Nature and Forest Conservation in Canada

Correspondent: The irony is that this year the Salmon Fish Packing Factory ran by
native peoples cannot process the Coho as Canada battles with gracious
Alaskan Salmon Fishing fleets it is imposed a moratorium on catching
Coho in B.C. waters but no one has told these other fisherman bald eagles,
and the grizzly bear as the helicopter circled the bear seem not to notice.
There’s a simple explanation all day the work horse helicopters fly over
removing trees from steep slopes. When humans intervene with nature
there are winners and losers and there are those in B.C. who believe the
bears are coping well with life in the working landscape maybe too well.

Gary Shelton runs a consultancy on how to deal with bear attacks.

Gary Shelton: If you take a look right down here is what you’ll see is we have horsetail,
we have slip joint grass. We have clover. This is vetch. These types of
plants are what bears feed on in April, May and June before the berry
crops come up.

Correspondent: Nowadays he won’t stray beyond the boundaries of his garden
without his gun.

Gary: This little cabin built out of cedar poles here was built by my son when he
was 12 year’s old. Now this is back in the 70’s and at that time we had a
leveled mortality of bears and other predators of a such that we were too
terribly concerned about danger to children like that. There’s not only a
lower population but bears were afraid of people most days but what’s
happened in the last15 years is that the population of both bears, cougars,
and most that come up and as a result of that their behavior towards people
has become less feared and that’s just simply because we have way lower
level mortality on the – now so we would now think twice about letting
12-year-old kids come out in an area like this.

Correspondent: Benefiting from clear cutting, are the civil culturists, foresters who
win contracts to tend every generating vegetation. Mark Moody, a new
hawk native of the mid coast is one. Here under a business he set up he
thinks that the new growth by girdling the bark.

Mark Moody: (Grizzly Holdings)-It has employed probably about 30 people all year
round and sometimes we have 40 to 50 people that we have working and
use the under working crews about 80 to 90% natives.

Correspondent: What Canadians have yet to resolve is what they want from their
forests.

Steve Woodley: (Parks Canada)-The majority of Canadians if you look at the public
opinion poll support the conservation of nature. They don’t want to see
species lost. On the other hand they don’t want to see jobs lost out of the
forests too so all these are balancing act.

Correspondent: Across the country there are modeled forest schemes whose aim is
to strike that balance. The federal governments forest service is hopeful
that these working laboratories will be where the loggers and – or forest
farmers will be able to agree with practices that will result in a landscape
acceptable to public opinion. In the lower St. Laurence model forest in
Eastern Canada Robert Plourede is one of the 700 small scale loggers who
believes that the – will always be a better steward than the logging
company.

Robert Plourde: I don’t think that the companies won’t posses money in developing
a forest. We know that there are controls in place lasting 20 to 30 years
less interesting in the forest because the children and grandchildren will
stay here.

Correspondent: The bottom line is that the Canadian Timber Industry brings in 50
billion U.S dollars a year and small scale harvesting can only contribute a
fraction to that vast output. In striking the balance between the need for
jobs and conservation the million are so native of first nation peoples are
going to have an increasingly influential say in what happens.

Harry Bombay: (National Aboriginal Forestry Association)-Decree like the –
people and the gas pay for – who are totally frustrated with what’s
happening. They see tracks of wood going daily by their communities and
they have little say about the harvesting of that wood and they have little
opportunity to share in the economic benefits which is derived from the
use of the wood fiber so yes there’s a bitter frustration a part of the
aboriginal people.

Correspondent: It seems everyone is quoting the native bands. In B.C. treaties were
never made with the native peoples and they have claims outstanding to
110% of the province. Now the first nations bands are gaining a large
measure of sovereignty over their ancestral lands.

Frank Brown: (Sea Quest)-We have a long history here of 10,000 years of continuous
habitation within our homeland in the mid coast and we want another
10,000 years and then some so it’s really important that we don’t liquidate
our children’s inheritance but at the same time we have to have jobs to
feed our children just like everybody else because we’re participants in the
cash economy as well.

Tamara Stark: (Green Peace)-There are divisions there in the same way that there are
divisions in any community that you find across this country. There are
some people who are going to be pro-clear cutting, there are some people
who are going to think that we can get at least get a few jobs out of it.

Correspondent: What is divided some native communities in B.C. is the agreement
the municipal people have made with the province. They recently won
their case to gain control over part of their traditional lands and to get 175
million dollar compensation payment.

Marvin Mack is a new – council member who has got a few months work
on a clear cutting operation after standing 8 months on benefit.

Marvin Mack: Well the people they only got such a small portion of what they originally
wanted so they just cut a small piece of the pine.

Correspondent: Meanwhile despite one company’s decision to end clear cutting the
divisions between logging interests and environmental lobbyist will not be
easily healed.

Tamara: The sad truth is, is that the Canadian logging industry is destroying our old
growth forests and in some cases like Quebec where there’s fewer old
growth forests and second growth forests were degrading our forest
ecosystems in a hugely unsustainable rate.

Darrell McKay: (Interfor)-They want to tell us to stop the logging. We didn’t try to
change to keep people happy. Every time we change th--

Keith Moore: (Chair Forest Practices Board)-I think you are right about the polarity and
I think if you pull the 6 members of our board you find some fairly
significant differences of opinion there as well.

Correspondent: So if only ½ of percent of Canada’s forest is felled each year can
there be a crisis?

Yvan Hardy: (Canadian Forest Services)-It all depends where you stand. If you want to
keep all the forest for the pleasure of your eyes and you see some trees
being used for other uses then there’s a crisis in your mind I suppose.

Qwutsinas (Ed Moody): (Nuxalk Hereditary Chief)-The ancient rainforest you know
they provide far more than the menial profits that the forest companies are
making out of it now because if they logged out all the rainforest today it’s
going to save the logging industry from the trouble it is in right now.

Tony Rotherham: (Canadian Pulp and Paper Association)-In sustainable forest
management is a journey, not a destination and we’re definitely on that
journey but we don’t think that we’ve quite achieved it yet.

Dan Welsh: (Canadian Forest Service)-I would say we manage our forests well from a
scientific point of view. They’re going to continue to regenerate they’re
always going to have wild life, but if you want that very special old tree
then you’re going to have to keep it.