............THE FOREST ....AROUND US |
by Bill Moore |
“Chestnuts
in Bloom”
|
There
is a lovely Cole Porter song – |
Vancouver is a city that was once covered with giant Douglas firs and red cedar, just a short 100 years ago. What is left now is a nice Stanley Park. ....This is a city that lives and breathes forest dollars, but can you stroll at lunch time to a little Helsinki type park, or walk under Paris type shade trees while you munch your lunch? Not so – instead one gazes up at the fortifications that would have made Alexander the Great proud. ....I bring this point out – and there are other guilty ones besides Vancouver – because of the real need for such a city to have its city dwellers always familiar with the beauty of trees and their important place in this province’s livelihood. ....Here is a city that was once covered in giant Douglas fir and great red cedars. Really just a short hundred years ago. What is left now is a nice Stanley Park, certainly too far for the majority of downtown workers to stroll to at a lunch break. Admittedly, the West End of the city has a few lovely tree lined streets. ....A sorry plight for a former great forest. And a sorry plight for the thousands of young people growing up |
in its sanitary cement atmosphere. How will they ever appreciate their
province’s dependency on its forests? |
52 · BRITISH COLUMBIA LUMBERMAN · JUNE 1981 |
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....I have grown up and lived in what
was once called a remote forested area of B.C. that took five days by
steamer to come to. Now it takes three hours from the big city and sometimes
it’s not remote enough! I was always told about how “far
ahead” of us the Europeans were in forestry, particularly the
Scandina-vians. I never questioned what “far ahead” meant.
I just thought it meant “better.” But even inlet loggers
beget jet wings these days and are able to see the wonders of the old
world. And while visiting the many beautiful countries of Europe one
finds out what that business of “far ahead” really meant. |
....We are told we need 8,000 new foresters
in our near future to tend our forests in Canada. They are so close
to commitment in Finland, that out of 3,000 that apply to Helsinki University
for its forestry course, only 80 are accepted. |
blossom,” it’s
a different feeling for trees, you might call it a slight European love
affair with the tree. |
||
Pardonez la bight, Bill Moore |
BRITISH COLUMBIA LUMBERMAN
· JUNE 1981 · 53
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