UNITY BRINGS FOREST LICENSE
Keremeos became the 20th British Columbia community to benefit from a Community Forest License last week.Similkameen Valley Planning Society (SVPS), and Economic Development Office Michael McLaughlin, received credit for bringing together the five partners in the project which will provide new economic opportunities and local control of forest resources.
The partnership brings Electoral Areas B (Cawston) and G (Keremeos Rural), the Lower and Upper Similkameen Indian Bands and the Village of Keremeos together in the project.
"This unique partnership will allow aboriginal and non-aboriginal communities to create a forestry business that works for the South Similkameen," Yale-Lillooet MLA Dave Chutter said during last week's announcement.
"Your vision of a Community Forest is the best that it can be."
Penticton-Okanagan Valley MLA Bill Barisoff added, "The Similkameen Valley Planning Society has been working hard to convince the province they can manage a community forest."
Keremeos Mayor Walter Despot sees the project as good for the future of his community.
"We are pleased to be part of this government's small tenures expansion program and if awarded, it is our hope that this agreement will provide a small secure source of employment for our young adults."
Community forest agreements are a mechanism by which the province transfers decision-making to communities that wish to more fully participate in the stewardship of their local forest resources.
Community forest tenures are area-based, giving the agreement holders exclusive stewardship of an area of forest land over the term of the agreement.
The probational agreements are initially for five years, at which time they may be extended for another five years or replaced with a long-term agreement of 25 to 99 years.
The Keremeos committee will have to complete a Forest Development Plan as the next step in the process.
LOCAL HUNTER SHARES HIS INTEREST
Paul Adams took on the position of Program Manager for Hunter Safety and CORE at the Wildlife Federation about a year ago. During that time he worked with a panel of volunteers to rewrite the Conservation and Outdoor Recreation Education program. The end result is the 2005 edition of CORE.The CORE 2005 edition provides the end user with the essential information to be safe while participating in outdoor recreation and is an information resource for reference purposes. The CORE program is the prerequisite training for new hunters and is recommended for all outdoor enthusiasts.
Thirty experienced examiners throughout British Columbia provided initial guidance for the rewrite and shortly thereafter a panel of examiners was formed to perform the massive task of re-writing the manual. A page by page, line by line review was undertaken and the agreed changes were recorded.
"Upon my arrival at the Federation, I was assigned the task of editing the existing text to reflect these changes." Adams says.
"As you might imagine compiling the desires of many in a 350+ page document is not straightforward and has required the exhaustive efforts of panel members and myself in back and forth communications."
Adams has also been able to bring testing of the new program here in Princeton.
"Princeton is my home and my main base for my work with the Federation. We have decided to conduct some initial testing of the new course manual and test material here in Princeton."
Adams says free testing will be available locally.
"A class will be set up through the Princeton Fish & Game Club and students will be offered the course, manual and testing free of charge. Successful graduates wishing to receive a Hunter Number Card will pay the required $30 administrative fee."
Anyone interested in participating must be at least 10 years of age, have a grade 8 reading level and must be a member or become a member of Princeton Fish and Game Club.
This training session will require full participation from the candidates. In addition to providing a testing base for the new course material, several new CORE examiners will be trained during this class to provide Princeton with additional examiners for the future.
Adams says there are limited seats available, if there are more applicants than seats, a draw situation will be held to place the individuals for the free course.
To have your name entered send an e-mail with contact information to Paul@BCWF.BC.CA or leave a voice message at 1-888-881-2293 ext. 231.
Princeton Fish and Game Club are affiliated with the BCWF and members receive many benefits including: quarterly issues of Outdoor Edge Magazine and $1,000,000 third party liability insurance for outdoor recreation. In addition, Princeton Fish and Game Club are involved in many enhancement projects, they offer events throughout the year and a shooting range located in town. Memberships can be purchased through Princeton Outdoor Supply, Ray Pusell, Al Lay or Sean O'Malley.
"The BC Wildlife Federation is the largest and longest standing, province-wide, voluntary and locally funded conservation organization in British Columbia and is the voice of conservation-committed hunters and anglers in the province." Adams says.
The BCWF consists of 30,000 members and 125 clubs that are active throughout British Columbia.
BEY WANTS COMMUNITY EFFORT
Princeton Racing Days President John Bey was the guest speaker at last Tuesdays meeting of Princeton Rotary Club.Bey was there to try to pull the club into the activities planned around Canada Day Weekend.
The Rotary Club used to host a very successful Casino Night, the Similkameen Cup Sweepstakes and Racing Days Parade.
The club has continued to organize an annual parade after the live horse racing event ended a few years ago.
"What we propose is getting all local organizations working together to make this a success," Bey said.
Bey outlined the confirmed plans for the live horse racing event at Sunflower Downs and the local groups committed to participating.
He explained there would be no gate admission for the event stating the reasoning was to ensure more people would be on site to spend their money at the concession and at the betting windows.
The Rotary Club executive will meet this week to discuss Racing Days plans and determine what project they would be willing to add to their Parade duties.
SPRING FORWARD
Daylight Saving Time resumes this Sunday, April 3. Set your clock one hour ahead on Saturday night and you can wake up to a day with an extra hour of daylight to play in. Of course, you are going to lose an houršs sleep that night, but you can have an extra hour of daylight after dinner.Pacific Standard Time begins again on October 30.
