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Registered Professional Forester
Doug Davies graduated from
Michigan Technological University
in 1972 as a silvicuiturist. He moved
to Fraser Lake in 1972 and then
Sandsplt and Nanalmo before sat-
tling In Terrace in 1979. Here, ha
worked for Canadian Cellulose and
B.C. Timber before starting his own
firm, KOM Forest Services Ltd., In
1983. He lives in Terrace with his
wife, Kathleen, and two children
aged nine and 12.

This new column is a look at
the number-one industry in the
Terrace area and in the North-
west region, put together with
the aid and expertise of local
forestry consultants Rod Arnold
and Doug Davies, both Regis-
tered Professional Foresters. If
you have a topic you would like
covered, let us know at the Ter-
race Review.

by Tod Strachan

Rod Arnold of RJA Forestry
Ltd., and Doug Davies of KDM
Services Ltd. are working -in
cooperation with the Terrace
Review to help sort out the
myths from the facts in the
forest industry in the Northwest.
We hear both pessimistic and
optimistic stories of the future
of the industry in our area. We
hear opposition to log exports.
We hear of confrontation over:
the use of herbicides. But what is
the truth? Who, if anyone, real-

"ly knows what’s working and

what’s not? In time, we hope to
shed some light on these and
many other forestry-related
topics. In this first installment,
we take a quick look at the
history of logging in our area
and how past events have put us
where we are today.

A little more than a hundred
years ago the Kalum and Skeena
river valleys were covered by
lush, green forests. Few people

’ were here to witness the park-

like beauty. There were only the
Kitselas and Kitsumkalum peo-
ple, living in harmony, at peace
with nature. They hunted, fished
and practiced a form of farm-
ing. Their method of agricul-
ture, though, as small as it was,
affected the natural growth of
small portions of the forest.

Fire was the traditional
method of preparing the land.
By setting the forest ablaze, this
region’s first occupants pre-
pared the land for the seasons’
offering of wild berries, herbs
and roots used for food and
medicine. Also, the Kitselas and
Kitsumkalum cut small numbers
of alder and cottonwood trees
for heat, cooking and smoking
fish. Their use of the land
caused nature little harm, even
though a few of their fires burn-
ed larger areas of forest than in-

tended.

- Around the turn of this cen-
tury, white settlers appeared and
valley forests took on a greater
importance. With a little labor,
trees provided housing and heat.
More trees were cut to create
areas of farmland. Some of the
smaller trees were used to build
fences but most were simply
burned. After all, agricultural
land was needed and there were
far more trees than could ever be
used. These trees, in fact, other
than immediate needs, had no
great value.

Early in the century, however,
the number of white settlers
coming into the area increased
dramatically. To take care of
their transportation needs, first
riverboats were introduced and
later the railway was built.’ But
with better transportation
systems, even more settlers
flooded the valley and the
forests were no longer a thing of
beauty... they had become a
source of wealth.

By this time, though, much of
the valley had been settled. At
first Native farming methods,
lightning and floods destroyed
some of the forest, Then there
were the first white settlers
followed by others who turned
the most accessible forests into
riverboat and steam engine fuel
and railway trestles and ties. The
construction of the railway
alone caused great devastation
to the Skeena Valley. A right-of-
way had to be cleared and in-
truding trees were conveniently
burned. Many of these slash
fires escaped their boundaries
and took acres of forest with
them... but it was progress.
With the railway came wealth.
And it was easy to see there was
far greater wealth to come.

Parallel to the railroad, a tele-
graph line was built and
thousands of trees, the best
poles in the world it was said,
were cut to meet the demand.
And construction methods in the
valley had caught up to the rest
of the civilized world as well.
Sawmills turned trees into.
lumber while carpenters turned
lumber into houses and stores.
What lumber the carpenters
couldn't use was loaded on
railcars and shipped to whoever
could use it. Yes, the forest by
this time was a thing of great
value... but not quite so easy to
harvest.

It mattered little, though, that
the trees were getting more dif-
ficult to harvest. Science was

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keeping pace with better equip-
ment to reach ever farther and
the forests were endless. There
were far more trees than could
ever be used. It didn’t really
matter where or how you cut
trees, or what you left behind.
Where you cut, more trees

-would grow. And where more

trees grew, you could cut again.
White settlers had found a valley
with an endless, renewable
resource... and every tree cut
was a dollar in the bank.

As the value of the forest rose,
so did the interest of investors of
note. At first, loggers didn’t
practice clear cutting. They cut
trees selectively; wandering
through the bush taking only the
best specimens. Their only
criteria was ease of access and
quality of ‘timber. There was no
thought of reforestation. There
was no need to‘even think of it.

In the 1930’s, the Skeena is-
lands had been logged. Proud
corpses hundreds of years old
were shipped to southern B.C.
for pulp. This was the beginning
of a new kind of thinking in the
forest industry, and industry
that had become so valuable that
a research center had been set up
at the University of British Col-
umbia to provide. technicians
with the tools they needed to
manage the resource forever.
And according to these research-
ers, Skeena forests weren’t
worth very much at all... except
for making paper.

It wasn’t until about 1948 that
this thinking had any great ef-
fect. In 1948 Columbia Cellulose
was granted Tree Farm Licence
#1: 6.5 million acres of land with
2.5 million acres of forest. It was
the largest licence of it’s kind in
the province, and the total re-
source was destined for pulp.
Columbia Cellulose, at the time,
didn’t even have plans for a
sawmill. They simply cut the
trees and floated them down the
Skeena or Nass rivers or shipped
them by rail to their Port Ed-
ward pulp mill. This was the be-
ginning of clear cut logging but
not the beginning of an aware-
ness of what they were doing.
The owners of Columbia Cellu-

lose, after all, didn’t even live

here and there was no need on
their part for any concern. The
future was the government’s
problem and had nothing to do
with them.

Next week, we'll look at ‘‘the
fall-down effect’? and what it
means to the area.

Red Arnold, a 1969 graduate and
Registered Professional Forester,

has been a Northwest resident since -

1972. Since moving to Terrace, Ar-
noid worked for five different log-
ging firms before starting his own
business, AJA Foresiry Ltd., in 1985.
He lives in Terrace with his famlly.

_ His oldest son, aged 22, will be

graduating from UBC this spring in
Theatre Arts.

Letter to the Editor

Economy begging for
airport improvements

An open letter to:

The Honourable
Benoit Bouchard,
Ministry of Transport,
Ottawa, Ontario

On behalf of Terrace’s Tour.

ism Action Committee, I wish to
propose that improvements to
be made to the Terrace/Kitimat
Airport in the following areas;

Building and baggage claim
areas — With seven regularly
scheduled flights arriving and
departing daily, plus a number
of charter and government
flights, the present terminal is
inadequate. It is too small, ill-
equipped and inconvenient for
mobility within the building.
The baggage claim area is. un-
heated, open to the outdoors
when baggage is being unloaded,
and the one-bay linear baggage
retrieval area is an embarrass-
ment.

Airport landing system — In
an average winter, 60 to 80
flights are unable to land at the

Terrace/Kitimat airport. This |

necessitates either re-booking on
another flight or going to
Smithers or Prince Rupert by
bus. Either of the bus routes add
a minimum of four hours to the
total travelling time. Besides the
inconvenience of time to passen-
gers, those missed landings cost
the air carriers over $1,000/
flight minute for food, buses
and ferry charges, in addition to
the overtime paid to airport and
aircraft staff.

I understand that a microwave
landing system is being con-
sidered for this airport, as a pilot
project. It would reduce our
minimal landing requirements
by another 100 feet, from the
present 530 feet, would be far
more controllable than the pre-
sent system, and would provide
greater accuracy for curved ap-
proaches.

But, if you install this system,
on a pilot project basis at air-

ports throughout the country,
rather than region by region, as
proposed, aircraft will be re-
quired to operate with two dif-
ferent landing units — one con-
ventional for landing at other
‘airports in the region, and the
microwave landing system for
landing at Terrace/Kitimat Air-
port. It is an expensive and inef-
ficient solution to a far-reaching
problem. We would ask that you
further investigate the best and
most expedient way to increase
the landing completions at this
airport.

Customs — With the expected
increase in international traffic
from southeastern Alaska when
Shames Mountain Ski Resort
opens in the fall of 1990, and the
present and future recreational
potential of Mt. Layton Hot-
springs Resort (just 10 miles
south of Terrace), a customs
facility for the Terrace/Kitimat
Airport is a must. There is a very
large market in southeastern
Alaska that isn’t being accessed,
and a boon to the economy of
British Columbia that is being
missed, With the potential for
business, shopping and recrea-
tional visitors to northwest B,C.
from Alaska, we should be
capitalizing on that market.

Either an extension of the
Kitimat Customs office jurisdic-
tion or a permanent Cusioms
facility at the Terrace/Kitimat
Airport is necessary for the
diversification and growth of the
economy in the Pacific North-
west and the province of British
Columbia.

The assurance to business
people and tourists of the availa-
bility and quality of these essen-
tial transportation services in the
Terrace area is of the utmost im-
portance.

Murray Kester,
3‘N’One Foods,
-*Member of the Terrace

~~ Community Tourisin -

‘Action Committee,

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