Dear editor,
The last 2 editions of the Cochrane Eagle included letters to the editor about clear-cut logging in West Bragg Creek. Both letters missed a couple of essential points.
First, studies have shown that clear-cutting leads to more wildfires than either leaving the forest intact or selectively logging an area. Forest cover intercepts rain and snowfall in the canopy and also stores the moisture in the ground. A clear-cut forest leads to naked ground, which absorbs the sun and dries the surface, making it more prone to wildfires as grasses grow back.
Secondly, in the mid 1980s, the Government of Alberta decided to log the upper Oldman catch basin. After the fact, for two years as a graduate student in economics, I was involved in a study comparing the economic benefits of logging that area as opposed to recreational benefits. (That article was published in the Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wilman, Perras). Every way we manipulated the numbers, recreational benefits were significantly larger than revenue from logging the area. In essence logging was a net loss.
When the study was distributed by the government, unbeknownst to us, they added a disclaimer that the information was inaccurate and not to be relied upon. Upon seeing the disclaimer, I went to the intellectual property office at the University of Calgary and the government was forced to recall all distributed copies of the study.
This is how decision-making is done in Alberta. Facts are not important, and politics reigns supreme.
James Perras
Cochrane
