Inside
WEDNESDAY, April 18, 2012
NEWS BRIEFS
◆ Stabbing P. 3 ◆ Opinion P. 4
◆ Nation River replica P. 12 ◆ Youth drop-in P. 5
PHONE: 996-8482 www.caledoniacourier.com
VOL. 35 NO. 07 $1.34 inc. GST
Swans and snow
Earth Day events Greening Up Fort St. James (GUF) will be celebrating Earth Day on April 22 with a couple of local events. GUF members and local officials will be on hand to mark the official opening of the Integris Recycling Centre at 11 a.m.. Later that day, the group will be over at the Fort St. James National Historic Site to help with their annual beach cleanup at 2 p.m.. Participants will want to wear their boots for this event, and bring gloves if you have them.
Artsfest comes close The Central Interior Regional Arts Council (CIRAC) is bringing their annual art show to Vanderhoof this month. It will be the closest the event has ever been to Fort St. James in local memory, and includes a juried art show of local and regional artists. Fort St. James normally sees only the top 10 pieces from the exhibit which are selected as part of a touring art show after the Artsfest work is judged. The 10 pieces then tour communities across the central interior. This year’s Artsfest is being held at the College of New Caledonia in Vanderhoof from April 27 to May 25. Opening night will be held April 27 at 6 p.m..
Some swans have returned, and some have even been being tracked along their route. Bird watchers spotted some swans in the Vanderhoof area which had been collared, one collared in Washington State where it winters, and another collared in western Alaska where it would spend its summer. Ruth Lloyd Photo
Emergency room update Ruth Lloyd Caledonia Courier April will see some relief for Fort St. James residents needing emergency care this month. Locum physicians have been found to accommodate the opening of the emergency room (ER) for nine days in April. The ER will now be open April 1316, April 19, April 21-22, and April 2425. The rest of the hospital will remain open, operating as it has been, with lab and x-ray facilities. The rest of the days of the month of April, besides the ones listed above, the emergency room will be closed and patients requiring emergency care will have to be transported to Vanderhoof or Prince George. Patients transported by ambulance need to arrange for their own ride back to Fort St. James, as transportation for the return trip is not provided.
Emergency rooms are operated for people experiencing sudden or unusual changes to their health, including severe pain or bleeding, breathing difficulties, chest pain or eye injuries. Anyone unsure about whether or not to seek emergency treatment, call HealthLink BC at 811 or go to www. Healthlinkbc.ca. Northern Health continues to work with community leaders and Dr. Stent on long-term solutions for the community and are currently working to develop a model for a Northern Health and nonprofit society jointly run medical clinic facility. After two physicians left at the end of February, the Stuart Lake Hospital has been experiencing limited emergency room services, with Dr. Stent the sole physician in the community operating the medical clinic. The emergency room for the community was only open for two weekends in March.
Grass fire cuts power Ruth Lloyd Caledonia Courier A fire near Tache Reserve on Tuesday, April 9 left the community in the dark. A power pole in the area caught fire after grass was ignited in the area. The fire was at approximately 19 km up the Tache highway, and both RCMP and BC Hydro responded to the fire at about 10 a.m. in the morning. The power pole was burnt out at the bottom, leaving just the power lines holding the pole up, and power was then cut off to Tache Reserve from noon until 4 p.m., ending the day for many people working in offices like the community nursing station on the reserve. The fire is still under investigation, but it does appear to have been deliberately set and anyone with information or who may have seen something, is encouraged to call the local RCMP detachment at 996-8269 or phone Crime Stoppers at 1-800-2228477. This time of year is popular for people to burn off dead grass, however there are
good and safe ways to do this without jeopardizing valuable infrastructure and causing damage to the community. Preparing the area, planning the burn and monitoring the burn are all important parts of safe burning practices. Often with grass fires, a hand tool such as a shovel and a proper plan are all a person needs to ensure a safe and effective burn. In addition, the commonly held belief about burning grass producing better grass yields is actually a myth. While it may make grass grow back faster initially, burning the grass depletes the soil of valuable nutrients and also reduces the overall yield of the new year’s growth of grass. On average, nearly 50 per cent of wildfires in B.C. are caused by human activity, and this represents a significant cost to taxpayers. In 2010, $212 million was spent suppressing wildfires in the province, and over 40 per cent of those fires were personcaused. For information on safe burning practices, current fire bans or restrictions and legal requirements, go to www.bcwildfire.ca.