“April is the cruellest month...“
T.S, Eliot

April may be the cruellest, but
February is certainly the dullest
and most despondent. Dogs
don’t bark, fish don’t bite,
house plants die, bears have
nightmares in their hibernative
slumbers and humans wilt in
despair during this . most
pedestrian and oppressive’
month in the northern temperate
latitudes.

February is a rotted plank-
bridge of a month between
January, when pessimists are
resigned that spring will never
return, and March, which op-

_timists anticipate in hopes of an
early spring that never occurs.
Resignation and hope are left in
an equal and unrewarding lim-
bo, and February remains every
year as an aggravating and
unredeemed purgatory in our
calendar.

February in Terrace is a par-
ticularly vicious manifestation
of the mid-winter spirit, being a
visible and palpable illustration
of climatic schizophrenia. - we
get neither the clean, dry, cold,
powdery snow of the Interior
nor the salty, cleansing rains of
the Coast. We.are victims of the
physical laws governing the

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A month of none-days

comes with the turf.

ran

freezing point of water: frost,
then snow over frost, thaws that
don’t quite penetrate the frozen
ground, then rain over ice. This
is the month we curse those who
sold us boots that don’t keep out |
the water and tires that won't
grip on ice covered with slush.
Under the stress of these four
blighted weeks, even dedicated
residents have been known to
pass out at work or at home,
their faces puckered “in petu-
lance, to dream of transfers to
the Okanagan or Gulf Islands,
or for internationalists, Califor-
nia or Mexico. We can offer
these dreamers pity but little
sympathy. As the saying goes, it

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We all have a pretty clear idea
what that turf is, but the inex-
cusable part is adding another
day to an already intolerable
month. Humans walked on the

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moon more than a decade ago,
continued on page 5

- Does the

If 1 see that television commercial in
which MacMIllan Bloedel assures us that
the survival of our forests is foremost and
forever on the company’s mind, I'll get ill.

.. Nor is MacBloe the only forest company
eager to win public approval with sincere-
sounding promises. Take B.C. Forest Pro-
ducts, the company which wants to log part

_ of the Stein Valley, west of Lytton.

The company says it doesn’t want a con-

2c eESSs ~~ frontation with opponents of the logging
Hubert Beyer scheme, but wants to build a road into the
in Victoria ; area exactly where a broadly-based ad-

visory committee said it shouldn’t go.

The company says it has a good resource management track
record, but didn’t do'so well when it logged the Lost Creek water-
shed, north of Mission. , .

The company says it needs the timber in the Stein Valley, even
though it accounts for no more than four percent of the total in the
Lillooet Timber Supply area, an area in which the annual cut right
now is 80 percent over the sustained-yield mark.

Chris O’Connor, woodlands manager for Lytton Lumber, a local

- firm with an excellent reputation, told me recently in a spirited

defence of B.C. Forest Products that one of the problems with the
Stein Valley controversy was the emotionalism with which critics
pursued their opposition to the plan.

All right, let’s keep emotions out of it. Let’s not talk about the
beauty of the Stein. Let’s not wax poetic about the valley’s impor-
tance to native Indians. Let’s just take a look at whether B.C.
Forest Products is likely to do what’s best for the most people.

O’Connor made a few good points in favor of logging the Stein in
a recent interview. He wasn’t emotional about it. He produced the
facts as he saw them. Well, the other side also has people who do
their homework. Some of them, too, are coldly analytical. Clinton
Webb is one of them. . ;

Webb works as a forestry research consultant for the Western
Canadian Wilderness Committee. An eco freak, you say? Well, not
quite. Webb has a degree in ecology all right, but for seven years, he
worked in the B.C. forest ministry’s recreation and silviculture
department.

managed and the government wasn’t doing it. If that makes him an
eco freak, so be it.
When I talked to O’Connor, he said B.C. Forest Products had an

enviable track record in the management of forest resources. I said

at the time that since I couldn’t come up with anything to the con-
trary, I’d let it go for the moment. Webb says the company’s record
was anything but enviable in the logging of the Lost Creek water-.
shed, near Mission.

Well into logging one of the remaining parts of that watershed, |

the company, in. 1983, asked the forest ministry for permission to
significantly increase the rate of cut. The forest service approved the
application with only minor changes, despite grave concerns voiced
by the provincial fish and wildlife ‘branch and the watershed
management branch,

_ The concerns included fears that the proposed clear-cut of two
square miles might cause flash floods which could cause the demoli-
tion of roads and bridges. Some of those fears later proved to be
substantiated.

More to the point, a Public Advisory Committee, comprising

forest industry :
really deserve our trust? —

He quit last year because he became convinced that -
something had to be done about the vz, ‘n which our forests are

representatives from the ministries of forests and environment, the’ .
federal fisheries ministry, as well as sports fishing organizations and
environmental groups, recommended
Stein Valley be located on the south side of the Stein River ‘‘to.
avoid major conflicts with mule deer, goats, grizzly bear and black
bear’. ees “

What does B.C. Forest Products want to do? It plans to move the
road to the north side for about 17 kilometers, in clear contraven-
tion of the 1984 recommendation. The point is: how committed to .
the public’s interest is a company which ignores a major recommen-. -
dation before it even starts?

Finally, I’d like to know just
stein is to B.C. Forest Products and the
economic stake in the matter.

With the annual cut in the Lillooet Timber Supply Area running
at 80 percent above sustained-yield level at the moment (partly to
combat beetle infestations), does the industry believe that logging |
the Stein will assure future supply? Or is the Stein to be the price to
be extracted in partial payment for past sins?

The Stein Valley controversy isn’t over yet. Not by a long shot. In
fact, I believe it’s barely begun. Stay tuned. ;

how important the timber in the -
communities which have an

Murphy Rides Again

Murphy’s Laws, the best known of which says that if anything
can go wrong it will, also offers some keen insight into the workings
of parliament. |

“When parliament is in session, life and liberty are in jeopardy,”
-one of Murphy’s Laws says. Whether this observation applies to
provincial legislatures in general and the B.C. Legislature in par-
ticular is unclear. . .

Be that as it may, MLA’s will come back to Victoria in February
to do the people’s business which, it is hoped, will disprove Mur-
phy’s dim view of parliament.

So far, no exact date has been set for the resumption of the ses-
sion that was adjourned last November, but the betting is on either’
February 22 or 29. If things run their normal course, the janitors
and the legislative dining room staff will be the first to know. The
latter have to get ready to serve hungry MLAs, while the former
must get the place cleaned up. ;

As a laid-back British Columbian, you are entitled to greet the
Throne Speech that will open a new session with a yawn, but you’d
be well-advised to stay awake for the budget which will be introduc-
ed some time in March. That’s when the government may not put
your life and liberty in danger, but it may well have a go at your
wallet, Consider yourself warned. a

Ottawa Smart? Since When?.

For some time now, the opposition NDP has been trying to make
political hay by pressuring the government into launching a school
feeding program for hungry children, particularly in Vancouver.

The NDP say thousands of children aren’t given an adequate
breakfast at home and are sent to school without lunch. So far, the
provincial government has refused to take the bait, but Ottawa has
apparently swallowed it. ;

Federal Health Minister Jake Epp said last week Ottawa will
make money available for a school feeding program if the provin-
cial government matches the funds. oo

The premier’s reaction? “‘Just because Ottawa is willing to spend...
money, doesn’t mean it’s a good program.” Joye

in 1984 that any road into the- -