Replant Program on the Horizon
A column of mountain pine beetle infested trees greet visitors as they enter the city along Highway 16
Opinion 250 News has learned there is a major project in the works for Prince George to replant trees that have fallen victim to the Mountain Pine Beetle. The Community Based Reforestation program will be announced at the end of this month, and will involve partnerships of major corporate and community sponsors.
The march of the beetle has been devastating to Prince George. The City has already spent close to half a million dollars this year removing the rust coloured dead trees from what used to be a lush green landscape. The City’s Manager of Environmental Services, Mark Fercho, admits the City has lost the battle to keep the beetle at bay so the focus has turned to managing the forest as it dies in an effort to reduce fire hazards.
The City has already pulled 110 logging truck loads of beetle kill out of the urban areas, another 74 loads from city owned property on the edges of town, and a further 28 loads from school property as part of a partnership with School District 57.
The City is wrapping up a dead tree removal project on Ridgeview, and that will be the last one this spring, as working later in the season would only disturb the beetles and encourage them to find a new “host” tree.
The infestation is not over, as the next beetle “flight” will start in late June and it is expected to be massive, as the brood development is larger than last year.
It could be decades before the landscape of Prince George returns to the greenery that was so familiar before the onset of the mountain Pine Beetle.
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Posted by: forum observer on May 28 2005 7:09 AM
Forestry, energy and mining industries predict long-term benefits
from provincial money"
http://www.kootenaycuts.com/archive/?7452
Some will profit from a bad thing and re-investment, a top priority? Resource management still means responsibility?
"The current approach of the British Columbia Ministry of Forests is to aggressively harvest infested and killed trees to slow the outbreak, mitigate its impacts on timber supply, and reduce losses in timber values. Measures to facilitate this approach include increases in the Allowable Annual Cut for some areas, reductions in environmental regulations and planning requirements on treatment units, and reduced stumpage – the fees paid for logging on public land. However, large-scale salvage and sanitation harvesting have long-term economic and social consequences, as well as important implications "
http://www.davidsuzuki.org/files/salvaging_solutions.pdf
I would like to see the balance sheet on resource values attained and how much is geared toward reforestation? As you can see I am sceptic about these things, although I continue to survive by working in this industry. I want the resource management to stay in the hands of the Province of British Columbia and it's peoples.
"Premier's pine beetle symposium dominated by industry"
This happened in 2003.
For liberal party who is supposed to be so concerned about the effects of the mountain pine beetle, why was "scientific valuation" cut out of a conference?"
Why because they want to do things the way they want too, so we need some safe guards and control on government that thinks it knows better about managing the resources of this province.
Has some of this responsibility then, been deferred to a community based programs?
Corporate initiatives are alway nice if they back up and balance what they take from this resource. I still like to see a company do well, but at the same time, know that quick profits are not directed away from this province and continued life support for our children.
Privatization intitiatives are the hallmark of transfer ownership of the buisness of this province into others hands.
So while we want busines to do well it must not be off the backs of BC residents, where what we had once paid for, was the pride of our Canadian culture, is now dictated by foreign ownership.
The constraints must still be tight on tenure systems. Let's not have the United States dictate their views on us.