Cedar Tree Project

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This is Our Chance

The World is Watching

Can we create a future in which our children can enjoy health and prosperity?

The slides and threat of flooding this spring are but a forewarning of potential disaster, unless we wake up to the reality that the Slocan Valley and its climate are not stable and may not sustain the proposed industrial roadbuilding and clearcut logging, without risk of very severe consequences. Many people throughout the valley are living in fear that their homes will be the next to be destroyed by a landslide, or that they will lose their clean water supply. Others fear the loss of employment as the timber supply diminishes. Government and industry are using these fears to drive a wedge in our communities, pitting forest workers against so called environmentalists.

THE "WAR IN THE WOODS" IS A FARCE. FOREST WORKERS, ENVIRONMENTALISTS AND GOVERNMENT ARE ALL IN THE SAME BOAT - WE'RE ALL VICTIMS OF CORPORATE CONTROL OF OUR DESTINY!

Can we accept the reality that change is upon us and rally together to re-create our communities and local economy? Can we make the transition to employment which does not pose a threat to our valley's unstable slopes, its abundant clean water, its vitality and beauty, and its ability to sustain our livelihoods? Or will we continue to allow corporate interests to foreclose on our future opportunities and put the very live-ability of this valley at risk? Will we allow the little remaining timber to be managed in such a wasteful way with such a low employment return and with so little of the profits staying in the valley? Or can we work together to put the forest resources and the mill in the hands of local accountable people - forest workers and millworkers themselves - and work together as a community to create an abundance of jobs, without putting our future prosperity and health at risk. The corporate world is in chaos and is desperately engaged in a final feeding frenzy on our environment and communities before they deplete the very resources that they depend on, and having turned it all into money, leave town forever with the wealth that should have been ours.

LETS SEE THROUGH THE DRAMA AND STOP ARGUING. LETS EMPOWER OURSELVES TO TAKE BACK OUR DESTINY FROM CORPORATE CONTROL.

Less than 5% of Slocan Forest Products' revenue stays in the community as wages. That means 95% of the timber harvested does not benefit us whatsoever - largely going to the huge profits and burgeoning assets of SFP and its shareholders who do not reside here and do not contribute to our economy. This 95% of the harvesting does not need to happen. We would, with local ownership, create as much employment and financial return on a small fraction of the harvest. And with value added manufacturing and wood waste utilisation, could have far more employment and a much more stable and prosperous local forest economy, without endangering other aspects of our economy, ecology and community.

The longer we delay the inevitable changes, the more severe and challenging they will be. It is widely known that we are overcutting our forests. Large corporations have invested in a vastly oversized infrastructure and attempt to justify all unsustainable rate of harvest. The "falldown" is upon us, and soon barely a week will go by without news of shift layoffs and mill closures. Allowing SFP to access timber in our domestic watersheds and valley walls will only extend their current harvesting levels by a couple of years. The potential risks however, may cause damage that will take hundreds of years to recover. Clearly the time for change is now, and the more local people wake up to this fact and embrace the needed changes, the sooner we can build a new economy together.

Value added wood manufacturing will play a big role in the new economy. Many new opportunities are opening up as people apply their creativity and business knowledge and take advantage of funding like FRBC money, marketing initiatives such as Made in the Kootenays catalogues, trade shows and exhibitions. The employment potential is vast, and includes endless self-employment possibilities. Many Slocan Valley people are discovering that their dreams and talents are also business opportunities, and that self employment offers rewards and freedoms that corporate jobs often cannot provide. As more and more Valley residents assume responsibility for their livelihoods, the corporate drain on our resources becomes increasingly unnecessary and ridiculous.

There are at least 2 approaches to meeting our needs. One is to earn money. Another is to reduce our needs. A transition economy includes each of us finding the appropriate balance.

To explore the potential of value added manufacturing, a single cedar tree was cut and, over a period of 1 month, a variety of products were conceived, designed, and manufactured by a group of untrained Valley residents in their spare time. The understory cedar tree yielded a sawlog 12 metres long, with a .35 metre butt and a .1 metre top, yielding about .5 cubic metres of wood. From this, about 170 board feet of dimensional lumber could have been cut by standard milling practice. Since we did not have the time to mill and air dry the sawlog, we allowed a few of the participants to substitute an equal volume of purchased lumber. Most of the products were made from green wood, and also from parts of the tree which would have otherwise become wood waste, such as bark, branches, leaves, the top, and even the stump! If SFP were to have harvested and milled the tree, using their average employment performance of less than 1 job per 1000 cubic metres (we have rounded it up to 1 job/l000 cubic metres to account for possible indirect employment), this tree would have generated about 2 hrs total employment. At $20.00/hr take home pay, it would have contributed $40.00 to the local economy. If we add $10 to account for possible spin-offs, SFP would yield a $50.00 contribution to the local economy. SFP would also have caused more waste disposal impacts, since we utilised more of the tree.

The list below shows how we created over $4000.00 in potential revenue, and we still have about 25% of the tree remaining that we haven't yet used. Bear in mind that we have yet to test market the products, and that our pricing must bear the consumer test. Nevertheless, our calculations are on the conservative side, and this is just a first attempt made mostly by amateurs during spare time. Even so, we created over 75 times the community economic benefit that SFP would have generated with this tree!

Value added manufacturing is one of many blossoming opportunities for our transition economy, organic farming, tourism, healing arts, outdoor recreation, wildcrafting, and music festivals are other high growth economic opportunities that are set to take off in the Slocan Valley. If we rally together take responsibility for our livelihoods, use our creativity and talents, and present corporate abuse of our community,