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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1995-02-15, Page 4Nature in the abstract C amen The North Huron e NA eA P.O. Box 429, P.O. Box 152, BLYTH, Ont BRUSSELS, Ont. NOM 1HO NOG1HO Phone 523-4792 Phone 887-9114 FAX 523-9140 FAX 887-9021 Publisher, Keith Roulston Editor, Bonnie Gropp Sales Representatives, Jeannette McNeil and Julie Mitchell The Citizen is published weekly in Brussels, Ontario by North Huron Publishing Company Inc. Subscriptions are payable In advance at a rate of $23.00/year ($21.50 plus $1.50 G.S.T.) for local; $33.00/year ($30.85 plus $2.15 G.S.T.) for local letter carrier In Goderich, Hanover, Llstowel, etc. and out-of-area (40 miles from Brussels); $62.00/year for U.S.A. and Foreign. Advertising Is accepted on the condition that In the event of a typographical error, only that portion of the advertisement will be credited. Advertising Deadlines: Monday, 2 p.m. - Brussels; Monday, 4 p.m. - Blyth. We are not responsible for unsolicited newscrIpts or photographs. Contents of The Citizen are © Copyright. Publications Mail Registration No. 6968 PAGE 4. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 1995. Time for municipalities to revolt The Reform Party is promoting a taxpayers' revolt if federal Finance Minister Paul Martin raises taxes in this month's budget. Earlier a revolt of cigarette smokers who bought contraband cigarettes forced the federal government to slash taxes in order to restore some law and order in the face of smuggling. Others are demanding the same tax- slashing on alcohol. People are mad as hell and not willing to take it anymore. Perhaps it is time Ontario municipalities took up the same tactics. For years now municipalities have been angry at the way the provincial government tells them they have to do things their way even if the municipalities can't afford it. Take the case of landfill sites. Huron County and dozens of other municipalities are currently going through expensive searches for new sites. The process is expensive because of the convoluted process the province insists they follow. The province also forbids even considering some options like incineration and processes like the Canadian Agra plan to make use of the entire waste stream. Instead of common sense, the province foists a process that pumps millions into the pockets of consulting firms to play a game of blindman's buff until a landfill site is finally found. Then there's pay equity, which has tormented municipal councillors for years now. Soon to come, the horrific sequel employment equity — more bureaucratic boondoggle that, for 90 per cent of the province, will be a gigantic waste of time because there isn't a significant enough visible minority population to be worth the effort of finding out if they are properly represented on municipal payrolls. The province brings in social assistance "reforms" that make it easier for people to get welfare and there's nothing the municipality can do but pay its share of the bill. The province changes the planning act and the municipalities can only go along. The province brings in new conflict of interest legislation that discourages people from running for municipal politics and there is nothing the municipalities can do. Municipal politicians complain a lot about the actions of the province but they remain powerless. As long as they act in isolation from each other they have none of the clout they need to put the squeeze on the province for a change. Individual politicians talk bravely of defying the province, but no one municipality can do it. As long as municipalities are nice guys, they'll be pushed around. We have created a system of government that has made provincial governments more and more powerful while stripping power from the federal government on one side and the municipal governments on the other. Only a more militant stand on the part of municipalities will do anything to put some balance back into the system. Only by ganging up together will the little guy municipalities have a chance to regain some semblance of control over their own affairs. As it stands now, the government that is closest to the people, is becoming more irrelevant with each passing day. — KR Ask what you can do Robert Ferguson, a Saskatchewan farmer who recently won his province's "Award of Merit", has a refreshing sense of his place in society, one we could use a lot more of these days. Mr. Ferguson, in an interview with Western Producer magazine, recently recalled the words of his father back when he graduated from university in 1946. His father, a doctor, pointed out that his university education had been subsidized by the taxpayer. "You have not paid for this," he said. "What arc you going to do to repay the people who paid for it." Mr. Ferguson could have argued that his war service should have earned him that subsidized education. Instead he spent thousands of hours over the next nearly 50 years repaying his debt, volunteering his services in agricultural groups, educational institutions, hospitals and municipal politics. His activities won him the Order of Canada in 1987. What Mr. Ferguson, through his father, realized is that we all are subsidized by others. When we use the roads, when we go to a hospital, when we get an education, others are helping pay our way. We all benefit from government supported programs. You wouldn't think so to listen to the strident demands of business leaders and those who turn out at the Reform Party anti-tax rallies. They see only the money they pay, not the benefits they received. We have people who got a subsidized university education who suddenly resent paying taxes. We have people whose lives were saved in hospitals who now feel wounded. Would some of these people had the wisdom of Robert Ferguson. — KR Letters THE EDITOR, I have to agree with the writer (Randy Banks) of the Feb. 1 letter to the editor titled "Editorial Stance ill-considered". I generally appreciate Mr. Roulston's point of view but his piece on the Morris Tract in the Jan. 25 edition was, at best, misleading. As a member of the Huron Fringe Field Naturalists and a fanner it floors me to see some sort of urban versus rural hiker versus farmer conflict fabricated like this. The clubs involved in this issue, if the writer will bother to look into it, have long histories of co- operative relations with landowners. They have not, will not, would be crazy to tell landowners what to do. The fact that years of work,by so many people could be threatened by a few senseless pecks at a keyboard is something more than a shame. The distinction that needs to be understood here is that the county forests are owned by you and I and every other citizen of Huron. The users of it have a right and I would say an obligation to comment on appropriate use. Contrary to what was implied, the 14 county forests were acquired for multiple purposes that included erosion control, watershed management, beautification of landscape, protection of habitat and demonstration of appropriate landuse practice. As it is now, the Morris Tract scores top marks in all those areas. It's a rare example of upland forest in an area that contains at least 14 species rare to Ontario (we know this only because of HFFN member and farmer Tom Lobb) and it's on an established trail between Goderich and Benmiller Inn. According to a county report the Benmiller Inn brings $1.2 million into Huron County and 60 per cent of guests request nature trail maps. Groups like the Colborne Snowmobile Club and Maitland Trail have been model users and together with a proper inventory of what is there will ensure continued good use. The editorial's suggestion that a healthy forest requires a chainsaw and skidder and that a 20 foot fence around it might be more appropriate than its present use is fit only for my manure spreader. Thank you. The truth is that the county forests can fulfill the multiple use role easily, if we develop a management plan that recognizes the different values of these properties. This is the kind of intelligent land use that Maitland Valley Conservation has been trying to make us aware of for years now. The Morris Tract is the only one that didn't involve a reforestation effort (the biggest part of MNR expenses) and it probably provides as much recreational value as all the rest combined. It likely has as many plant communities contained in it as well and its on one of the few functional wildlife corridors Huron has. If allowed to redevelop into mature upland forest (instead of being returned to an early successional state by a "commercial improvement harvest"), then we would have an important natural heritage site and a needed baseline for landowners practicing selective logging. We have no misguided vision of clear-cutting, but as anyone who farms recognizes - you don't get something for nothing. Let's have some way of knowing what the long term costs of production are especially in a time of climate change. It's appropriate for the Agriculture and Roads Committee that looks after the county forest to be aware of their various timber values but reasonable minds will recognize that if you try to make this one property do everything you'll end up pleasing no one, and the foot that will be shot is that of the whole county. I question whether the Morris Tract that was bought and maintained for roughly $8,000 should have to pay for reforesting the other 13_ If the county or MNR chooses not to renew the forestry agreement in the year 2,000, a bill will likely have to be paid back but the projected value of the conifers alone on the other properties will be $2 million at that time. At maturity 30 years later they'll be worth upwards of $6 million and if well managed will become valuable hardwood habitat. Clearly these forests will be cash cows, yet we've been focused on a figure of $100,000 (as suggested by the tree commissioner and probably the most realistic) for the Morris Tract timber. With the easy winter we've probably saved a couple times that figure in snow removal cost this year. Photo by Janice Becker Within a management plan for the county forests, I believe there is a win/win situation, but at this point it seems to depend on the Ag and Roads Committee actually talking to those interested. This hasn't happened yet and haven't heard if it ever will. Why Mr. Roulston saw fit to connect this issue with the railway right-of-way has me scratching my head. The connection between user groups commenting on public land use and hikers telling farmers how to farm is truly a specious one. I haven't been involved and have no intention to be in the railway right of way, except to say that a walking trail from the deep pockets of Guelph to Goderich strikes me as a good thing; especially if it had a healthy selection of bed and breakfast and farm vacation places along the way. I can't think of a better way to provide an accurate farmer's perspective and it would be a heck of a lot easier money than growing food. Curiously that last issue of The Citizen contained two other articles, one titled "Tourism a big issue at rural caucus" and the other "Canada adds 21 species to endangered list". In the Morris we have a publicly owned property that will only increase in importance if left as it is, in an area of provincially significant rare species. Lastly I can assure Mr. Roulston that the reason 21 species were recently added to the endangered is not that we didn't prune and thin enough, but that we didn't find the collective will to leave something alone. I don't think that's so illogical. For anyone interested in reading about forest ecology native to this area, there is a '94 MNR publication titled "The Natural Heritage of Southern Ontario's Settled Landscapes" and the Maitland Valley Conservation Authority's "Ecosystem Health Project" provides excellent information for land-use planning specific to this area. Sincerely, Robert Budd, RR 2, Goderich. 524-8097. GOT A BEEF? Write a letter to the editor E ditorial