1.6 million ha in bc, and they are going to spend over a million on 125 ha.

just light a match in the spring, and watch it flash through the fuel.

It is because of the fire suppression strategy of saving marketable timber that we are in this potentially catastrophic situation with forest fires.

If they would just let it flash through all the debris and surface fuels, it would barely scar the trees, would turn the debris into food, and reduce the potential for disastrous wild fires. Oh sure, there is the potential for man made structures to be damaged, but if it were properly planed and organized, this would be addressed.

Let 'er rip.

Loki,

Apart from the community safety aspect, I have seen that this project will create about 450 man months of work in the Cariboo Chilcotin area...and most of those jobs will be filled by unemployed forest workers....


what can you find bad in that???

make work project = bailout
Train them to make donothings. That will amount to the same value for our tax dollar.

Forestry is in a low ebb at this time due to market conditions. It may come back sometime in the future. I doubt it will ever be as strong as it once was. Why continue to hang all our hopes on a fading dynasty.

If or when it ever does come back, it will be far less labour intensive. The mechanization of forest harvesting and the automation of bigger, more efficient mills precludes the resuming of high employment rates in the forest sector.

If you are one of the unfortunate forestry workers to suffer from this downturn, I suggest you smell the coffee and find a new career. Don't be slammin on me for that statement. I was, and I did, so you can to.

It is due to safety in the forest that I suggest letting it flash through. Granted, they would have to prepare, and plan, and ensure the safety of man made structures. I am not suggesting they light it up all at once, just in defined area bounded by natural fire guards like mountain ridges and major rivers. Start at the road side and let the big flash rip through till it meets the back burned area.

Farmers and cultures that clear cut using slash and burn are not troubled with inadvertently burning down their own structures. Surely with our available technology and knowledge, we could manage it just fine.

So if this is the solution, if we were to do this throughout the province, there are 1.6 million ha of forest, at $1.01 million for 125 ha, it would cost a total of $12.8 million to do the job.

IF, this needs to be done, we should do it in the rest of the province at over $12 million dollars. IF, it is just a make work project, I would prefer a more practical application than just keeping the saws running. There are miles of roadside that could be cleared, trails to be maintained and expanded, all kinds of things that would be more benefit for cost.

loki

While your comments have some merit....what i said was....

IN ADDITION to being a community safety issue...IT WOULD ALSO create a bunch of jobs for out of work forestry workers.

I in no way suggested this was training, and I do agree that former forest workers should examine changing or upgradring their skills. Fire safety steps in our communities ARE inportant, and jobs even temporary.....are important and welcomed.

That is the tough catch in all of this isn't it? Forestry in decline, yet we do need to keep our productive citizens employed, or do we?

This is the old world paradigm of just keep the peasants working. Keep them working and in debt so they do not have the education and critical thinking skills to notice how badly the elite are screwing us over.

Spend the million and ten thousand dollars on an entrepreneurial training program for those displaced workers. This opens many more opportunities to the local economy and with that actual value because it would be local people doing the entrepreneuring.

Are we really a third world country that has to have one of the food for work programs because the banks and big business got caught being greedy.

I do agree with your sentiment that these folks do need something, but the auto and bank bailouts has really left a sour taste for large scale welfare initiatives. Our social safety net is for those "individuals" that have fallen on hard times. It was never designed, nor does it have the capacity to assist groups and large organizations. IMO, this is not any answer let alone THE answer.

Even my facetious comment on having them make donothings has value because it teaches woodworking (a transferable skill), produces a salable product, and enables them to move forward with their own little business with an expanded product line if they desire.