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FEATURE: Municipal Election Candidates PAGE 10-11
NOVEMBER 2
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WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2014
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Chamber economy effort By Jackie Lieuwen Houston Today
BEAMING Jack-o-lanterns
The Houston Chamber of Commerce is seeking a three-year contract and a slight increase in funding. Troy Reitsma, President of the Houston Chamber of Commerce, presented to council at a meeting last Tuesday, requesting a contract longer then one or two years. “We want to provide stability for our staff. Staff are on a contract basis so as long as we have a contract with the District, we get to maintain staffing levels we have,” Reitsma said. “We currently have a fantastic team and we would really like to keep them together.” The Chamber of Commerce leads the economic development efforts of the District and tourism. Part of the economic development
Jackie Lieuwen/Houston Today
Galya, Haillie and Haylie show off some of their artwork from a grade two jack-o-lantern project at Twain Sullivan Elementary. The students are having lots of fun with Halloween crafts. See page 2 for more.
“ The Chamber of Commerce is seeking a three year contract.
is the merchant gift certificates, which Reitsma says brought in over $70,000 in 2013. “That’s $70,000 that did not leave our community; it’s spread amongst the merchants in town,” he said. A new brand was developed for Houston this year and the Chamber is still working on the marketing strategy and rebranding print ads, Reitsma said. See PROMO on Page 2
Telkwa range “voluntary access restrictions” By Jackie Lieuwen Houston Today
The provincial Telkwa Caribou Management Plan has a $90,000 budget to monitor caribou, predator and human activity in the Telkwa Mountains for 2014 and 2015. Funded by the
Habitat Conservation Trust Foundation and the Province, the plan is still under development and there is no timeline when it will be complete, said Greig Bethel, Public Affairs Officer from the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations.
The Telkwa caribou herd had 270 animals in 1965, but dropped to less than 12 caribou in 1996. After a ministry recovery project the herd was up to over 100 in 2004, but has since dropped again to an estimated 35 in June 2014. Bethel says Ministry staff are
still investigating the reasons for the caribou population declines. “Potential factors include increased human presence in alpine environments, predator populations, an increase in lowelevation early-seral (i.e. newer growth) habitat or the cumulative impacts of
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one or more of these factors,” Bethel said. With the recovery plan still being developed, Bethel says their focus now is on monitoring the number of caribou, humans and wolves, and how they use the Telkwa Mountains. Bethel says caribou are collared with GPS
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to track movements and make counting easier, and Ministry staff will do aerial surveys this fall and winter to count caribou and check on calf survival. They also hope to put GPS collars on wolves this winter to learn more about how much time they spend
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near caribou and using human-created trails. Bethel says they are monitoring human activity through a combination of voluntary reporting, trail counters, trail cameras, and winter overflights to record snowmobile and ski tracks. See TELKWA on Page 2
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