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Publications Mail Registration #0040028607
Wednesday, January 22, 2014
Proudly serving Houston and District - Home of Canada’s Largest Fly Rod
www.houston-today.com
No. 04 $1.30 Inc. GST
Mayor opposes timber swap By Walter Strong Black Press
WIND Storm
Staff writer/Houston Today
Over half of the B.C. Hydro customers in Houston lost power in the wind storm last week Tuesday. Bob Gamer, B.C. Hydro Northern Community Relations Manager in Prince George said the storm was a “very rare once in 50 year event with winds up to 125 kilometres an hour.” Gamer said that at the peak of the storm there were over 22,000 hydro customers without power in the northern region, and tree and line crews came from all over B.C. to help restore power. Gamer said Houston customers all had power by Thursday afternoon. There was another short power outage in Mountainview Subdivision Friday evening to do more work relating to the wind storm.
Is the B.C. Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations (MFLNRO) about to approve a transfer of timber supply licenses within the Morice timber supply area (TSA) between Canfor and West Fraser before it has completed its current timber supply review? This pressing question, along with the implication that timber supply management is chugging along with the cart before the horse, were concerns raised around the Regional District of Bulkley Nechako (RDBN) board table in Burns Lake on Jan. 9, 2014 as members of the RDBN committee of the whole digested an update provided by MFLNRO Nadina resource district stewardship
officer Agathe Bernard. A timber supply review is underway for the Morice TSA in the leadup to a new chief forester’s determination of the area’s allowable annual cut (AAC). The AAC sets the timber harvest level for a region, in effect determining the economic engine for the local forest industry. At least once every 10 years the province’s chief forester is mandated to provide a new AAC for every TSA in the province. The previous determination for the Morice TSA was made in 2008, when the AAC was set at 1.265 million cubic metres of harvest per year. That AAC represented a continuation of the uplifts put in place throughout the B.C. interior ravaged by the mountain pine beetle epidemic. See TIMBER on Page 2
Houston Luckies playoff game Saturday in Houston By Jackie Lieuwen Houston Today
Houston Luckies start the playoffs with a home game against the Quesnel Kangaroos, east division, on Jan. 25. After the first playoff game at home, they will play two games in Quesnel on Feb. 1 and 2. The final CIHL
standings are as follows: At the top are Williams Lake Stampeders, east division, and Terrace River Kings, west division, with 25 points; second is Quesnel Kangaroos, east, and Smithers Steelheads, west, with 24 points each; third is Kitimat Ice Demons, west, with 19 points and fourth is Houston Luckies and Prince
Rupert Rampage, both west division with 15 points. Lac La Hache Tomahawks, east division, was last with six points. Asked what the Luckies expect at playoffs, Head Coach Shane Brienen said it’s hard to say. “Whenever they had a full team this year, they did fairly well. They didn’t lose
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a game at home, and I don’t think they won one on the road. “It’s hard to say what will happen… We won five games in a row at one point during the season, and in the playoffs anything can happen. “We only saw [Quesnel] once in the season, and they looked fairly strong,” he said.
Brienen says Luckies have struggled a bit this past season. “We’ve got a lot of young players and we struggled to get a full team on the road. “When they played well, they played very well. Asked about the team strengths, Brienen it’s their physicality and their speed when they have
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a full lineup. “For a young team, they’re extremely physical… and they seem to be able to go out and mix it up quite easily,” he said. “They just have to go out there and play their style, and roll all four lines as long as they can with an aggressive forecheck. “They’ve been pretty strong that way,
at least when they had a full lineup. “We’ve had a pretty decent forecheck and a good backcheck. We just need a good effort and to play our best hockey,” he said. The Luckies first playoff game will be at the Houston Claude Parish Memorial Arena at 8 p.m. Come out and support the team!
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