KEEP LOGGERS OR KEEP TOURISM? 

In Washington and Oregon, a trend to halt logging on federal lands, within the only temperate rain forest in America, is more than a faint hope of environmentalists. With less than 15 percent of the lumber in the United States being felled in federal forests, pressure to cease all logging is increasing. A recent court order to preserve a six-million-acre habitat for the endangered spotted owl has only accelerated the trend.

The timber industry, which lost 30,000 jobs in the past 15 years in those two states, can't fight back while swimming upstream with a chainsaw on its back. Other opportunities, which have created 800,000 jobs in other fields, have made lumbering, once the dominant industry in those states, a ghost of its former self. The New York Times says another 30,000 jobs will vanish in the next 25 years, if the spotted owl court order is not overturned. Neighboring British Columbia, the most unionized area on the North American continent, is still pushing ahead with a campaign called "Forests Forever." The "forever" meaning for the lumber companies, who cut, not on private lands as in the U.S., but on crown lands belonging to all British Columbians.

Flying over B.C. on any flight east run to Calgary or Edmonton, Alberta reveals sights not knowable to rubber tire travelers. Vast tracks of land, formerly solid with trees, now appear as vacant wastelands. In summer they reflect heat waves that make flying in small planes exceedingly bumpy. In winter until cold weather wanes they are more clearly outlined by the snow that is so evident in the levelled spaces.

While America is swinging towards admitting that a lumber industry that once served us well is now among the sunset set, no longer a vibrant sunrise industry. But British Columbia, a continuation of the temperate Oregon and Washington rain forest is trying to hold on to a vanishing dream.

Holding on to that dream may diminish what could develop from a newer, emerging dream. That of tourism, likely to become the largest industry in the world within a decade.

When the world didn't like Newfoundlanders clubbing baby seals the resulting boycott closed the market down fast and hurt the Canadian economy in unexpected ways. To think that couldn't happen to Canada's westernmost province is extremely naive.

How could this happen? If Washington and Oregon sacrifice logging for tourism, that means that choice, emotion and American advertising would attract more tourists to these states than to B.C. If sightseers want to view depressing desolation they can go to the prairies or look at pictures from the dark side of the moon. Tourism, like any industry, must provide what buyers desire. If holidaymakers prefer pristine mountains covered with trees to slopes blemished with scattered scars, then British Columbians must remind politicians that the old ways of accepting election donations from lumber giants for preferred treatment are no longer acceptable.

A prime quality tree can bring in $30,000 to a forestry company after processing, depending on the type (Douglas fir, cypress or spruce) and the harvest location, while the government collects from $10 to $100 in stumpage fees, depending on market demand. It may be more profitable to leave the trees and let visitors, especially Japanese tourists who spend three times the daily amount splurged by Americans, take all the pictures they want. A camera does not wear away the scenery.

A region that loses its image loses bankable assets as well ... and perhaps a part of its soul.

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