30 - Wednesday, November 7, 1990 — North Shore News New forestry book is a must-read dilemma of how to reconcile conservation of trees Caien SEE the forest for the picket signs? Does the and jobs have you twisting your hanky into knots? Do you have nightmares in which your rose bushes and azaleas are clear-cut by zombies chanting ‘‘Forests Forever’ while environmentaiist commandos in- sist that the oniy way to save your thododendrons is by auking them — and you? Author slams industry IAN MAHOOD, author of Three Men and A forester and a 73- year-old Nanoose Bay resident, spoke with Mike Steele about his reasons for writing the book in a recent interview. “4 didn’t have a malicious pur- pose in writing it,’ Mahoad stated, “but I've never seen anything like this in any other part of the world I’ve worked in. “We have the lowest forest management standards in the world,” According to Mahood, suc- cessive provincial governments since the 1940s have created a po- litically dominated forest service that has cost the public a stagger- ing amount of money in lost reve- nues, crippled the forest products (lumbez) sector in favor of the pulp and paper segment and has con- sequently eliminated thousands of jobs. And it all could have been avoided, Mahood maintains. “We have been liquidating a resource at public expense. There’s been no sanity in the polit- ical forest management sense.” Mahood refers to an article in Forest Planning Canada magazine Quly/August 1990) which con- cludes that, in his paraphrasing, “B.C. is subsidizing a profitable industry and we're sacrificing rev- enues.”’ Just how much does he believe that the provincial treasury is los- “A billion dollars a year” is the estimate of lost timber sale and forest products revenues accord- ing to Mahood “and that’s a net return to the provincial treasury." The author believes that by allowing the pulp and paper cqm- ponent to dominate the provincial forest industry (‘a case of the tail wagging the dog’’), B.C. is not on- ly financially poorer but “a pro- fessionally operated forest industry would mean the creation af tens of thousands of new jabs” through milling lumber “and wouldn’t necessarily cost them (the pulp and paper companies} money. We could triple the current job con-. tent in the other sectors.” Mahood, who took legal action to pry Forest Service recerds out of the provincial ministry (‘They were very unhappy that | teok them down a road they didn’t want to travel’), says that inept management and accounting are a significant problem. “The figures were so con- cocted that they were wrong, dead wrong.” Mahood’s analysis of the state of B.C. forest management is nothing less than an indictment of how we conduct the business of our leading resource. “The job can be done but not the way we're doing it in B.C. We're going to go into a slump in this province if we don’t start max- imizing our profits.’’ Asked whether or not the Regis- tered Forester’s Association was willing to play a role in changing an_ inefficient system, Mahood pulled no punches in his assess- ment of that organization's eftec- tiveness. “They don’t have the temerity or the guts as a protession to take action.’ | SUSHI HAPPY HOUR Monday & Tuesday 830-10:CO pm. All you can eat SUSHI BUFFET Novembersx I) &12 5Spm-10:30pm Ali Sushi, Chicken Karaage, Beef Teriyaki, Yakisoba, 00 and more seasonal specials 51929 eae « Baked Pine Mushroom « Pine Mushroom Soup ¢ Sauteed Shiitake Mushroom Panfried New Zealand Green Mussels * Soft Shell Crab «Spiced Beef Sashimi MANYO USA! JAPANESE RESTAURANT Take-Out and Catering Open Lunch & Dinner § 18O East 2nd, North Van. 980-1510 | MIKE STEELE book review ii so, Three Men and A For- ester could be just the thing to nip your anxieties in the bud. Until now the majority of us have labored under the delusion that the only choices we have here in British Columbia are preserving trees or jobs; that the goais of conservation and employment are mutually exctusive. According to professionai for- ester ian Mahood, this is nothing but tick doodoo. And Mahood should know. tt wouldn’t be hard to defend the claim that Mahood has a greater knowledge of forest management and forest economics than anyone in the provincial government or the forest industry itself, Three Men and A Foresters co- author (Ken Drushka is the other half of the writing team) has an impressive set of credentials: son of a B.C. forester; the first prefes- sional forester in the province to combine forestry and economics in university studies and over 50 years of experience as a logger. Mahood has studied forests (of B.C. fir, incidentally) in countries such as Sweden, Germany and elsewhere abroad. He has seen at first hand the tremendous and ap- parently disastrous changes wrought in B.C. forest policies be- tween the 1930s and the present. And Mahood maintains that the current acrimonious debate over ~Aorest use stems from a policy decision executed by myopic, ill- informed, incompetent and quite possibly corrupt forest service of- ficials during the Second World War. That policy, which created B.C.'s Tree Farm Licence system, has (according to Mahood), resulted in public revenue losses of billions of dollars, the alienation of domestic control of the pro- vince's forest resources and the loss of tens of thousands of jobs. Strong stuff? Believe me — he can and does substantiate every See Forest page 3% PLAYING FI SILK PLANT SALE THOUSANDS of beautiful silk piants at WHOLESALE PRICES. No more watering or bug sprays! Simply dust with a hair dryer. Enhance the beauty of your home or office with these gorgeous life-like creations. 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RE S TAU RANT as | RESERVATIONS 3RD FLOOR 986-VIEW LONSDALE QUAY SCHOOL DISTRICT NO.44 (NORTH VANCOUVER) ELD & PEDESTRIAN BRIDGE COVE CLIFF ELEMENTARY SCHOOL A public Information Meeting to present the proposed construction of a playing field and connecting pedestrian bridge at Cove Cliff Elementary Schoo! will be held at: SEYCOVE SECONDARY SCHOOL 1204 CALEDONIA AVE. NORTH VANCOUVER WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 14th, 1990 AT 7:00 p.m. The purpose of this meeting is to acquaint the residents with the details of the proposa! and to answer any questions. For further information please phone Mr. Pat Bell at the North Vancouver Schoo! District, telephone # 987-8141