The lessons of Mission's forest
It's seldom that I get a chance to see the beautiful parts of my local community. For example, I try to do the Grouse Grind in North Vancouver couple of times a week in the summer and in my discovery I found a similar 'grind' here in Mission.The beauty I discovered during this recent hiking trip seemed like I was in a different country with the endless surrounding forest. Forestry is the main industry in Mission and through this we have become a leader in forest management across Canada. The area I am referring to is the Mission Municipal Forest located near Stave Falls in the northern part of the district, a 20-minute drive from downtown Mission. What makes this area unique is its peacefulness equipped with nine hiking trails for local residents and tourists.This total area of the Mission Municipal Forest is approximately 10,414 hectares or about 26 times the size of Stanley Park. The Municipal Forest is not designated as a park, it is a "working forest." In a working forest, many aspects of multiple use can be observed such as forest recreation, sustainable logging, reforestation, protecting wildlife habitat, maintaining water quality and other forest management activities. In 1958, Mission was the first municipality to given responsibility to monitor their own forest called Tree Farm License #26.The story behind this license is something the community should be proud of thanks to individuals like former Mission City mayor, CCF candidate and lumber baron the late Naranjan Grewall. The Municipality of Mission has successfully managed the MMF since 1958 and is often cited as an excellent example of how a locally managed forest can provide many benefits to the community. Kim Allan, Director of Forest Management, says the MMF has had many more ups than downs over the years and has been a positive factor for Mission. Since 1990, the Municipal Forest has had many surplus revenues which have provided over $5 million to capital projects in this community.During the 1950s forest licenses were difficult to obtain for local lumber mills and something had to be done to protect jobs and the industry. Many of the licences were being awarded to the big logging companies and small companies throughout B.C. were being shut down. The local forest industry of Mission and B.C. found an articulate voice in Naranjan Grewall in which to lobby their demands before the Sloan commission. Grewall became a vocal critic of the WAC Bennett government for many years during the '50s for ignoring the rights of the small businessmen.This became a major election concern throughout BC and Grewall ran as a candidate for the Dewdney CCF party in 1956 to address this issue as part of his candidacy. During the campaign there were many heated debates over this topic, drawing big crowds wherever the candidates went. Grewall also appeared at the Royal Commission of Forestry in 1955 expressed his opposition to the current government awarding of forest licenses.Grewall made two recommendations to thwart the development of the company town: public working circles and municipal forest management licenses. Both of Grewall's recommendations were designed to prevent the monopolization of the timber industry by returning management of the forest to the public through local community representative. His brief in 1955 convinced the Sloan commission and Mission was granted TFL #26 in 1958.The Sloan commission created a lot of stress for the Socred government almost crippling them. All this pressure led to the investigation of BC Forest Minister Robert Sommers, who was later convicted on five bribery charges and sent to jail for five years in 1957 over awarding of forest licences. An era of corrupt politics and misuse of power in government! Many answers still remain a mystery as to what was really happening with issuing of timber rights in the forest industry.After the Sommers scandal a few prominent lumberman in this province were found dead including BCFP President Hector Munro and Grewall, with no investigation ruling both a suicide. In retirement at his Kelowna home in 1976, a reporter asked WAC Bennett if the loss to the NDP had been his biggest blow. Without hesitation he said no, it was the Sommers affair.All other municipalities in B.C. missed this small window of opportunity, to have more local control over the forest resources in B.C. The community of Mission has been fortunate to have a community forest since 1958, because of visionaries such as Grewall and many others. Grewall was one of the very few that helped change public policy in this province during a time when it was needed the most resulting in more jobs and more importantly bringing equality to the forest industry.The Grewall story is one of the remarkable political stories for the common people in this province. His legacy in Mission still lives on today in many ways through the MMF!
Ken Herar is a Mission writer who specializes in cultural issues. This article is first of a series on the career of Naranjan Grewall.
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