Your hometown locally owned

and operated newspaper.

WEDNESDAY, MAY 1, 1991.
Vol, 7, Issue No. 18 ;

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‘Phone 635-7840
Fax 635-7269

Serving the communities of Terrace, Thornhill, Usk, Cedarvale, Kitwanga, Meziadin, Stewart and the Nass Valley 75 cents plus GST

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GREEN NO MORE. victims of disease, the stately Sitka
spruce lining Heritage Park on North Sparks and Halliwell have

to replace the trees planted by Corby King and George
Anderson in 1935 with a more hardy species... possibly cedar.

There are still several trees in the stand yet to be cut.

been declared a hazard and must be removed. The city hopes

Father and son
killed in air crash.

Two New Remo residents died Saturday afternoon when a Piper
Super-Cub float plane went down in a mountainous area 53 kilo-
metres southwest of Terrace.

Dead are Andrew Lambertus Brock, 39, and
David.

Broek and his son took off from the New Remo slough at about
3 p.m. Saturday for a flight of about one-hour duration. Terrace
RCMP say they were reported missing ai 7:30 p.m. Saturday and
the Rescue Coordination Centre (RCC) in Victoria was notified.
RCC flight crews found the downed aircraft at about 3 p.m.
Sunday near Kadecn Creck in the Gitnadoix watershed: about 20
kilometres south of the Skeena River.

Terrace coroner Jim Lynch says two Canadian Transportation
Accident Board investigators have visited the scene of the accident
but there is no indication as to the cause of the crash. According to
the Terrace Weather Office, visibility at the Terrace Airport was 20
milcs at the time of the accident and there was 50 percent cloud
cover at 5,000 fect and a ceiling of 7,000 (ect.

his 15-year-old son,

Mediation abando

Offer on Wedeene to
be heard in court

Receivers Peat Marwick have
made an application in Vancouver
court to sell the assets of Wedeene
River Timber to Interpac, a
Vancouver forest company. Peat
Marwick representative Colin
Rodgers said Monday the applica-
tion will be heard May 6.

Rodgers said Interpac has made
what Peat Marwick consider to be
the best offer on the bankrupt
Prince Rupert sawmill, but he
added that other forest companics
may also put offers forward to the
court when the application is
heard. Among those, he said, is
West Frascr Timber, owners of
Skeena Sawmills in Terrace.

"Interpac was the best at the
time, but the others may come up
with something better in court,"

Rodgers said. When asked if a
final decision will be made on the
court date, Rodgers answered, “It
depends on the judge. It may be
set aside for a couple of days to be
sure the best offer is in.”

The objective, he explained, is to
get the best recovery for
Wedeene’s creditors. Wedeene
went bankrupt last year owing $20
million, most of that to the Cana-
dian Imperial Bank of Commerce.

The operation, Rodgers said, will
be sold as a going concer, includ-
ing all the equipment, buildings

and lands — and the company’s

tenures, a 118,000 cubic metre per
year forest licence in the North
Coast Timber Supply Arca and a
second ficcnce under Douglas

— Continued on page A2

HERITAGE TREES GO TO THE BLADE

Sitka spruce
felled by rot,
exposure

by Tod Strachan

It’S NOT A DAY ANYONE wanted
to see, But all good things must
come to an end... Even a stately
row of trees.

All of the Sitka spruce trees
lining the east and west boundaries
of Heritage Park became suspect
when wind blew one down. last
January. It was rotten to the core,
and it was feared others- might be
ready to fall down as well.

After a preliminary survey of the
trees in February, fewer than half
were tagged as diseased, but a
more extensive investigation last
month determined that all of the
trees would have to come down.
According to Terrace forester
Doug Davies, the trees are suffer-
ing from a disease called "velvet
top fungus" which causes the them
to die from the root up through the
centre to a height of 10 to 12 feet.

Davies says velvet top fungus
attacks trees weakened by a variety
of causes, amd once it begins the
disease spreads from tree to tree
through the root systems. Contrib-
uting causes to the poor health of
the Heritage Park trees include the
shallow layer of soil on top of an
underlayer rock-hard clay and the
cumulative effects of road salt and
numerous abrasions and scars from
years of abuse.

The bottom line, however, is that
because of the disease many of the
Sitka spruce bordering Heritage
Park are supported by only a thin
layer of healthy wood in the outer
layers, and that means they’re
prone to collapse and dangerous.
The few remaining trees, those that
aren’t as seriously affected yet, are
not expected to survive more than
10 years.

It has been decided that the best

solution is to remove all of the
trees and replace them with

healthy young trees of uniform
height. Davies has suggested that

— Continued on page A2

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