Joe Street wrote:
> Well perhaps if you live in the west where lumber supply is most
> plentiful the situation is different. It wouldn't surprise me to learn
> that the western provinces also keep the best wood and ship the crap to
> the east since they have the attitude towards queens park that they do.
> lol.
Ah, there are advantages to living on the left coast after all!
The timber situation in B.C. remains in flux. As the climate warms
and winters become less severe (noticeably so since I've been here,
and I haven't been here that long), Mountain Pine Beetle infestation
has become a progressively larger problem. By 2004, more than 7
million hectares of timber land had been infected, particularly in the
central highland corridor between the Coast Range and Rocky Mountains.
The Chilcoltin and Quesnel regions, some of the most productive
timber country on the continent, are hardest hit.
In an effort to make lemonade out of these lemons, lumber companies
have begun selling recovered wood from infested trees. This lumber
has a blue patina to it and is supposed to be structurally sound.
Given the extent of our infestation problem over here, it would be a
very good thing for the forest industry to find a market for this kind
of lumber.
Between pine beetles and U.S. tariffs, the timber industry in this
province has really been hammered. It's hit small towns in the B.C.
interior very hard, and in many of these places, despair had been
widespread BEFORE these twin problems became pervasive. Now, some of
the places where I've lived have virtually no jobs left. As the mills
close and community investment dries up, all the service oriented jobs
(including education, which is my field) disappear. Property values
plummet. Alcoholism and drug abuse increase.
It's hard to put a monetary value on the kind of human suffering that
has occurred since the softwood lumber dispute began. What it HAS
done, at least in British Columbia, is nurture a deep seeded
resentment of the United States among citizens here.
How long can we Americans survive if we're making enemies of our
friends?
> I do agree that the US has imposed illegal tariffs on Canadian lumber.
Then we are in agreement.
robert luis rabello
"The Edge of Justice"
Adventure for Your Mind
http://www.newadventure.ca
Ranger Supercharger Project Page
http://www.members.shaw.ca/rabello/
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