: ~Jutdoors “The Smithkos are moving again, Mary said. “They are “g leaving the Island again and going back to the mainland.” “Must be the moon,” I said. “Would you talk a little sense, please! For a change.” “The harvest moon! It’s fall again. Time for lots of animals to get moving. Al Smithko may have a bit of Gypsy blood in his veins, you Mow.” “You're impossible! You never explain anything!” “I try sometimes. Look, Gyp- sies aré a nomadic people. They 4@move around a lot, right? “Often with the seasons, too. Lots of animals do that, you know.” “What animals ?” ~ What a question at this time of year! What are the sockeye and coho salmon doing right now? “Going up the rivers to spawn of course.” “Do they follow that pattern all year round?” “Of course not. Only in the late summer and early fall.” “Most of the shorebirds have gone through. Our swallows and hummingbirds have gone. Wid- . geons and coots and mallards are showing up in numbers and it will soon be time to watch for the trumpeter swans out on Martindale Flats.” “QOh,yes. And those caribou that we saw up on the Dempster High- way will be heading for their wintering areas in the boreal for- “They can’t survive out on the open tundra, I know,” Mary said. “The snow packs as hard as concrete by the strong winds of winter and they can’t get through it to whatever food is there. Even with their hard, sharp-edged hooves.” “Right. The snow remains rela- tively soft and fleecy in the forest where it is not exposed to the sweeping winds. And that is where Ihave some very grave concems.”’ “Concems?”’ “Yes. The staple winter food items of the caribou are the lichens which grow on trees and on the ground. Along with a few young twigs, of course. You have read of the recent arrangements by a humber of our provincial govern- ments to have vast areas of the boreal forest, the northern forest, Animals on the move in autumn “Yes, I have. I read that Alberta alone has issued some seven per- mits for such logging already. And one of them to a company which has just about completed the larg- est pulp mill in the world. ~T hope that this doesn’t happen all across central and northern Canada.”’ “Yes, many of us deplore what is happening to the tropical and sub-tropical forests in Brazil, Mal- aysia, Madagascar and so on. But we seem to be embarking upon the same ill-advised route. Governments seem, on the whole, to resolve all these matters on revenue and the provision of jobs. “Of course, jobs are important but some sort of balance needs to be struck here. The boreal forest is a very involved complex with a great many little. understood eco- logical relationships. Maybe we should remember that the great Sahara Desert and much of south- em Europe was once heavy for- est.” “Don’t we also have problems of potential pollution by these giant mills? What about all of those river systems which flow into the Arctic, to say nothing of the myriad of clear productive lakes?”’ “Yes, I'd like to see some solid, careful environmental impact studies before we jump in over our necks!” “Me,too.” “Well, I hope that Mrs. Smithko finds a pleasant place on the mainland. They’ve been good, if ests farther south, won’t they? SaaS ———— = logged for pulp?” oe short-term, neighbors.” ae = PARKS & = Sou UPS == GROUPS =_ ® to result from the four-year timber || = crEA = = RO =e \y lig | sale licence to Canalam Manufac- || 23. p\SPLAY Thi), =, Wey 4 turing Inc. of Prince George, per- Pi a 1Y re a ud 4}, = EXPLO Z Mitting the harvesting of about Wyll; ly DONT FIM Vg = OVER RE = 205,000 cubic-metres of timber in Sy 1G Wiss = SS 252, BOGr 40 = an area 80 kilometres northeast of SS TER: Ze \t! i= CRAFT = . HS RS Prince George. = TAINMENT =.