaced by cravings of our materialistic society. As each generation becomes progressively worse these children become parents. In the race to atlain one accomplishment or another, they either do not know, or care or even find the time for true affection or caring for children. Mothers who are genuinely striving to raise their children to be kind, caring persons are perhaps our greatest asset. What they do is as important as any career and should be generously compensated, Surely the greatest pillars of our society has to be women, the mothers giving birth, love and dir- ection to the child. As these natural instincts are diminishing, with the pressures to become career oriented, so it is that modern society: becomes more violent, Perhaps a day of remembrance should be brought into being dedicated to:all the little child- ren that have been beaten, starved, abandoned, drowned, and neglected by their mothers. The simple study or observation of animals with their inhibitions and their devotion and love of their young could put many human mothers to shame today. How can we reinstill into ‘our youth the natural kindness and affection, even toward. animals or plants, while the overwhelming deluge of degenerative paslimes escalates, However we must be aware that terrible sense- less violence is perpetuated by no one gender. D. L. Bulleid, Terrace, BC THE TERRACE STANDARD welcomes let- ters to the editor. Our deadline is noon Fri- _flays; noon Thursdays on a long weekend. You can write us at 3210 Clinton St., Terrace, B.C; V8G 5R2, Our fax number is 250-638-8432 or, you can email us at standard@kermode.net. No attachments, please. Lelters must be signed and must have o phone number, .