Editor:
The purpose of this letter to the editor is to respond to two of the stories in last week’s newspaper.
Re: Chinook Community Forest
I read with interest the article about the open house that was put on by the Chinook Community Forest and the apparent lack of interest in the impending downfall of the annual allowable cut (AAC).
In early 2000, when the red tide of the mountain pine beetle was just really beginning to sweep across the forests, like everyone else I was concerned about what the future might hold for our forest industry. Everyone could see it coming after hillside, and then mountain sides were turning red.
But the future of the downfall in the forest industry's annual allowable cut doesn’t seem to be having the same effect and concern. Whenever I have a chance to talk to industry and government officials, I always bring forth the concern in drop of the AAC and what we need to be doing to increase biomass opportunities. Each fall and spring we are burning countless thousands of meters of wood waste that could be recovered for the bio-industry.
When I was a young boy, my uncle Sam Gerow told me, "Albert, enjoy yourself now while you’re in school, because once you’re over the hill you begin picking up speed."
When he said that I didn’t really know what he meant, but as the years passed I found out that a “day is long and a year is short.” It’s only a couple years before we start seeing the dramatic cuts in the annual allowable cut.
Our continued success in the forest industry will be based upon new technologies, new ideas of business like bio-fuel, etc.
Re: College of New Caledonia
I also read with interest the Village of Burns Lake's non-committal to the concept of a new rural college here in Burns Lake under the Nicola Valley Institute of Technology (NVIT) banner.
I have to say I must agree with the village’s stance. But further I must express a concern that if the local collage does proceed with the NVIT banner, what will that do to our ability to provide local planning, based on our intricate communities wants and needs, as we would then be managed now by an even more distant board then the College of New Caledonia (CNC) in Prince George.
What pressures and demands would be put upon us by their board’s vision, plans goals and objectives?
I’ve always thought that we should have years ago cut the umbilical cord from CNC Prince George and created our own independent “College of the Lakes” where our resources are not sent out of Burns Lake, but kept locally to support and create local programming that meets our needs. Keep the resources here.
Sincerely,
Albert L. Gerow