NORTH of 50 October 2010
Thompson/Nicola/South Cariboo
yellow beans that arrived this August. Smaller, regular contributions arrive from local farmers. Every two years, a church group in Saskatchewan buys and sends the Gleaners 26,000 kg (58,000 lb) of protein-rich yellow peas. Once all the produce is dried in January or February, the Gleaners begin mixing and packaging the soup. The final recipe depends on the previous year’s harvest, but typically, it contains Brussels sprouts, onions, Rae McClure and Jamison Plett tomatoes, carrots, peppers, beans, broccoli, cauliflower, beets, turnips, potatoes, peas, lentils and pot barley. There are 15 cups of mix in each bag. The recipients add 100 cups of water (or 50 cups to make stew), let it soak then heat it. “Most of the food is distributed by Christian organizations like World Vision and New Beginnings Ministries, but of course it doesn’t have to end up feeding Christians. We help everyone regardless of their beliefs,” says Eugene. Individuals can also join the humanitarian effort. “If somebody is going to Mexico to help at an orphanage and they want to take two suitcases of soup mix with them, they can apply.” The Gleaners frequently give excess produce to local soup kitchens, food banks and street ministries. The desire to ease the suffering of more than two billion undernourished people on the planet is compelling. On a return trip to volunteer, I join teens and adults in scrapping dried tomatoes from Teflon sheets then clean fresh peppers. My tablemate owns the bussing company that brought a youth group. The pace is fast but the work and company are very pleasant. As the first operation of its kind in Canada, the Okanagan Gleaners inspired the establishment of four others in Abbotsford, B.C., Coldstream, B.C., Medicine Hat, Alta., and Cambridge, Ont. Bob and Eugene have gladly shared their knowledge with these groups to help them sort out logistical, zoning and other challenges. Through the dedication of these gleaners six days a week for 14 years, an untold number of lives have been saved. Okanagan Gleaners Society, Oliver, B.C., 250.498.8859 www.okanagangleaners.ca North Okanagan Valley Gleaner’s Society, Coldstream, B.C., 250.545.1672 www.novgleaners.org Fraser Valley Gleaners Society, Abbotsford, B.C., 1.866.772.7070 www.fvgleaners.org Prairie Gleaners Society, Medicine Hat, Alta., 403.529.9673 www.prairiegleaners.com Ontario Christian Gleaners, Cambridge, Ont., 519.624.8245 www.ontariogleaners.org
IT’S YOUR WORLD
True Value of our Forests
By Bob Harrington
Canada could profit from Franklin Roosevelt’s insight that forests are more than a resource and are an essential, integral part of the community of life. Roosevelt described himself in Who’s Who as a tree-grower. He took particular delight in reforesting the eroded wastes of his acreage at Hyde Park, New York. Aware of their importance, he planted as many as 50,000 trees a year. He stated that “the forests are the lungs of the land, purifying our air and giving fresh strength to our people.” Groping to solve U.S. employment problems, he established the Civilian Conservation Corps. By 1935 a half million young men served in semi-military conditions in CCC camps. They planted 2 billion trees on logged-over land, built small dams for erosion control, thinned four million acres of trees, built trails, stocked millions of fish and built more than 30,000 wildlife shelters. A buddy of mine, during our military life, commented that he got his first pair of shoes in the CCC. Today’s stricken economy could be vastly relieved by an Earth Restoration program (a new CCC) that could employ many individuals and pay for itself. This could help us to realize that our health stems from the health of our planet. Here are facts that will help substantiate a planet restoration effort in Canada. No matter how we dodge the fact that all wealth is Earth wealth and in spite of colossal human ego, we are individually and collectively Earthlings. Economists have published information about forests that we should know. It has been stated that a tree that lives fifty years provides free, $196,250 worth of ecological benefits. For example, a single 50-year-old tree has produced $31,250 worth of oxygen, $62,500 in air pollution control, $31,250 in soil fertility and erosion control, $37,500 in recycling water and controlling humidity, $31,250 in shelter for wildlife, and $2,500 worth of protein. Left uncut, many species will produce natural services of increasing value for centuries. Roughly this means that a single tree averages $4,000 worth of benefits every year of its life. As dead wood it will produce revenue that is only .3 percent of its value if left as a live standing tree. (G. Tyler Miller Jr.: Living in the Environment p. 178.) The Pembina Institute in Canada, using Munich Re’s (one of the world’s largest re-insurance companies) carbon value estimates, places the value of the current total carbon stored in Canada’s boreal “carbon bank account”(forests and peatlands) at $3.7 trillion. A special fund, based on this wealth, could be utilized for land restoration- particularly reforestation, which if you think a moment would be paid back as the trees matured. Procrastination about massive replanting is ignorance that evades our moral responsibility to repair planetary health sadly abused by deforestation. Large standing trees are major carbon storage entities, and we sorely need them as such. Forest restoration should be a prime ecological and economic goal. In Canada we could aim at restoring the headwaters of many major rivers. In the US the entire watershed of the Mississippi River including such tributaries as the Missouri and Ohio Rivers and their own watersheds could be reforested. Yes, this would be a massive effort but would eventually stop the devasting floods which are continual problems. This is exactly the sort of action we must take if we expect the planet to tolerate our continuation as a species. Since everything in nature is connected, our falling water supplies are also related to deforestation. “During rainfalls, bare soil may take in some 5,500 gallons of water, per acre per hour. Ground covered with growth such as bushes or grasses can absorb some 25,000 gallons per acre per hour. Forests however act like sponges and can absorb more than 100,000 gallons per acre. If rainfall does not exceed .4 inches per hour, good forest land will continue to absorb and store up to up to 17 inches of rain – more then 400,000 gallons per acre.” (See: Water: Miracle of Nature by Thompson King.) Forest industries, abetting corporate confusion of the public, deliberately subvert this truth. They contend that cutting forest increases water supply. They fail to mention that this increase occurs in the spring when snow melt is uncontrolled by vegetation. It might be well to ponder Robert Ingersoll’s observation that “In nature there are neither rewards nor punishments – there are consequences.” Check out Bob’s latest book, Testimony for Earth: A Worldview to Save the Planet and Ourselves $23. PP. 1 250 369 2281
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