Some consequences of cheap trees and cheap talk: Pulp mills and logging in northern Alberta

Ecologist

Volumn 27, Issue 2, 1997, Pages 64-68

  Sherman, Joan ^a  

^a ATHABASCA UNIVERSITY   (Canada)

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EID: 5844289103     PISSN: 02613131     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Article

References (15)

1. The sole source of moisture in bogs or muskegs is precipitation, whereas fens have streams or ground water flowing into them. For discussion of the boreal forest see Boreal Forest Conference Committee, Boreal Forest Conference Proceedings, Athabasca University, Athabasca, Alberta, 1992.
2. On average, an aspen growing in the boreal forest of Alberta would take 83 years to reach a height of 27.7 metres, whereas a balsam poplar would take 16 years to reach a height of 4 metres, or 65 years to grow to 23 metres tall. See Peterson, E. B. and Peterson, N. M., Ecology, Management, and Use of Aspen and Balsam Poplar in the Prairie Provinces, Special Report 1, Forestry Canada, Minister of Supply and Services Canada, Ottawa, 1992, p.17.
3. The new chemi-thermo-mechanical pulp mills in Alberta are Millar Western Pulp Limited in Whitecourt; Alberta Energy Company Slave f Lake Pulp in Slave Lake; and Alberta Newsprint Company in Whitecourt. The new bleached kraft pulp mills are Daishowa-Marubeni International near Peace River and the Mitsubishi-controlled Alberta-Pacific Forest Industries near Athabasca.
4. Forest industries pay the Alberta government between 25 cents and $2.50 per cubic metre for timber cut for pulp in their Crown forest concessions. (See 18 October 1995, letter from the Director, Forest Management Division, Land and Forest Service, Alberta Environmental Protection.) In 1997, Alpac pays 46 cents per cubic metre for pulpwood. According to an Alpac representative, 3.2 aspen trees would equal a cubic metre; therefore, each aspen logged is worth about 14 cents in stumpage fees paid to the government. Furthermore, a seven-axle logging truck hauling 30 tonnes of poplar (32 cubic metres) would cost Alpac approximately $14.72 in stumpage fees. Alpac is licensed to process 2.7 million cubic metres of timber annually.
5. The Alberta government committed more than $1.35 billion in financial assistance to the forest industry. See Pratt, L. and Urquhart, I., The Last Great Forest: Japanese Multinationals and Alberta's Northern Forests, NeWest Press, Edmonton, 1994, pp.4-7.
6. Alberta-Pacific Forest Industries Inc. is owned by a joint venture partnership comprising Mitsubishi (41 per cent). Honshu Paper Co. (11 per cent), Hokuetsu Paper (5 per cent), Kanzaki Paper Canada Inc (25 per cent) and public shareholders (18 per cent). See Crestbrook Forest Industries, Ltd, Final Prospectus, 29 October 1991.
7. See Richardson, M., Sherman, J. and Gismondi, M., Winning Back the Words: Confronting Experts in an Environmental Public Hearing, Garamond Press, Toronto, 1993. In March 1990, the EIA Review Board recommended that the proposed pulp mill not be approved "at that time", citing the need for further study of its health and environmental effects. The Alberta government and the company argued that the report was biased and inaccurate; the government approved the mill in December of that year.
8. Rowe, S., "Technology and Ecology," Home Place: Essays on Ecology, NeWest Press, Edmonton, 1990, p.68.
9. Author interview, April 1994. For more detail of the impacts of this mill and how people talked about their concerns, see Richardson, M., Sherman, J. and Gismondi, M., op. cit. 7.
10. For an analysis of Alpac's company newsletter, Forest Landscape, see Sherman, J. and Gismondi, M., "Jock Talk, Goldfish, Horse Logging and Star Wars: How a Pulp Company communicates a Green Image," Alternatives Journal 23, No.1 (1997).
11. For an analysis of Alpac's company newsletter, Forest Landscape, see Sherman, J. and Gismondi, M., "Jock Talk, Goldfish, Horse Logging and Star Wars: How a Pulp Company communicates a Green Image," Alternatives Journal 23, No.1 (1997).
12. Forest Landscape, 30 April 1993, p.4.
13. See Sherman, J., Gismondi, M. and Richardson, M., "Not Directly Affected: Using the Law to Close the Door on Environmentalists," Journal of Canadian Studies 31, no. 1, Spring 1996, pp. 102-118.
14. A percentage of timber fee royalties paid by the forest industry to the Alberta government is deposited into the Forest Resource Improvement Program (FRIP). The government anticipates that FRIP will receive $13 million annually. This money is distributed to the contributing companies for forestry-related projects. FRIP information was provided to the author by the Minister of Alberta Environmental Protection.
15. Ninety per cent funded by taxpayers, the Sustainable Forest Management Centre is promoted as a $20 million partnership of industry, university, and government to produce a research consortium that will drive the policy decision making process. The key theme of the Centre's recent international conference on sustainable forest management seemed to be that technological expertise will define what is good for the forests.