AG - Wednesday, August 3, 1983 - North Shore News The Premier Street ‘landfill ite & is | in the mews again, this time because of the Supreme Court suit filed by five North Van families. There is some irony. ‘in the timing of the suit: It comes as the District of North Van- couver is taking legal steps of its own to deal _ with the proposed logging of Grouse Moun- ta The irony is that while the district attempts to deal with the aesthetic pollution such log- ging would create, it is being challenged for its seeming inability to deal with the pollu- tion problems.: associated | with premier Street. - Beyond the irony, there lies the continu- ing, thorny problem of the landfill itself. tt _ was a year and a half ago that the Greater - Vancouver Regional District announced its bold:new program for waste disposal that ‘was to have answered some of the most pres- _sing concerns confronting all areas of the Lower Mainiand. Since then little appears to have been done beyond ‘the expansion of waste disposal facilities that are already in existence. The ‘central challenge remains — in the face of the.reality of.a large, concentrated population” that produces a tremendous amount of rubbish and refuse, we have not _ yet. developed a comprehensive and well- ‘. des d system for: v dealing with that rub- - Miowever. : as ‘previous, attempts" ‘have A me fails‘and we continue to ignore the waste disposal problems confronting us, it will be more than just a handful of families that a are e the w worse for | The government’ s s really done it this time. By deciding to arbitrarily boost the cost of bottles of booze by double figure taxation . they are shortening the lives of many Cana- -- dians.:Wasn't It a government study not all that long-ago that determined that a drink or | : two:.could help prevent heart attacks and _ would prolong life? Ah well, the government e elveth, th the government taketh away. sunday fTnews a narth shore - news 1139 Lonsdale Ave., North Vancouver, 8.C. V7M 2H4 -: Display Advertising Classified Advertising Newsroom | Cireutation 980-0511 086-6222 985-2131 986-1337 Publisher Poter Speck Associate Publisher Editor-in-chief Advertising Director Robert Graham Noel Wright Tim Francis Personnel Director Classified Director Circulation Director Mrs. Borni Hilliard tsabetie Jennings Brian A. Ellis Production Director Office Manager Photography Manager Chita Johnson . Donna Grandy Terry Peters. North Shere News, founded in 1969 as an independent community paved under Schadute Hi, Part @. Paragraph & of the Shore. Second Registration Number 3885. Entire contents e 1982 North Shore Free Press Ltd. All rights reserved. ' Subscriptions, ‘Morth and Went Vancouver, $26. per year. Mailing : asadairasielennies renponsibiity accepted for unsolicited material inctuding _mnanuncrota ang ptures wich shoud accompanied by a stamped VERIFIED CIRCULATION 54,450 Wednesdey; $4,278 Bumdey HOW WOULD you like to be a detective and solve a mystery by putting together the clues? You’ve found a set of tracks, and the leaves and - berries have been torn off nearby bushes. Who made these tracks? Are they old or fresh? Who chewed off these branches? Which way did the animal go? Nearby are some animal droppings. Are they from an animal you should be cautious about? Long ago, Indian hunters knew the fine art of being a nature detective. They had. to, because their livelihoods depended upon it. If you were going to track a deer (your food supply), you needed to know the answers to the above questions, otherwise you would starve. This meant accurate identi- fication of signs and know- ledge of animal habits. Determining the direction of travel by track sign is for most animals quite straight- forward. For the Snowshoe Hare, however, you have to observe a little more closely. One would expect the larger hind foot tracks to be in back . of the smaller front foot tracks, but this is not the case. When a hare runs or, rather, bounds, it brings its hind feet to the front of its head so that the larger tracks are ahead of the smaller ones. Have you ever wondered how to tell a cat track from a dog track? It’s easy. Can you recall the sound made by a dog walking across a hard surface — _ click, click, click..? A cat, on the other hand, walks silently. This is because a cat can retract its claws, whereas a dog can- not. Coyote, wolf and fox tracks should all show the claw marks. Cougar, lynx and bobcat tracks do not show claw marks. Droppings arid scats are excellent clues to the animals living in an area. Generally speaking, droppings .of herbivores (plant eaters) are peliet-like (e.g., rabbit) and those of carnivores are sausage- shaped (i.e. dog). Both deer and hare pellets are round and are sometimes confused. How can you tell the difference? Deer pellets are usually found in a group (“pellet group”). Hare pellets, on the other hand, are scattered about and are not ina “pile.” Deer pellets Photo submitted BALD EAGLES frequently show up in the Maplewood flats area, and at the mouth of the Seymour River. As many as 13 have been seen riding the wind currents above the ridges of Mount Seymour Provincial Park. LAMENT OF A LAZY LETTER WRITER Tips for proscrastination STRATTON DOES YOUR personal mail pile up? Do you in- tend to answer the let- ter from Aunt Mary, or the Christmas note from an old neighbor, or. your grandmother's newsy family epic and all the other letters so eagerly read when they first arrived? If you could just have the time to sit right down then and write back, oh, the chit- chat that comes to mind you want to share. But, of course, you don't right then because you have to take Mike to his piano lesson or go grocery shopping or do ‘the laundry or bake that batch of cookies you promis- ed, So the letters pile up. The days, weeks, and yes, even months go by. You feel guil- ty. Now the postman only br- ings bills and junk mail, You resolve today to tackle the ‘stack. Too late to just dash a quick note to cach, and woth age * ' anyway you really want to write the long letters that you like to receive. You choose one from the pile. Then your mind goes as blank as the paper before you. What were all the fascinating things you meant to write last week, last ‘mon- th? You can't recall anything ‘Noel Wright on vacation interesting cnough to write about. You make a cup of coffee. You look at the clock. Now that you have the time, you aren't in the letter writing mood. The sentences you do scribble seem stilted and forced. Only when you drop the finished letter in the comer mailbox docs your mind sud- denly start functioning with ~~ oh, I meant to tell her this, and oh, I forgot to tell her that. . Does this scenario sound familiar to you? If it does, here are three tested and true tips ta make your next letter writing session as warm and easy as an actual visit over a cup of coffee. First, the day you get a personal letter, address and stamp an envelope for the answer, Paperclip it to the back of the letter received. This sets up a positive fecling of action, Second, as the days follow and anything you want to tell that person comes to mind, jot it down briefly on the front of the = friend's envelope. By the time you actually answer the letter you will have several items to write about. For example, “J's class play,” “recipe ck/ms cass”, “marigolds up”, “poll-pet signed” on an envelope reminded me to write my sister about Jenny's part in her school class play, to send along a copy of a “new delicious. recipe for chicken/mushroom casserole (they go to a jot of covered dish dinners), that the new variety of marigolds were up and beautiful, and that I had signed and. cir- the: are oval-shaped like a bean; hare pellets are round like a pea. Carnivore droppings like those of the coyote com- monly contain the remains of a meal, like hair, feathers and bones. Bear scats fre- quently contain seeds and fruit skins (e.g. blueberries, rose hips). Feeding areas provide ad- ditional clues. When ex- -amining browsed _ bushes where twigs have been nip- ped off, try to notice if the. ends are ragged (deer) or cleanly. clipped (hare). A pile of cone scales on a stump tells you a squirrel has eaten its breakfast here (“cone flakes”?). A ripped-apart stump may be the work of a bear in search of ants and grubs. There are numerous other - signs to watch for, including “dusting bowls” — places where grouse take a dust bath; scratch marks on trees (bears or ), dens, and hair caught on the ends of branches. All help to tell a story — once you've learned to be a nature detective. B.C.’s provincial parks are ‘excellent places to enjoy wildlife. In the Lower Main- land Region, some of the best are: Mt. Seymour Provincial Park, North Vancouver: deer, bear, grouse. Cypress Provincial Park, West Vancouver: deer, Yew Lake Nature Golden Ears Provincial Park, Maple Ridge: deer, mountain goat. Manning Provincial Park, midway between Hope and Princeton on Highway 3: deer, bear, snowshoe hare, an excellent :place for observing wildlife . at all times of the year. , culated a petition against establishing a city garbage dump too close to our homes and natural wild-life preserve. Third, when you want to write a letter but don’t think you have the time, think of it as an actual visit with your friend. If she came to the door, or phoned, would you tell her you would like to visit, but just don’t have the time? Of course not. So set aside the time. Say to yourself (or to other members of the family if necessary), “I'm visiting Mary this afternoon.” They may look at you a little odd the first time, especially if Mary lives a thousand miles away. Then add, “By letter.” And explain. From then on, your letter writing will be as: pleasant o break as your letter receiv- ing. And you can once more look forward to the postman bringing, ‘besides the bills and rear mail, a visit back to you from a friend.