NEWS BRIEF —

Pollution fine appealed

EUROCAN PULP and Paper is appealing its conviction
last month on pollution charges.

The company was found guilty by provincial court Judge
Ed de Walle of discharging waste into the environment in
connection with a June, 1990 accident at its Kitimat pulp mill.

A pumphouse valve failed and 41,000 gallons of bunker ‘C’
oil ended up in the mill’s landfill.

The company is appealing on the same grounds it defended
the original charges ~~ it says no offence was committed
because the spill stayed on company property.

Eurocan’s lawyers argue that the company’s property is not
legally part of the environment. The appeal statement claims

‘the spill didn’t enter the ‘environment’ ‘‘as that word is used
in the Waste Management Act.”

No date has been set for the appeal.

Westar hearings set

PUBLIC HEARINGS on Westar’s plans to sell its nor-
-thwestern forest licences are being held in Hazelton and Kit-
wanga this week,

Commissioners George Watts and Garth Langford will
hold the first meeting this Saturday, Feb. 8 at the Gitanmaax
Hall in Hazelton beginning at 9:30 a.m. The Kitwanga session
takes place at the Gitwangak Hall on Monday, Feb, 10 begin-
ning at 1 p.m. The duo will also be conducting individual in-
terviews in both communities.

Westar wants to sell its tree farm licence and forest licence
in the Kispiox timber supply area as well as the Kitwanga and
Carnaby sawmills and New Hazelton chipping mill.

Watts and Langford will make recommendations to Forests
minister Dan Miller who must, under the Forest Act, approve
any transfer of cutting rights before the sale can go ahead.

Housing starts edge up
HOUSING STARTS in the north were up in 1991 accor-
ding to figures released by the Canadian Housing and Mor-
tgage Corporation.

CHMC analyst Ali Manoucherhi said 518 new homes were .

built last year, up 12 per cent from the 479 in 1990. That
figure is also almost double the 1988 total.

Terrace, however, played no part in the increase. Housing
starts here plummeted to 42 from 106 in 1990. In contrast,
Prince George saw construction begin on 366 new homes, up
108 from the previous year.

Across the north, Williams Lake and Kitimat were the only
other communities to register increased building while
Dawson Creek equalled its 1990 figure.

Wirds fell radio tower

KITWANGA AND Hazelton residents found themselves
unable to reach out and touch someone living outside their
area last week following the collapse of the 9 Mile radio
tower. ‘

Long distance and radio telephone services were cut around
midnight, Jan. 25 when a combination of high winds and ic-
ing brought the tower down.

B.C, Tel communications manager Kathleen Mears said —

; bad weather hampered repair efforts,initially. j24., yay

in *setiai trip on,

THURSDAY

FEBRUARY 6 - FEBRUAI

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by a group of anglers. The raptor's leg was broken by an illegal leg-
hold trap and had been flying around with the trap dangling from it.

Injured eagle fixed up

TERRACE — A bald eagle in-
jured in a leg-hold trap is
undergoing treatment in Van-
couver after being rescued by a
group of steelheaders here Jan.
30.

Dr. Alison Thomson, of the
Terrace Veterinary Medical
-Cenire, said the bird’s right leg
was broken just above the talon

. by the trap.

But she says the raptor has a
good chance of recovery and
should regain the use of the leg
if there is no serious nerve
damage.

‘*He’s in pretty good shape,’’
Thomson said. ‘'And .eagles
seem to do quite well if they get
treatment. Their bones heal
amazingly well.’’

-Vanard Watson, Russ Evans,
_ Dave Warner and Dawn Shaw
i were eturning from

OPK

River when they spotted the
adult bald eagle in the middle of
the road, standing on one leg
with the jaws of the leg-hold
trap clamped around its other
eg.

One of Watson’s friends had
spotted it the day before flying
around with the trap dangling
from its leg. He watched it fly
erratically and crash into a tree,
but at that time had mistaken

‘the irap on its leg for a fish.

When the group stopped the

. truck on Friday and approached

the bird it managed to fly to a
nearby tree.

**But it ended up hanging up-
side down in the tree because of
the bad leg,”’ said Watson.

The eagle fell down, struggled
to the edge of the river, and was
swept away in the current.

Watson said the . _trap ap-
‘parently’ ‘became caught, on.an

_ FRIDAY

tY 7

GREEN ONIONS AND RADISHES

GARLIC BREAD

Lower Mainjand,

LOCAL VET Alison Thomson locks eyes with a bald eagle’ rescued — The four steelheaders brought ‘Kalum’ to the local veterinary clinic,

and the eagle was fiown out Friday ta a wild animal refuge in Sur-

‘Tey,

underwater branch. The
steelheaders managed to
unhook the trap with a long
stick, The eagle floated down
Stream to a snag where Watson
grabbed the bird by its good leg.

“We basically ended up.

wrestling for it in the river,'’
Watson added. “‘I pulled him
out of the water and he was get-

ting ready for the big chomp on —

my hand when my buddy threw
a cloth over his head.”

They brought ‘Kalum’ to the
veterinary clinic, and he was
flown to Vancouver on a Cana-
dian Airlines jet Friday morn-
ing. He’s now. recovering at
Monika’s Wildlife Refuge in
Surrey. |

But the steelheaders aren't
impressed with plans to return
the eagle to the wild in some
rilderness

~ area.

‘ rescued here

“He should be releaied up
here,”” Watson says. Noting
that eagles mate for Life, he said
the group saw another. eagle
they believe is Kalum’s mate
watching the tussle in the river
from the far bank,

Thomson said it’s not the
first time a bird of prey has been
in similar cir-
cumstances, treated and releas-
ed. A red-tailed hawk was
brought in recently, and releas-
ed near Lakelse Lake after a
fractured bone healed.

And Thomson says she has
seen four eagles rescued in the
last two years.

Veterinarian Lou Elorza said
although eagles and hawks are
occasionally brought in, most
aren’t the victims of leg-hold

vy traps, ‘It’s mainly gunshot
wounds," } he said, , a.

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FEBRUARY 8

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