Future
forestry
shock
All things must change and, with the exception of death and taxes, five will get you 10 it will keep on that way.
....We of this last half of the 20th century have been witness to some of the greatest and near instant changes of all the  generations  before  us.  The 

by Bill Moore
thinning operation. The union insists union insists that the same rates be paid and the faller not be engaged in any other tasks.”
....Drushka says about Tree Farm Licenses: “The TFLs are supposed to be forest management tenures, but there is little evidence that any of the
Bomb has changed our lives to the point of possible extinction of the human race. We live with that threat and knowledge as no one has before. And no matter what nations do in the future to ban all bombs, that threat of global annihilation will remain.
....We have been witness to great dev-elopments that will regulate all people in the future. Space exploration. The Pill. And possibly the greatest change for mankind has been the emergence of visual communication in the form of television. Television and its counter-parts have and will educate – for good or bad – the people of this planet.
....All this may sound a bit lofty for th8ings such as The Forest Around Us, but it is not. Our forests, as we know, are the conductors of oxygen to our planet. What we do – and how we do it – concerning the care and mainten-ance of our future forests could beat The Bomb in giving the old heave-ho to life on this ball. You doubt me? Try the greenhouse theory for starters.
....There are at present some very serious remarks being made through-out Canada by some pretty credible people about Canada’s forests and forest policies. It must be apparent to those who know and those who can listen with an open mind that our forest policy is badly in need of review and repair.
....A provocative and interesting look at our practices and policies is spelled out by Ken Drushka in his 1985 book,
 
Stumped – The Forest Industry in Transition. He asks two basic questions: What is the proper use of publicly owned forest land? What kind of forests do we want?
....Drushka’s book is mostly aimed at the forest policies and practices in British Columbia but its theme could fit the Canadian scene as well. The writer is a layman, a logger and a person concerned with what he has observed of the forest scene. He doesn’t use complicated graphs or lofty words to tell his story. He shoots from the hip and his targets are anyone and everyone connected with the forestry scene, particularly in B.C.
....On politicians as forest ministers – “Robert Sommer’s chief qualification appears to have been a summer job with the forest service. Ray Williston was a school teacher. Bob Williams was an academic urban planner. Tom Waterland, a mining engineer.”
....He gores on: “Politicians, in power or out, traditionally view forests as a source of public revenue, a readily available supply of funds: something to be exploited.”
....Then on the International Wood-workers of America: “At present a major obstacle to innovative silvi-culture is the union’s rigid approach to defining job description. For instance, as far as the IWA is concerned, a faller is a faller, whether he is falling old growth Douglas fir in steep country or small trees taken in a commercial
 
corporations  at  the  executive  policy making level view TFLs as serious silviculture operations. At best, they do what is required under the terms of their licenses. In reality TFLs have been valued by their corporate hold-ers as the source of a secure, inex-pensive timber supply. More impor-tant, they have produced enormous capital gains and made it possible for the forest corporations to raise money for their processing mills.”
....Ken Drushka’s book is contro-versial. He is certainly not afraid to speak out and there is no doubt he has put in a lot of research. Silviculture, stumpage, tenure, woodlots, contrac-tors, unions, waste and forest history are all laid out in basic English.
....Friend, you may not agree with this writer, but this fellow has said it and he will give you cause to think. They say thinking is good for one. However, I’m sure we shall hear more from this chap in the future.
....Drushka is one of many who are raising questions about our forest policy. I find that very few of our people in British Columbia., and for that matter in Canada, understand our forests or what is happening to them.
....We as a nation have been given one of the two greatest softwood forests in the world. It is the envy of all other forest products producing nations because of its rail, road and water transportation routes. And our climate is correct for good regular regrowth
British Columbia Lumberman October, 1986                                                                                                                       A7

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Bill Moore . . .
(Continued from pg. A7)

under proper silviculture methods. We don’t have to envy anyone – the Scans, Brazil or the transportation-lacking USSR. We have it. But will we use it or abuse it?
....The small southwest corner of B.C. houses the great majority of our people, and our politicians are very aware of this and naturally cater to their needs, for their needs mean votes.
....It seems inconceivable that our education system has not emphasized the value of our forests to our young. Small inroads have been made in very recent years and valiant under-financed groups such as the Junior Forest Wardens, have done what they can to explain our forests to our young future citizens.
....And it is not all the government’s fault, this lack of education, for the forest industry itself must stand up and be counted. I can recall like yesterday, though it was over twenty years ago, having lunch with a gentleman who could well be called a leader of the industry.
....Our subject was camping grounds in Tree Farm Licenses and I stated that his company should put such places in their TFLs and put someone in charge of them so they were looked after. He was quite appalled at the idea and said their barriers would stay up as they were fed up with vandalism and having their equipment shot up.
....The attitude of loggers was always that that the forests belonged to them and “strangers stay out.” We just grew up with that attitude, even though 90 percent of the forest land logged in B.C. was owned by the public.
....There has always been a reluctance on the part of the renters of forest land – big or small – about people coming on “their land.” It ranges in part from the danger of forest fires to the old prejudices of “we don’t want no strangers messin’ ‘round our claim.”
....It’s on record, though, that Can-adian forest Products in Englewood Valley of Vancouver Island were the first of the big outfits to build really nice campsites and put men on patrol to look after them. We gain a little.

  
....Again what can we do to educate our people to the importance of our forests? And by doing so they may some day better understand the problems of those forests such as 1985’s terrible forest fires, and this past summer’s work stoppages.
....We could pass laws. Laws can educate people. Of course it would seem a bit unwise to fine everyone who didn’t know an alder from a hemlock. Do we have enough jails? No, the education of people to gain a reason-able understanding of our forests will take effort, money, and start with a twenty-year program. And the time to start such a program is when the mind is young and receptive. Then the mind is not cluttered with the prejudices we put on as we put on the years.
....British Columbia needs a Forest Centre in its busiest area, its southwest corner. Here the population can be taught what is obvious to young people growing up in our Port Hardys, Terraces, Gold Rivers, Sandspits, and Williams Lakes.
....We can’t be the foremost industry in the province where a politician can tell a group of cement dwellers that “tourism will soon be number one” or “high tech will soon be number one.” If I were premier of this province ( I’m not Dutch, you’re safe) I’d tell such a politician what George “Paniky” Bell used to tell rat-tail toting chokermen – “You’re canned and take a partner with you!”
....Can we have such a place of learning about our forests? Does anybody really care if have such an institution? Do we go on as we are, with a public that shrugs us off?

Keep out of the bight,
Bill Moore

    
A8                                                                                                                       British Columbia Lumberman October, 1986