oe? “You must be More careful with the forest,” he would tell his boss of the day. “Mind your own
business,” the boss would say. Lars would) ’t, of course. The argument would become heated anda
. day or so later he would be working for someorie else. eT CO
: 2.’ “No one would listen,” Lars mused. “But at least they were only a little careless then... Now
the big corporations are Moving in and it’s going to get worse.” oo Be
. > Lars scuffed the soil with’the toe of his boot. “Big corporations,” he mumbled. “Longer roads. ss
Bigger cuts. More waste. And the owners of those corporations... They don’t care. They don’t even live
ere,”' ; . :
__ . Lars had reason to worry. He was comfortably isolated in his small woodlot style operation,
but he was still affected by market glut and famine. And he had friends working elsewhere who
were more directly affected, _ _ ;
_ Now there was talk of something called a Tree Farm Licence. A “deal” the government
was, according to rumour, going to give Columbia Cellulose, Lars wasn’t sure what it meant. But .
talk around town suggested it meant Columbia would get all the timber and the small guys
would get none. | 7

‘

; ’s funny how thin said to himself as he opened his
lunch box filled with his own special creation of goat’s milk, cheese and
Gretchen’s home-baked bread. —

| He glanced down at Smedjebacken Lake and felt a-twinge of
embarrassment as he recalled how he had first described his forest in the ©
spring of 1933., ~ .

Smedj Lake as b
kilometres

- exagger € scanned his -
forest below. “But a , Se,
And their song will
Proverbs too... Whe
people will perish.”