By Hilary Crowley

Sound Off

Environmental stewardship

Sep 10, 2019 | 8:48 AM

The Fall colours have already started as our days are getting shorter. Our garden has thrived with all the rain we’ve been having, although the weeds have loved it too. We have been blessed with a low fire hazard season. I’m sure we’d all rather have rain than smoke and the danger of fire.

I’ve never known a better huckleberry season. We had a bumper crop of huckleberries in our forests this year. Probably due to all the rain we had in June when they most needed it. These areas, where we have been picking, have not been sprayed by glyphosate – thank goodness. Huckleberries are said to be one of the healthiest fruits available. We have to stop the glyphosate spraying in our forests. It kills the broad leaf plants such as aspen, which moose rely on for feed. Many areas of BC and Canada have already banned this toxic herbicide. Why is it allowed to continue to be used here?

We do not have a very good record of being stewards of our environment. It is important that we should implement triple bottom line accounting, which means that you don’t only weigh the economic benefits but also the social and environmental impacts of our actions. These should be weighed in equal measure to help us work towards a liveable community for future generations. Recently we attended the Mackenzie Matters Rally where workers are hurting from the closure of their saw-mills. There is plenty of forest around Mackenzie with a pulp-mill and two saw-mills. Why would both the saw-mills close while loaded logging trucks take the logs away to other mills further south? Between Summit Lake and Mackenzie junction, we met 34 loaded logging trucks in the space of one hour. In a 10 hour day this would translate to 340 logging trucks per day moving logs south.

Forest management practices have to change. When we are trying to reduce our fossil fuel emissions, it makes no sense for loaded logging trucks to move timber 100s of kilometers instead of milling it closer to home. In 2003 the government eliminated appurtenancy provisions, allowing the big logging companies to move the logs away from the communities where they were harvested. This practice not only wastes fuel on the road but more importantly it eliminates jobs in the local communities. Sure we have had difficulties with the pine beetle and now the spruce beetle but the logging companies are paying very low stumpage for this wood and are transporting it away from where it was harvested, causing mills and other businesses to close. We need to add value to our wood locally.

We are moving into a federal election period. It is important that we take this opportunity to do what we can to improve our stewardship for future generations. We can seize opportunities to support encouraging innovations. We must always consider the social and environmental effects as well as the economic benefits of our actions. As hurricanes and floods destroy parts of the world and ice shelves melt, we must wake up and take serious action to prevent a 2 degree temperature rise. Our world could not tolerate it.

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