4 ~ Sunday, December 18, 1988 - North Shore News {IMAGINE CANADA without trees. Well, of course, it isn’t hard to do. Take a plane flight anywhere along the coast or over Vancouver Island or inland, and you get the picture quickly. For years, sneaky forest com- panies have been doing their clear-cutting back from the roads so that tourists passing along the highways or visiting our parks won't notice what is going on. As a tactic, it has been effective. By leaving a screen of trees up along the roadways, the timber barons have been able to keep the public for the most part in the dark about the extent of the dam- age that is being done. Now, Auditor General Kenneth - Dye has got around to saying what needs to be said: Canada is in grave danger of running out of trees. ‘*Significant shortages of wood are now reported at the local level in every province,’’ Dye states in his annual report to Parliament. “Restocking of productive forest lands has not kept pace with - the harvest, and this threatens future forest productivity.” With one job in 10 in Canada accounted for by forestry, the economic implications are horren- dous. The ecological implications, however, are even worse. In his audit of the Canadian Forestry Service, Dye focuses on how, despite a $1-billion fund set News carrier is CORRECTION: An Ad appearing in the Wednesday, Dec. 14th North Shore News. Incorrectly Printed our distribution department phone number. Please note: the number to call for the name of your 986-1337 up for re-forestation, the forestry bureaucrats have utterly mismanaged our timberlands. Since 1982, 470,000 hectares have been ‘‘re-forested’’ under an agreement between Ottawa and the provinces, which sounds great. But the reality behind the illu- sion of action is as disappointing, Dye found, as the view of the TPA Loggers are even trying to close in on the Carmanah Valley, next to Pacific Rim National Park, the location of Canada’s tallest tree, a 312-foot Sitka spruce that is higher than the Peace Tower. It isn’t just that we are allowing our once-mighty woodlands to be razed, we are doing it at a time when the unseen value of forests Thi n his audit it of th the Canadian Forestry Service, (Auditor General) Dye focuses on how, despite a $1-billion fund set up Jor re-forestation, the forestry bureaucrats have utterly mismanaged our timberlands.° ” forest from behind the screen of trees left alongside the highways. More often than not, inappro- priate tree stock is planted. Sites are not properly prepared. Timber companies, operating under pro- vincial regulations, often replant trees on marginal terrain. They also frequently fail to remove other growth that chokes the sap- lings. Dye notes that the federal for- estry service has lost about half its staff in the last 20 years, which may explain why the available data on restocked forests is a decade out of date. Let’s put Auditor Generai Dye’s bleak forecast into perspective. The Western Canada Wilderness Committee predicts that all the remaining watersheds on Van- couver Island will be logged within the next 10 years. IMPAIRED DRIVING Ardagh Hunter Turner Barristers & Solicitors #300-1401 Lonsdale Ave., North Vancouver 986-4365 Free Initial Consultation © BLAUPUNK T THE DIFFERENCE IS PRONOUNCED CALGARY SQR28 AUTOREVERSE DIGITAL CASSETTE RECEIVER PLUS TWO CL6551 COAXIAL SPEAKERS § Reg. $649.95 . HOURS MON-SAT. 9-5:30 399" PERT ORMANCE INSTALLATION ¢ SALES « SERVICE 750 PEMBERTON AVE., NCRTH VAN. PAUL CARROLL 986-1171 and their role in the global balance of nature is just beginning to be comprehended. It is ironic that the mismanage- ment of Canada’s forests should come to light at a time when the world’s attention is being brought to bear on the disaster being visited upon tropical rain forests. The connection between global climate and rain forests is far from thoroughly understood, but enough is known now for experts in atmospheric studies to be able to link decreased precipitation in North Africa and the Middle East, for instance, with the destruction of rain forests there. In Panama, where vast tracts of land have been cleared in the last couple of decades, the amount of annual rainfall has lessened by 17 per cent. At the moment, there are some 82 muitinational corporations operating cattle ranches in former forest land in Brazil. They are there because land is cheap. They slash and burn the forest in order to raise cattle for the fast-food markets in North America and Europe. Because the tropical soil is depleted almost immediately without its lush canopy of forest, the farms themselves last at most only three years. But that doesn’t bother the ranchers. They move on, slashing and burning more forest, leaving behind a swath of devastation, the soil ruined so that nothing grows. By the end of the century — a dozen ycars from now — it is estimated that less than a quarter of the world’s remaining rain forests will still be standing. The effects are incalculable since the main planetary function of the rain forest is to convert carbon dioxide into oxygen, Although there is no excuse for it except exploitation, it is at least possible to understand the desper- ation that motivates such countries as Brazil, with the world’s second- largest debt, to trash their forest resources virtually overnight. 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