Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 23, 1978)
China timber won’t ease world shortage By DINA MILES Of the Emerald The lack of diplomatic recogni tion between the United States and China and the scarcity of “hard currency" in that nation are two major hurdles blocking sales of U.S. wood products to China, Jim Weaver, Oregon's fourth dis trict congressman, said Friday. The Democrat, who made his remarks at an afternoon press conference, outlined the purposes of his recent trip to China and said Who will pay to dial 911 By PATRICK SULLIVAN Of the Emerald A 911 telephone system that would connect all of Lane County's 28 emergency services to a single number could be instal led if someone could be found to foot the bill. Jerry Guddat, Eugene Custom ers Services manager for Pacific Northwest Bell, says his company has the technology for such a sys tem, requiring a central location where calls are transferred to the proper agency depending on the nature and location of the emergency. Bell Telephone also supports the system says Bill Leanard, owner of Eugene's ambulance service, (Medical Services Inc.,) because he says “the majority of money needed for the system would be paid to the telephone company for holding and transfer ring calls between districts A survey study done a couple years ago said $500,000 would be needed yearly to run the system. Besides funding, implementa tion in Lane County would require cooperation between all fire dis tricts, ambulance services, police agencies, and hospitals in the county. Pierce Brooks, Eugene Police chief, says, "Of course we support 911, but it is a policy decison and must start in the city council and county commissioners’ meet ings.” The Eugene City Council prob ably won’t discuss the idea soon, because “police work plans don't call for it,” according to Charles Henry, Eugene City Manager. The plan needs thorough study before legislative bodies can act on it, ac cording to Henry. He thinks the study should “start with police and fire chief associations.” The Association of Public Communications officers (ARPCO) is discussing the emergency phone system. Its members act as administrative liaison between the federal Communications Com mission and its agency. Lt. Howard Kurshner, com munications officer for the Lane County Sheriff and member of APCO s ‘‘911 committee” says “APCO will be instrumental to implementation of 911, be cause the members are elec tronics experts for their agencies Members include representa tives from police and fire depart ments around the state and pri vate companies like Bell Tele phone and RCA. The California Legislature has passed a law that requires the 911 emergency telephone number to be used throughout the state “That’s writing on the wall for Oregon,” Kurshner said. he wanted to discover if China could possibly become a source for supplying logs to Japan, which would relieve the burden on the United States. But, he said, China is “woefully deficient of wood,' and wood pro ducts. He mapped out China's lack of timber from area to area, adding that in some spots, the only woods to be seen was the thin lining of hardwood trees on streets, roads and canals. He said in some reforestation areas, the situation is “pathetic.'' China is unable to become a source of timber, Weaver said, because “they literally plant every inch of soil to crops.'' The Chinese utilize as much land as possible for growing vegetables and grain. In addition, mechanization proce dures are not major factors in crop harvesting. In fact, he said, most of the fertilization is done by hand. Weaver said he doubted that China will "have any real timber for 50 years." Because China does very little importing or exporting, Weaver said a scarce amount of hard cur rency exists in the country which hampers its ability to take part in worldwide trade. Weaver said Chinese officials told him they were not interested in importing grain from the United States until diplomatic recognition is established. That should also mean the United States wouldn't export timber to China unless the relations were established, Weaver added. Weaver favors forming dip lomatic ties with China. "We ought to recognize a coun try with 900 million people," he said. Such recognition would "sell us a helluva lot more grain over there." According to Weaver one factor that will emerge from China in the years to come is oil. He said some areas have been barely explored for oil yet. Weaver said even though Japan is a timber-short country, Congressman Jim Weaver: China deficient in timber he would favor banning exports of timber from the United States. He said keeping raw timber in America would reduce the possi bility of shortages in United States and Oregon mills. 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