8 — Friday, October 31, 1997 - North Shore News north Shere news ____ MAIL Box Keep foresters Dear Editor: In your recent article about the Greater Vancouver Water District (GVWD) threatening Western Canada Wilderness Committee over its trail map to the last remaining giant Douglas firs in the Seymour Demonstration Forest, the GVWD alleges that it is strictly concerned about public liabil- ity issues. What nonsense. Ask yourself, why is it that the GVWD will not build a trail to these remarkably large, and now rare, Douglas tirs? The answer is that it has other plans for them. The GVWD staff want to log them as quickly as possible but have been blocked up until now by our local councillors on the GVWD Water Committee. In 1991, Ralf Kelman, brought these trees to the GVWD"s attention during a public mecting and asked that they be saved and that trails be built so chat the public could see them. The trees are located in a publicly accessible area in the Seymour Demonstration Forest. Instead of saving these trees the GVWD staff responded by coming up with a proposal to log them and asked that they be cut immediately, before an ecological inventory was to be done. The ecological inventory was supposed to be done for the area te identify areas of old growth that could be saved. In their report, staff did not tell the clected politicians, who have to approve logging proposals, thar the logging plans included these controversial trees. As a regular attendant at board mectings, f examined the logging proposal and saw that it did not include a map show- ing where the logging was to occur, which is very unusual. After over a month of demands to see the map, staff finally dis- closed where the proposed cutblocks were, and U discovered thar the GVWD was planning to cut the Hydraulic Creek giants. Thanks to North Vancouver District Coun. Janice Harris, who sat on the GVWD Water Committee at that time, the staff preposal to log immediately was rejected and deferred until after a long-term plan was in place. Now WCWC wants peo- ple to see these giant fir trees before the proposal goes back to the board to cut them. Not surprisingly, the GVWD are using threats and intimi- dation to stop the public from seeing them. The GVWD will not build a trail to them and will not let anyone show the pub- Mitchell’s music tunes into departed columnist ut of watershec lands lic where they are, because of the alleged public lability con- cerns. In the long run, the only way these trees will be saved for public enjoyment is if the area is made into a park. When it was decided a few years ago that lower Seymour Valley was not needed for watershed purposes for 75 years, an eftective lobby by the forest industry convinced the GVWD to call it a demonstration forest and to operate it like a tree farm where you must log it. ‘This is publicly owned land in a highly accessible location with extremely high recreational values. With the rest of the province being logged, it does not make sense to destroy the last remnants of old growth within the city. If rhe public doesn’t speak up now, however, these trees will be logged. As for the GVWD staff who have gone out of their way to hide the truth from the public, in my opin- ion they should be fired. As long as we have foresters managing our GVWD fands, then we are going to end up with a logging operation, instead of parks and watersheds. Paul Hundal West Vancouver Dear Editor: You cion’t know what you've lost till it’s gone Joni Mitchell had it right on in her Yellow Taxi ditty. It is now over four weeks without Dougie Collins and L miss him oh, so much. I miss «his penchant for ferreting out warped situations that otherwise were so often purposely overlooked so as not to disturb the status quo. I miss his ladling out scorn on bizarre situ- ations that infuriate thousands of us. I miss his picking up the cudgel on items that required a stout defence, for he always teft me with the feeling that the particular issue, at Name: -Name: Rodney F. Bruyere Robertson Age: 28 James the very least, would be given a fair shake despite the risk of being shot down by much weaker opinions with stronger guns. I miss his Old World virtues (so sadly lack- ing today) that were explained in such a man- ner that like it or not, for me anyway, agrecing, with Doug was much more palatable than dis- agreeing. His talent, his scruples, his undauntedness, his example are items thar we of the silent’ majority keep hidden in our loins. Most of aff f miss his oft-used phrase chat was so apropos, for it never failed to alert, “Have we gone mad?” Ted Hadley West Vancouver mM ALL DAY, ONE DAY ONLY! Name: Michael Rodney Baker Age: 22 Offence: break and enter Alexander November 1, 1997 Includes Taliorfortr, elastic, bias ; tape, buttons, zippers, thread. and cut trims, Reg, to$12.9%n. or each, Offence: failing to comply with a court order Call NV RCMP at 985-1311. Name: Leslie William Fisher Age: 4] Offence: theft under $5,000 - Age: 28 Offences: two charges of breaching probation Name: Andrew Paul Vandal Age: 24 Offence: break and enter by Vancouver City Police. Vandal “frequents” the North Shore. 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