"TOO MANY COOKS IN THE KITCHEN WHILE OTHERS WILL SAY THERE IS STRENGTH IN NUMBERS". THAT'S GREAT MS. ANDERSEN. THE ONLY THING THAT YOUR PEOPLE ARE DOING IS EXERCISING THEIR BRAIN. ANY OF YOU FOLKS EVER BEEN IN THE BUSH TO SEE FIRST HAND? WE NEED ACTION NOT STUDIES AND CONSULTATION. BY THE TIME YOU AND YOUR PEOPLE GET AROUND TO THE JOB AT HAND THE TREES WILL HAVE FALLEN AND ROTTED. CUT THE CRAP AND GET SOME ACTION..IN THE BUSH,NOT IN YOUR COSY OFFICES.---- HEY FOLKS DO YOU THINK THIS WILL HAPPEN?? NAAA...I THINK THAT I JUST WAISTED THE LAST FIVE MINUTES OF MY TIME.

I'll go with Giterdun on this one!
Far too much blah,blah,blah,and very little action.
And far too much money wasted on political retoric.
Get off your sorry duffs and actually DO something instead of talking and conducting worthless,expensive studies!
What a waste of manpower and our tax dollars!

How about another type of 'Who Does What' document, in the form of audited financial statements from OBAC?

What in the world have they done, and continue to do, with all the taxpayer dollars they've received so far?

The people that set up this 'organization' should be ashamed of themselves, not to mention embarrassed.

All three posts to date are bang on!!!

If OBAC was not there, what would not have happened in the forest industry and how important would that have been to assisting the economy of this region in the wake of the Beetle infestation?

Better still, let us get a status report on the effectiveness of all activities intended to respond to the beetle infestation with respect to both ecological/biological as well as social and economic mitigation resulting from the MPB and relating those activities to the normal work of both public and private organizations as well as the specially beetle dollar funded projects of public and private organizations.

I simply do not understand why such organizations, which are funded through public money, do not understand that they need to be scrutinized for the effectiveness of their operations. Corporations respond to their Boards and shareholders on an annual basis at a minimum. Why do public organizations set up by the government on behalf of the public for the benefit of the public not follow suit?

It states on the site:

In the 2007-2008 Workplan, OBAC will:
• Focus on communications and knowledge transfer activities and, delivering valuable insight and enabling information to our member communities and partners. This will include continuing to update and check in with communities, First Nations and other partners to anticipate emerging challenges and opportunities that enhance existing strategy work or may lead to new priority topics that require attention;

So what valuable insight will they deliver? Where are the measurables? What is the expectation? Where along the way will there be a “how are we doing” check so that they know they are doing the right thing … or at least doing something?

• Perform baseline assessments and/or consolidate existing knowledge so that we know what we have to work with. Also, take a look at emerging trends, projections and opportunities at a global scale so that we can link with known and hidden opportunities;

Baseline assessment??? … good God!!! .. they have not done that yet? How long does that take? How many others are there out there doing the same work? We’re going to be in the next epidemic before we even get starting responding to this one.

• Begin scoping on at least 5 of the priority topics and largely complete three of the priority topic strategies so that draft policy and investment recommendations and a number of on-the-ground projects are ready to be launched in at least three strategy topic areas;

So what is a strategic topic area? Can we write this stuff for theaverage person and make it easy for them to read it with linkage or a direct suggestion of what the topic areas are? It would help get through this bureaucrateze a bit more quickly so that we ar3e all on the same page.

• Be opportunistic and seek partnerships and opportunities and be ready to respond to emerging opportunities and challenges.

Hey, there are many "emerging" opportunities. One is called pharmaceuticals, another is called bioenergy, another is transportiation, another tourism, another retirement community, another transportation …… so, some are being worked on, others are not …..

what is OBAC going to be doing to speed any one or more of these up?

Speaking of just the wood in the bush. There is huge opportunities in BC for sustainable logging, but for lack of requirements and government incentive. That alone could spur huge investment, increased employment, possible manufacturing spin offs, and with the added bonus of the next generations having some forest to work with generating income for their families. A starting point could be the 20% market timber and how it is awarded, thus holding the value for provincial stumpage revenue.

Dito for use of the fibre already on the ground in portable pellet plants and shippers for co-gen ect....

I think we have politicians that outsourced their duty to their constituents to committees and talking groups to build a firewall between the pine beetle issue and their political future. I think the end result is we all talk while Rome burns. IMO nothing will be done until the multinationals find it advantageous to their needs, or on the other hand we get representative democracy.

Long live democracy in BC.... lol Tongue frimly in cheek.

That last post was kind of confusing.

What I meant to say is that most of these organizations are set up by government as independent organizations to blur the lines of accountability. They claim it's a way to increase local accountability, but what if it's just an extension of political favouritism managing reality without the due process of a government task force or ministry, and the accountability that government in theory has.

Why for example didn't government just make some idle backbenchers like John Rustad run a Pine Beetle Task Force with government accountability to the whole process? That is what I assumed we elected them for?

"Why for example didn't government just make some idle backbenchers like John Rustad run a Pine Beetle Task Force with government accountability to the whole process?"

Actaully the idle backbenchers in the 2001 Pine Beetle Task FOrce included Nettleton and Bell ......

http://www.governmentcaucus.bc.ca/media/pinebeetle.pdf

Because of the low value on most pine beetle killed timber,it was recommended by the Pine Beetle Task Force that a special rate on stumpage be set up to encourage harvesting.
That was away back in 2001.
Does anyone know if this recommendation actually went anywhere or was it also ignored?
As far as I know,stumpage rates have remained the same but that may or may not be correct?

I have similar questions about all the recommendations of the Task Force.

All too often such reports sit on the shelf right next to the previous Task Force and the subsequent Task Force reports, but all too often there is no follow-up or accountability for implementing the recommendations as Chadermando was suggesting there ought to be.

Maybe someone else has the answer here.

This process reminds me a bit of the Royal Commissions that the Federal Government throws out to us peons when there is a problem that they cannot handle.

Over a period of time the problem is beat to death with meetings and it dies a slow death.

Unfortunately all the damned trees will not go away, unless someone torches them.

Maybe we could get a tourist business going .... send up hot air balloons to view the dead trees ......

We could get CN to operate them with remote control systems, mount a camera, and send back images to HD flat panel monitors in a local pub where the tourists could watch while having some local brewed beer and some of BC's best wines .....

;-)