4 - Sunday, February 17, 1991 - North Shore News

All is not quiet on the

Western front

MEANWHILE, ON the Western Front, the other war continues. I refer to the war over British Columbia’s rap- idly-vanishing natural heritage.

With the beginning of public hearings on the government pro- posal to study sites for 62 wilderness areas anid 115 new parks, the usual forces are mass- ing their troops for yet another round of battle.

One the one side, Jack Patter- son, managing director of the B.C. and Yukon Chamber of Mines, urges Victoria to abandon the plan entirely, since it would prohibit petroleum, coal and min- eral exploration and development in the proposed parks and wilderness sites.

His ally, Brian McCoy of the Council of Forest Industries, complains that the B.C. Parks department doesn’t know enough about the areas it wants to preserve, and hasn’t looked at the impact on jobs or annual harvest.

For its part, the Western Canada Wilderness Committee expressed some pleasure — maybe surprise is the proper word — that Victoria is taking steps to preserve wildemess, although spokesman Joseph Foy was obliged to wonder aloud at the current administra- tion’s actual degree of commit- ment, given Bill Vander Zalm’s track record of overruling en- vironmental measures, even those recommended by his ministers.

In the context of the forestry wars, with these critical hearings under way, this would be a good time for anybody who is concern- ed about the rate at which our wilderness is being gouged, uprooted and bulldozed away to go out and buy a copy of Adrian Dorst and Cameron Young’s fab- uloiss book, Clayoquot: On The Wild Side.

Published by the Western Canada Wilderness Committee, the book contains some of the best photographs of the West Coast of Vancouver Island ever — and that’s saying quite a bit, since virtually every B.C. photographer worth his salt has taken a crack at trying to capture the awesomeness of the area, without doubt one of the most magnificent natural tegions left on Earth. ;

Yet it is far from being merely a coffee table book. It contains some of the toughest, most well- researched text I have been able to find on the subject of our vanishing old-growth forests.

Sadly, Iam advised that the book got a terrible review in The Sun, aid that sales were hurt as a result, leaving the WCWC in debt at a time when the organization’s

_ muscle is needed more than ever.

So this is more than just a mat- ter of going out.to pick upa beautiful book to simultaneously grace your coffee table and educate yourself and ycur friends, there is also the political dimen- sion of helping the Wilderness Committee keep its coffers full enough to carry on the good fight.

Here’s an excerpt from Cameron Young’s excellent, no- Nonsense text:

**By the late 1980s, all three (Tree Farm Licence-holders, B.C. Forest Products, Fletcher Challenge and Tahsis Lumber Co.) on the west coast of Van- couver Island had more than doubled their original allowable annual cuts.

“*Government and industry con- tinue to justify this rapid rate of logging on the unproven expecta- tion that new forest plantations

Bob

will grow back to replace the 1,000-year-old forests, reaching a minimum logging size in 40 to 89 years. At that time they will be clearcut again.

“The coastal rainforest ecosystem, which is anchored in its big old trees, can never recover from this relentless cycle of logg- ing. As extended clearcuts pro- liferate acrass the landscape, the very idea of rainforest wilderness vanishes from the land.

“The promise that a forest tenure system based on monopoly control by the forest industry would sustain a stable work force and stable regional economies was never kept.

“On southern Vancouver Island, the industry has already packed up and left Victoria, Sooke and Port Renfrew.

“The forest sector of the Cowichan Valley economy has been in a long, slow decline, and today the valley communities are turning more to tourism as the industry of the future.

“Over the past decade the once prosperous Nanaimo has struggled to diversify its economy, and Port Alberni has suffered a severe drop in its forest industry work force.

“‘One reason for the decline of these forest-based economies is simply chat the companies have logged off most of the locally available timber. The second reason is rooted in B.C.’s forest industrial strategy, which em- phasizes the high-volume, automated production of lumber and pulp at the expense of more labor intensive secondary wood manufacturing.

“Today, B.C. processes larger volumes of lumber with fewer workers than just about any other country in the world.

‘«, the rate of logging in B.C. has nearly tripled in the past 30 years while the rate of employ- ment per volume logged has declined by half.’’

This is about as succinct and accurate a description of the state of the forestry industry in B.C. as I have been able to find anywhere. linvite anybody from the forestry faculties or the industry itself to dispute the truth of it.

But in the final analysis, it is Adrian Dorst’s powerful, haunting pictures that speak most loudly and clearly. They are designed to make your heart ache from the sheer splendor of Clayoquot Sound. And they,succeed fully.

It is a book that everyone in B.C. should have. eee

STRICTLY PERSONAL

Thank you North Shore

for being involved in the

Challenge

and congratulations to the Challenge winners:

The City of

North Vancouver .

District of West Vancouver

District of City of North Vancouver North Vancouver

School District #45 West Vancouver

School Districe #44 North Vancouver

SUOPPSVG CENTRE

Somuch. So

Park Royal Mall

Lynn Valley Cencre

To all these participants, thank you for accepting the Power Smart Challenge. You have contributed greatly to increased awareness of energy efficiency and re- affirmed the North Shore's overall! commitment to the environment.

By virtue of its adoption of the B.C. Hydro Municipal Energy Efficiency Policy and its participation in Power Smart Night, the City of North Vancouver is declared the winner of The North Shore Power Smart Challenge”

“The results of the North Shore's involvement shows what we as individuals can accomplish when we work together to protect our environment and preserve our energy resources.”

- John Sheehan Vice President Customer Services

B.C. Hydro

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