TOWN STAFF NEED RECOGNITION

Editor:

Our Town's staff deserves recognition.
Our Town could function without a Mayor and Council, but definitely not without dedicated staff. I suggest it is long overdue for the Mayor and Council on behalf of the community to recognize the Town's staff.
Introducing staff to the community and directors providing a short report of operations in their respective departments at Council meetings are ways by which the Mayor and Council could familiarize the community with the Town staff we all should recognize. 

Kell PetersenrnExecutive Director
OISD (Okanagan Institute for Sustainable Development)rnOsoyoos

– (OSOYOOS TIMES — May 23, 2007)


[b]PROTECT THE BOREAL FOREST[/b]

Editor:

Few spectacles of nature capture our imagination as do the ribbons of waterfowl filling the sky as they fly north. This spring, there was something both amazing and reassuring as the birds headed to their breeding grounds.
More than 10 million ducks and nearly three billion songbirds annually go to Canada's Boreal Forest to breed and raise the next generation of North America's birds. It is a timeless event that includes more than 35 species of ducks, geese and swans.
We watch this winged phenomenon, yet few of us ever pause to consider where these creatures are going and what would happen if their nesting habitats were degraded or destroyed.
The recent appeal to the Canadian Government by more than 1,500 respected scientists from 51 countries, urging it to support the Boreal Forest Conservation Framework, confirms the importance of the North American Boreal region.
Fortunately, the majority of the Canadian Boreal Forest “ North America's bird nursery “ is presently considered ecologically intact. But industries like mining, timber and oil and gas are already active in the forest. The Boreal Forest is considered one of the largest forest and wetland ecosystems left in the world. Not only does it provide critical habitat for countless species of birds, but it's also important for a myriad of fish and wildlife (like the grizzly bear, wolf and the endangered woodland caribou). It's also home to many native First Nations communities.
The Canadian Boreal Forest also provides protection against global warming. It's the single largest land-based carbon storehouse in the world, storing the equivalent of 27 years worth of the world's fossil fuels carbon dioxide emissions.
Ducks Unlimited is the largest waterfowl and wetland conservation organization in the world and a founding member of an alliance convened by the Canadian Boreal Initiative. This alliance includes major timber and oil and gas companies, conservation organizations like The Pew Charitable Trusts, and First Nations. It is committed to permanently protecting at least half of the forest to ensure healthy populations of waterfowl and other wildlife forever and having a conservation framework guide in managing 100 percent of the forest in a sustainable way.
Presently, less than 10 percent of the Boreal Forest is protected. This won't ensure its long-term survival.
We believe that adopting the Boreal Conservation Framework and permanently protecting at least 50 percent of the forest is the best chance to do things right. But our leaders must act decisively and immediately.
We're asking the Canadian government to support balanced protection and sustainable development, such as proposed by the Conservation First philosophy in the DehCho First Nation Land Protection Plan of the Northwest Territories. We urge the federal Canadian government to permanently protect Old Crow, Ramparts, Tulita, Edecho, Sahovue, Pehdzeh Ki Ndeh, Edehzhie, Trout Lake, Kakisa, and other critical waterfowl landscapes in the Territories.
And Ducks Unlimited is urging the Canadian Government to take action to protect our Boreal Forest.
The timeless specter of North America's waterfowl and songbirds heading to their Boreal breeding grounds may go unnoticed in this busy world. But it is a reassuring sign to those who take time to notice that some things in nature aren't degraded or lost. The Boreal Forest is too important to our planet's health. Let us unite for its protection.

Gord EdwardsrnExec. Vice-PresidentrnDucks Unlimited Canada, Oak Hammock Marsh, Manitoba

– (OSOYOOS TIMES — May 23, 2007)