Item is a photocopied article written by Norah Doherty for "The Woolpack : The Magazine of the Wolverhampton Municipal Grammar School". The article is entitled "50 Years Ago at the Municipal Grammar School".
File contains correspondence regarding lack of funding for research projects between the Science Council of British Columbia and Mike Jull, Prince George Forest Region.
File contains a 1920 British Columbia Liberal government election platform pamphlet entitled "A Brief Record of the Oliver Government".
Item is a photocopied version of Alexander's "A Fifteen Year History of the Virgin Spruce-Balsam Type at Aleza Lake Experiment Station and Suggestions for Management". Location of original unknown.
Item is an original report entitled "A Fisheries and Wildlife Survey of the Burnie Lakes Park Proposal" by E. Osmond-Jones et al. for BC Parks branch biologist W.G. Hazelwood. Includes original photographic prints pasted into the report.
Item is an original copy of "A Forest Practice Code for the Spruce-Balsam Type" prepared by the Cariboo Section of the Canadian Institute of Forestry.
Item is the BC Forest Service's "A Guide to Stand Treatment".
Item consists of a typewritten report together with three earlier complete or partial drafts of this report “A. H. Phipps Memoirs of Charles E. Bedaux Sub-Arctic Expedition 1934” along with original notebook which includes 11 pages of handwritten notes about the expedition.
Presentation slides for the January 2023 meeting of the Soil Classification Working Group, Canadian Society of Soil Science
Item is a report entitled "A Report on S.P.514: Cutting Methods in Immature and Thrifty Mature Spruce Types (Interior of Prince Rupert's Forest District)" by R.F. Stettler.
Item is "A Study of Coniferous Reproduction by Direct Seeding Methods on Various Forest Site Types at Aleza Lake, B.C.: An Essay submitted during the Third Year of the Course in Forestry at the University of British Columbia" by Everett Bruce Peterson.
Item is a photocopy reproduction of "A Thousand Miles Exploring on Horseback in Northern British Columbia" by Mary Gibson Henry. The original document may have been a draft article written for the Canadian Geographical Society in 1935.
File consists of a speech given by Gary Runka entitled "Action Steps to Sustainable Agriculture" at the Forum on Sustainable Agriculture in Summerland.
Commentary on this speech by Barry Smith of the Ministry of Agriculture and Lands:
"This speech opens with a relatively broad discussion of sustainability- how defined - and how this relates to agriculture. "We've got to develop the ability to view farming in a conceptual sense, to view food production sustainability over the full horizon, including the urban world, as well as farm field."
The speech is broken into 3 sections with sub-sections:
(1) From a Practical Management Point of View. What Does "Sustainability" Mean on the Farm, Orchard or Ranch? Several points are made including the protection of land through the ALR. The principles of sustainability in, "Towards a Strategy for Sustainability" are listed.
(2) From the Food Producers Perspective, What are the Gaps in Practical Requirements to move Toward Sustainability? The points identified in the July 1994 workshop "Future of Agriculture in the Okanagan" are listed and noted as key points.
(3) With Land and Water Resources under Stress, What are the Action Steps to Regional Multicommodity Agricultural Sustainability? Under this topic seven sub-topics are explored:
a) sustainability and security of the land base with a particular emphasis on parcel size and the need for consolidation, land tenure, cost and speculation;
b) sustainability and water resources;
c) land use competition, compatibility, and planning process access - with an emphasis placed on the need for the farm community to have access to the planning process and a nod to the importance of Agricultural Advisory Committees. It is recognized that this will take an integrated effort of the ALC and Municipal Affairs;
d) vertically consistent policies and regulations from local to federal;
e) Right to Farm (with a plea to revisit the then current 'Agricultural Protection Act');
f) public education;
g) food policy; and
h) Socio-economic strategy for agriculture"
File contains colour aerial photography of the Aleza Lake Research Forest from 1994.
File consists of a speech given by Gary Runka entitled "Agricultural Land and Its Management".
Commentary by Barry Smith of the Ministry of Agriculture and Lands:
"This paper has no indication of the audience or date but given that there are several references to 1990 reports, it probably dates to 1991.
Although the scope of this paper is national in several aspects, its primary focus is on the B.C. farmland preservation efforts.
Comment is made on the question of farmland being regarded as a 'commodity' vs 'scarce resource'. GGR draws upon a theme found in other speeches and papers when he notes that 'To some degree, the call for a new "foodland ethic" is based upon the belief that public policy should more adequately take into account the social value of foodlands, quite apart from the dollar value...."
The paper is broken into several sections:
(A) The Setting;
(B) Agricultural Land Loss, (which includes some excellent statistics - p. 2-3)
(C) Some Agricultural Management Issues,
(D) Action Response (this section briefly reviews farmland preservation efforts in each province with a particular emphasis on B.C. p. 5-6),
(E) The Future.
GGR lists the following action steps that BC should pursue:
File consists of a speech given by Gary Runka entitled "Agricultural Land and Land Use Decision Making in the 1980s" for the Western Land Directors' Conference, Victoria BC (June 7-11,1981).
Commentary on this speech by Barry Smith of the Ministry of Agriculture and Lands:
"The speech is a collection of familiar themes but GGR's assemblage and delivery is becoming ever-more refined. The speech was accompanied by overheads but they are not included.
The paper starts with two quotes from Hans Blumenfeld and O'Malley. In the case of Blumenfeld - North Americans want to live in efficient, convenient, healthy and pleasant environment but as individuals we want to be able to make an honest dollar out of every piece of property we own. The two concepts are basically incompatible. The O'Malley quote speaks of land as a mother because she gives life, is a provider, protector and comforter.
Some (but far from all) of the important observations include:
The paper ends with the following quote from Bill Moyers, "Government is the art of trying to solve problems. Politics is the art of trying to attain power. The two meet sometimes, but not often."
File consists of a speech given by Gary Runka entitled "Agricultural Land Commission 1978 - What's Happening?" to a UBC Soil Science and Land Use Planning Seminar.
Commentary on this speech by Barry Smith of the Ministry of Agriculture and Lands:
"This is simply a single page outline of a speech given at a UBC Soil Science and Land Use Seminar providing an overview of the farmland preservation program to date.
The outline is broken into 5 sections:
The actual speech based on this outline is not included."
File consists of a speech given by Gary Runka entitled "Agricultural Land Preservation - Some of the Problems" to an unknown audience, possibly a political caucus. A "Process Chart" of the B.C. Agricultural Land Commission Act is attached to the speech.
Commentary on this speech by Barry Smith of the Ministry of Agriculture and Lands:
"This speech was given several months after GGR's resignation as Chair of the Commission in January, 1979. There is no specific indication of who the speech was given to but mention is made to "caucus members" (p. 4) and therefore may have been the NDP caucus.
Specific mention is made to the opportunity to undermine the program by the Section 9(8) changes to the Act. (This is a reference to allowing the Minister of Agriculture to forward appeals of Commission's decisions to the Environment and Land Use Committee of Cabinet if no two Commissioners give leave to appeal)..
Mention is also made to the need for the Commission to be aware of problems affecting agriculture if it is to be the true defender of agricultural interests. Reference (p. 3) is made to the Commission being: "... too busy attending to applications to take a seriously positive role to ensure that present and future land use conflicts ... are minimized."
GGR also raises his concern with attempts to narrow the definition of "agricultural land" by suggestions that CLI Class 4 - 7 lands be automatically excluded from the ALR. He also expresses the need to be concerned with land use planning outside the ALR.
GGR criticizes "a less than positive attitude by government" (to farmland preservation) and calls for the need for a provincial land use strategy."
File consists of a speech given by Gary Runka to the B.C.I.A. entitled "Agricultural Land Reserves and the Land Commission Act".
Commentary on this speech by Barry Smith of the Ministry of Agriculture and Lands:
"With the original package associated with this speech are 5 pages of rough notes for another speech with the same title prepared for a B.C.I.A. meeting on March 22, 1976... Given that these rough notes were held with the material associated with the April 15, 1976 meeting it is possible the B.C.I.A. meeting planned for March was shifted to the April date. Additionally there are 6 pages numbered 6-11 that are of some detail concerning the work of the Commission but appear to be part of another speech but are included with the B.C.I.A. package and have, therefore, been [included with this speech].
The title of the speech "Agricultural Land Reserves and the Land Commission Act" sums up the thrust of the speech which notes the objectives of the legislation, the Commission's program of land acquisition and Commission research and support of innovative projects to assist rural planning to create a positive environment for agriculture and give direction to urban growth away from farmland.
Additionally an overview is provided of the Commission's activities in its first two years of operation. GGR comments that establishing the ALRs "... was but a first step and we feel that it is our job to continue to protect the Reserve by whatever approaches and methods of rural planning that are available to us". This speaks to a Commission that saw its role, even at this early stage, as being much more than simply a rationing board reviewing ALR applications.
Several examples are outlined in which it is suggested that professional agrologists should be looking at carefully.
At the end of the speech (p.5) GGR includes (a note to himself) to "follow with example of an agrologist's public statement" that obviously was of concern. The actual public statement was not included with the speech given on April 15th but was included in the rough notes of the speech dated March 22 which read as follows:
"Yet a member of the B.C.I.A. - a P.Ag - is quoted in the press in response to a local politician who asked him a question something like this in regard to an ALR exclusion application:
Local politician: What about the international, national and local concerns regarding land for future food production?
BOA member P.Ag: We should firstly be concerned with places for people to live and secondly worry about land for food production.
This is our profession - the image is yours to make.
I don't mean that we should go overboard, but if we are not willing to defend preservation of agricultural land - who is?"
During the 1980s, Agriculture Canada pedologists Scott Smith (retired from Summerland Research Station, formerly based in Whitehorse) and Charles Tarnocai (retired from Central Experimental Farm, Ottawa) had a large field program which addressed the trends in soil development in the central Yukon. Across this region, particularly between Whitehorse and Dawson City, the land surfaces and surficial deposits vary greatly in age due to the differing extents of glaciations over the past ~2 million years.
This work built on a pioneering study from the previous decade:
Foscolos, A.E., N.W. Rutter, and O.L. Hughes. 1977. The use of pedological studies in interpreting the Quaternary history of central Yukon Territory. Bulletin 271. Geological Survey of Canada, Ottawa. 48 p. https://doi.org/10.4095/103066
Tarnocai and Smith presented their results in two publications:
C. A. S. Smith, C. Tarnocai, and O. L. Hughes. 1986. Pedological investigations of Pleistocene glacial drift surfaces in the central Yukon. Géographie physique et Quaternaire, 40 (1): 29–37. https://doi.org/10.7202/032620ar
Tarnocai, C. and C. A. S. Smith. 1989. Micromorphology and development of some central Yukon paleosols, Canada. Geoderma 45 (2): 145-162. https://doi.org/10.1016/0016-7061(89)90047-5
Tarnocai and Smith shared the unpublished data and soil samples from this work with Dr. Paul Sanborn, and this resulted in a student project published as:
Daviel, E., P. Sanborn, C. Tarnocai, and C.A.A. Smith. 2011.Clay mineralogy and chemical properties of argillic horizons in central Yukon paleosols. Canadian Journal of Soil Science 91: 83-93. https://doi.org/10.4141/cjss10067
File consists of a speech given by Gary Runka entitled "Agriculture in the Urban Shadow" at the Agricultural Land Commission Symposium - Urban Growth and the Agricultural Land Reserve: 'Up not Out' - March 9,1993.
Commentary on this speech by Barry Smith of the Ministry of Agriculture and Lands:
"This represents an important, highly pertinent speech concerning farmland preservation in B.C. The speech was given at the ALC Symposium marking the 20th anniversary of B.C.'s farmland preservation program. The speech rings as relevant today as it did when delivered 22 years ago.
It begins by identifying two perspectives - one, those committed to an agricultural future, contributing diversity and having a social value and two, those that feel agriculture is ultimately doomed and is only an interim use, especially in the urban shadow, until a "higher and better" use comes along. GGR states that we need to honestly state which perspective we are guided by.
There are a host of important themes woven through this paper including:
Several (13 starting on p. 7) urban shadow issues are outlined and GGR states that we must be serious about addressing urban shadow issues.
The paper ends with an outline of "where we need to be tomorrow" and GGR states: "I recall when the program began in 1973 we argued that all of the compromises with respect to agriculture had already been made, if we were to keep the options open for future
generations In British Columbia. If that statement was true then, how much more true is it today, 20 years later?"
From the Symposium concluding remarks, Gary Runka stated that based on his experience and discussions during the symposium, he believed that the following initiatives should be given priority:
The Symposium proceedings have been compiled in a 67 page ALC publication."
File contains Aleza Lake Experiment Station Climate Station data from 1952 to 1980 and three accompanying floppies with weather data and Fortran programs.
File consists of working copies of aerial photos, vegetation tables printed from computer disk, photocopies of plot sheets, and lists identifying species.
File consists of:
File contains correspondence regarding Estate Modelling plans for the Aleza Lake Research Forest and handwritten notes from meetings.
Item is the guestbook for the Aleza Lake Research Forest, signed by visitors from 1929 to 1992. Placed in the guest book is a newspaper clipping from the reopening of the research forest in 1992.
File contains datelines, small maps consisting of ecological site types, handwritten notes, overheads, terrain resource management information digital map data, and trail system maps.
File contains overview diagrams of Northwood cutting permits inside the Aleza Lake Research Forest, cutblocks showing harvesting and silvicultural history, detailed activity reports by cutblock, and 1992 Northwood cost summaries.
File contains map sheets with information relating to the historical recording of information concerning silvicultural treatments carried out on specific areas of land. This includes records concerning changes in the forest cover, changes in prescriptions, cut boundaries, changes in site prescriptions, original copies of silviculture prescriptions, and site plans.
File contains the 1929 Aleza Lake guestbook, a report on seeding, and photographs.
File contains slides and photos pertaining to the history of the Aleza Lake Experiment Station and the community.
File contains information, including diagrams, measurement charts, and a map, for experimental plot 148.
File contains information, including diagrams, measurement charts, and a map, for experimental plot 149.