They
are obviously taking forest production very seriously, given that they
planted four billion seedlings last year alone!”
....This remarkable statement came from
Warren Mitchell of Williams Lake, who in a recent letter told me of
his experiences on last October’s Festival of Forestry tour of
China’s forests.
....The tour consisted of 24 of British
Columbia’s young foresters, all graduates, with several years
field and work experience. They were the front half of a reciprocal
exchange that will bring 24 Chinese foresters to British Columbia in
May as guests of Festival of Forestry for a tour of our forest areas.
....The exchange is the result of three
years of nego-tiating with the Chinese Society of Forestry in Beijing
– formerly Peking. Dr. Oskar Sziklai of the U.B.C. faculty of
forestry was in charge of the tour and he did the job as an old China
hand would do it – efficiently.
....This writer is always in awe of the
learned professor. He has traveled the forestry world, drops me notes
from the sands of Egypt (he says there used to be a forest there a few
million years ago), or from a tree on a Greek island that some doctor
swore under, thus the medical profession’s Hippocratic oath.
....For the past several years, Dr. Sziklai
has been invited to China to give forestry lectures to advanced forestry
students. It is well known the Chinese forestry people think most highly
of him, and the 24 B.C. foresters that accompanied him were the beneficiaries
of all this.
....By all accounts it was an exceptionally
good tour. Letters and photos from the participants have been high in
praise for their hosts.
....John Pichugin of B.C. forest Products
says: “Our Chinese hosts treated us like royalty or diplomats
24 hours a day”
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....The tour was flown
by Cathay Pacific Airways from Vancouver to Hong Kong, a long 13-hour
flight. The group then flew from Hong Kong to Beijing, one of the three
capitals of the People’s Republic of China. Here they spent the
next four days getting acclimatized, having professional meetings with
Chinese foresters, attending banquets and visiting the great cultural
sites nearby.
....Paul Birzins, with the ministry of forests
in Prince George said: “The most spectacular historic site was the
Wooden Pagoda, the oldest wood structure in the world. Built in 1056,
this 67 metre larch and elm building has survived earthquakes, wars, and
time. It is a testimony to the desirable building properties of wood.”
....Warren Mitchell – speaking of the
Beijing area: “We were taken to some of the most important archeological
finds of our times. Perhaps the terra-cotta army of the Emperor Qin was
the most outstanding of these.”
....Gord Slugget of Skeena Sawmills: “In
Beijing we were introduced to Dr. Wu Chung Lun, president of the Chinese
Society of Forestry, who gave us an introduction to forestry in China
at the Academy of Science buildings. A banquet hosted by Dr. Wu completed
the formal visit to Beijing and the remainder of our time then was spent
visiting the Great Wall, the Ming Tombs, the Forbidden City, the Summer
Palace, Tianamin Square and shopping.”
....After these four days the tour broke
up into three groups, each heading for a different forestry province in
China.
....This group visited the Institute of Tropical
Botany near the Burma/Laos border on the Mekong River.
....Here they saw research into agro-forestry,
the combination of agricultural crops and trees such as alter-nate plantings
of 2 rows of rubber trees with 6 to 8 rows of tea plants. They saw Ethno-botany
– a research that
(Cont’d on pg. A8)
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