Mineral Resources Conservaton Update

Entrusted To My Care
Copyright 1986 Western Producer Prairie Books
243 pages,
ISBN 0-88833-175-4.

DECLARING A PURPOSE

Measured by success in unlocking the explosive secrets of the atom, whisking powerful rockets around the earth and advancing standards of living, modern man is a start fellow. With pride he notes that a certain western city with the second highest automobile ownership in the world, was still an unconverted buffalo and Indian territory only 80 years earlier. Boasting could be pardoned.

But that clever modern man has not cared to be reminded of the costs. He has refused to listen when told that the rate of depletion in mines, oil and gas wells, soil, wild life and some other things must identify him as the most rabid plunderer in world history. More than any before him, he converted nature's reserves of resource treasure to his own convenience, bank account and comfort.

Plundering, of course, is not new. Throughout the ages, fortune seeking men have been indifferent pupils of conservation principles, learning their lessons slowly and at high cost. Why bother about the lessons? ''Why worry about tomorrow? Why shouldn't natural resources belong to the first free-enterprisers to reach them and transform them to dollar gains?

When eager white men discovered the North American continent-richest resource prize in world history-about half of it was forested. A squirrel, it has been noted, might have penetrated a thousand miles from the Atlantic coast without touching the ground. Beyond that dense, primeval forest was a vast grassland, its soil secure and supporting great herds of wild animals. Passenger pigeons were sufficiently numerous to darken the sky at times. Prairie chickens could be taken anywhere and, at times, the plains appeared "black with buffalo." River water possessed crystal clearness and every stream was stocked with fish.

But the newcomers with lustful desires for wealth, set about to change things, chopping, burning, plowing and shooting their way westward. Mystified natives protested but their voices were scarcely heard. White men were in a hurry and the trees had to come down.

Warnings came from only a few people who knew the stories from history, but the effect was small. Only a few stopped to realize that if mankind would avoid the consequences of waste, extravagance and greed, people must cultivate a charitable understanding of natures integrated neighbourhood of water, soil, birds, insects, minerals, animals and plants of a million kinds. Humans who must live as part of that community and can't live without it, have no licence to exploit at the serious expense of other creatures.

William Penn may have been one of the first citizens of the new world to give instructions for planned and considered use. In his colony, at least one acre out of every five was to remain in trees. George Washington, a man inspired by "the task of making improvements to the earth," instead of "ravaging it," brought a good husbandman's care to the Mount Vernon farms, worked to check the first traces of erosion, experimented with alfalfa, applied fertilizer to the land and, when rains washed soil from a hillside, he hauled it back.

But the influences were little more than local in scope. Tree cover was being destroyed rapidly. Deprived of natural vegetation, soils began losing stability. Passenger pigeons disappeared and other wild life dawdled. What spared the resources of oil and natural gas was the fact of late discovery.

It was for President Theodore Roosevelt to bring the problems into a national light when he called the famous White House Conference of Conservation in 1908 and invited all state governors. Out of it came State Conservation Commissions in nearly all parts of the country.

But the enthusiasm of the Theodore Roosevelt regime was not maintained. People eating well and improving their bank balances were unimpressed by shrinking forests and loss of soil. The country had to lose more before any substantial program could succeed. Another Roosevelt became president in 1932 and soon after taking office, Franklin D. took steps to do something about the growing dustbowl menace in the West. In September, 1933, the United States Soil Erosion Service was formed and in the next year the National Resources Planning Board. Emerging was a positive program and, as though planned to dramatize its importance, there was the notable dust storm of May 11, 1934, when dustbowl silt darkened the skies of the country's capital, almost 1500 miles to the east. The blizzard of dust did more to arouse public consciousness than all the lecturing of 25 previous years.

In Canada, as in the neighboring country, forest workers were the first to display interest and concern. The conservation movement received its initial impetus with the Canadian Forestry Convention of 1906, over which Prime Minister Sir Wilfrid Laurier presided. Delegates heard discussions on topics with a present-day familiarity: reforestation, forest protection from fire and insects, safeguarding water supplies and the Canadian need for irrigation development.

Carrying his crusade a step further, Theodore Roosevelt called a North American conference in 1909 and Hon. Clifford Sifton was one of Canada's representatives as forests, water, soil, minerals and wild life were considered in their continental aspects. Then, having successfully convened national and continental conferences on resources, Roosevelt intended to call a world gathering on the same topic-Conservation- but he ceased to be President of the United States before the plan could be carried out.

But following the neighbor's example, the Canadian Government acted by Order in Council to create a Conservation Commission. For a time, the Commission was extremely active. It cautioned against forest exploitation, soil deterioration and loss of game animals. It encouraged the development of water power, aided in the acceptance of the Migratory Bird Convention and became involved in planning. But in 1921, after 12 years of useful service, the Canadian Conservation Commission went out of business. For the next 20 years there was shamefully little manifestation of Canadian interest in conservation of resources.

Growing were signs of man's greed and, indeed, his madness in exhausting or weakening nature's community by treating resources as though they were inexhaustible. Needed was a deeper concern for perpetuation of balance and health in the broad "neighborhood," a realization that if man is really deserving of a place above his fellow creatures on the earth, he should display superiority in more than predation and exploit; the man who sings psalms on Sunday and robs future generations by thoughtlessly depleting stocks of resources on Monday is not the good citizen.

The years were not totally without other landmark displays of conservation purpose. The Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Act of 1935 won praise, just as the Eastern Rockies Forest Conservation Board and the Maritime Marshland Rehabilitation Act and the various river basin authorities set up under provincial law commanded admiration. But these were not enough. There must be constant reminders of the folly and immorality of unrestrained exploit. Periodic examinations of resources and inventories and policies are needed to help avoid repetition of those costly mistakes in the past. From the pages of old world history, scores of nations shout their warnings. Canada should listen. There should be no doubt about what constitutes good housekeeping in the field of resources.

With thought for such need, Canada's resource-conscious planners made history with the Resources For Tomorrow Conference of 1961. The week-long event took place at Montreal and had the support of the 10 provincial governments and the federal government. When first proposed by Hon. Alvin Hamilton while he was Minister of Northern Affairs and Natural Resources, the title was to be National Conference on Conservation and Multi-Purpose Development. But the awkward name was changed, partly to avoid the word "Conservation" which was thought to be misunderstood by many and offensive to a few. But regardless of name, the conference was a public acknowledgment of concern for the welfare of renewable resources.

It is well that leaders in governments, universities and industries submit their resource management methods to conference examination now and then and ask objectively how the resource plant is being maintained. Is soil being handled in such a way that it will last forever? What is happening to the inventory of fertility? How long will Canada's natural as resources last if, as a recent report forecasts, Canadians will be withdrawing and selling two trillion cubic feet of it per year by 1970? Are proper steps being taken to keep the air from sickening pollution? What assurance is there that natural recreational settings and streams offering fair fishing will remain within the reach of tomorrow's Canadians who will need them urgently?

Said Robert Louis Stevenson, "Sooner or later, everybody sits down to a banquet of consequences." Theodore Roosevelt would add, "Delay is costly. Nine-tenths of wisdom consists of being wise in time."

It is time for a new dedication to stewardship of the earth and its riches, a new emphasis upon the responsibilities of good guardianship.