COMMUNITY: Gospel Festival fills park with song
PROFILE: RCMP Sergeant to push officer training up a notch
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WEDNESDAY, JULY 18, 2012
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Wood waste industry hopes to boost supply By Andrew Hudson Houston Today
Andrew Hudson/Houston Today
RODEO Royalty
Houston’s Adele Murray, Amber Gregorowich and Becky Dallaire sport sequins and smiles at the first-ever Smithers Rodeo Queen contest on Friday. Savannah Davies, their mentor and 2010 Williams Lake Stampede Queen, says rodeo queens combine poise, public speaking, and Western-style horsemanship. “I can speak in front of crowds now without batting an eye,” she said. Whoever is crowned queen will preside over the Bulkley Valley Fall Fair and go on to compete at Miss Rodeo Canada.
Lack of easy access to waste wood is driving one small Houston business to Burns Lake. James Tompkins says in three years he’s had no trouble getting orders for his product—fenceposts made from the log tops that sawmills can’t use. But without enough Houston loggers who can deliver tops to his yard on Morice River Road, Tompkins says he and his three-man crew will have to move to Burns Lake. “I didn’t want to go because I’ve got a nice shop and everything here,” he said. “But I need the timber supply.” Canfor, which runs Houston’s largest sawmill, did offer Tompkins access to their waste-wood piles
“ “I’m going to have to move to Burns Lake to keep going.”
- James Tompkins
on Gold Road. But Tompkins said a business his size is too small to haul wood in by itself. Instead, he offered loggers a premium—$50 per cubic metre of wood, compared to the $40 to $45 the mills are offering—if they could deliver to his yard. Lately only Tahtsa Timber, a logging contractor based in Burns Lake, will do drop-offs, and Tompkins said it’s better if he relocates near their core operation. See WOOD on Page 3
Burning ban, careful campers can lower risk, officials say By Samantha Garvey & Andrew Hudson Black Press
Dry, hot weather has northwest fire officials to ban open fires until August 13. Fire danger ratings have already reached “high” for Houston and for several other towns along Highway
16 corridor. “Even though it has been a quiet forest fire season so far, people should not become complacent about campfire use or open fires,” said a release by the Northwest Fire Centre. So far, 352 wildfires have been reported across B.C., 18 in the
“
“Reporting is the key to our success.”
northwest. That’s one more than was reported the same time last year.
- Stephanie Little But those fires have burned through just 15 hectares of forest—a far cry from the 11,000
hectares that burned last year, mostly due to Tisigar Lake fire in June 2011. People, not lightning strikes or other natural causes, sparked 70 per cent of northwest wildfires in 2011, the Northwest Fire Centre reports. That number jumps to 100 per cent for this
summer. The open-fire ban targets fires burning waste, logging slash, stubble or grass, as well as the use of fireworks and fire barrels. While the open-fire ban does not prohibit camp fires, fire officials are reminding campers to burn their fires away from branches, wood
or other combustible materials. Campers should also keep enough people and water nearby to control the fire, watch how the wind is blowing, and be sure the fire is fully out and its embers are cold before leaving a campsite. See FIRE on Page 3