Editor:
Twenty-five years ago when contemplating moving to 亚洲天堂 Lake, I asked someone in the know what the forestry outlook was for the region. He told me the rate of cutting wasn鈥檛 really sustainable, but the timber supply was in better shape than some other places. Not long after I made some money mapping beetle infests and some people made good money from the fallout, but that was very unsustainable. Now that a decline in timber supply is imminent there鈥檚 talk of economic diversification. I think instead we should invest more in our existing forest based economy.
We can offset short-term job loss and grow our long-term economy with a variety of labour intensive jobs to increase our forest productivity, and eventually the future annual allowable cut. Although we replant logged blocks and do some other silviculture, much more could be done to enhance reforestation. We could pilot and/or do more site prep, disk trenching, fill planting, underplanting spruce in aspen stands, brushing, weeding, thinning and pruning, for example. Of course, all these activities require up front investment and take generations to generate revenue. And so, who pays? There are funding possibilities.
The federal government has promised large scale infrastructure spending soon, seeing it as an investment in communities to enhance their local economies. Last spring in an infrastructure town hall meeting with Nathan Cullen locals spoke about repaired streets and faster internet. We鈥檇 all like those but I think they would do little to enhance our local economy. Our local economic infrastructure is our forests, I鈥檇 like to see infrastructure dollars go to silviculture jobs.
Cullen noted the federal government should provide the full $700 million pine beetle money it promised. Future grant money could go to silviculture jobs. We could spend more bug money to enhance recreational and other quality of life things locally, but quality of life in 亚洲天堂 in that regard is already good. To attract people and grow our community we need more steady jobs, not more lifestyle perks. I believe we should invest in our long term economic future instead.
Another source of revenue should be carbon credits. Trees earn carbon credits just by growing. We鈥檝e opted provincially for carbon tax but many other entities globally are active in the cap-and-trade carbon credit market.
I once asked then premier Gordon Campbell 鈥淔or decades this region has sent more revenue to Victoria than it gets back, what could you do about that?鈥� I got 30 seconds of inspirational bafflegab. Provincial governments need to take a longer view and reinvest in our sustainable forest industry, instead of treating it like a cash cow and focusing on unsustainable extraction industries.
My sons make decent money each spring earning fourteen cents apiece planting trees that will be worth much, much more when our great grandchildren harvest them. Lets express our faith in the long term health of our community and invest more in our forest economic infrastructure base.
Sincerely,
Walt van der Kamp
