The Bulletin

President’s Message

' tis the season of joy and giving, and the time when we all look forward to spending time with loved ones and friends. Though we may be in the spirit of giving and the desire to help others is strong , at this time of year we must still be aware of those out there who want to take advantage of us. Give what you can, help those that you are able to and protect what you have . If you reduce the opportunity for a crime to take place you may stop it all together. All the best with the holiday season. Looking forward to see everyone in Grande Prairie in February.

The Annual General Meeting

Jubilee Insurance: Info on Volunteer Insurance

1. Current Coverage: Up until now, coverage has, indeed, applied for all Insured Person Volunteers up to the age of 70 years of age for a Total Annual Premium payable by your Association of $ 200.00 per year. Pertinent details of this coverage are shown on the attached Municipal Volunteer Coverage sheet, but I would specifically note the following for your consideration:
   1. Eligible Classes of Insured Persons: these are defined as "individuals who are under the age of 70 years of age and who are Volunteers of the APRCWA and provided such individual's name is on file with the APRCWA as being insured under this contract". It is a condition of the insurance contract that APRCWA maintains an accurate list of the names and addresses of Insured Person Volunteers and agrees to make this list available to the Insurer upon their request.

   2. Volunteers Working Outside the Home - this is, unfortunately, an erroneous statement to have been made in the context of your coverage and I would like to apologize to you for this. [For Your Information: this statement might be applicable only if a higher Total Accident Weekly Disability than $ 200.00 per week were to be payable, so to all intents and purposes, please ignore this reference in its entirety].

2. Proposed Coverage (with effect from renewal, December 31, 2010): your earlier comments as to applicability of this Volunteer Insurance for persons aged over 70 years are well understood and agreed with. Consequently, we have lobbied the Insurer extensively, who has now agreed to introduce a higher upper age limit for Insured persons up to 80 years of age. In return for this coverage enhancement, the Total Annual Premium for your Association would increase from $ 200.00 per year to $ 250.00 per year. This Total Premium would apply regardless of the number of Insured Person Volunteers you have registered with you. In addition, Insurers have also agreed to offer increased coverage limits (of $ 15,000 in each case) for the specific "flat" benefits (previously set at $ 10,000) provided by the Policy for Rehabilitation, Home Alteration & Vehicle Modification, Family Transportation and Repatriation Benefits.

Upcoming Dates:

Hotel information for the Annual General Meeting in Grande Prairie, AB in February 2011

Pomeroy Inn & Suites – 1-877-977-4678 11710 102 Street, Grande Prairie

Grande Prairie Inn - 1-800-661-6529 11633 100 Street, Grande Prairie

Holiday Inn Express – 1-977-814-9336 10226 117 Avenue, Grande Prairie

Service Plus Inn – 1-888-875-4667 0810 107A Avenue, Grande Prairie

Holiday Inn – 1-888-307-3529 9816 107 Street, Grande Prairie

Reporting Scams and Frauds

If you received a fraudulent e-mail soliciting personal or financial information (phishing scam), you should also advise the financial institution or other agency whose name was used If you are a victim of fraud or if you unwittingly provided personal or financial information (identity fraud): follow the steps in the Victim Assistance Guide at the email Address noted below. If you are a victim of fraud and it is not related to identity fraud: Contact the police service of jurisdiction in your area. Allso, always report fraud to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre at info@antifraudcentre.ca or by dialing 1-888-495-8501.

Submitted by Sgt. Blaine Rahier, RCMP

Christmas Safety & Crime Prevention

• Never leave shopping bags unattended.

• Do not put money, valuables, or cell phones on countertops or tables.

• Before leaving tills, banks, and post offices, secure all your money in your wallet or purse.

• Do not carry large amounts of cash.

• Try to use credit card or Interac card when making purchases.

• Carry your wallet in an inside pocket or zipped compartment.

• Keep handbags secured at all times.

• Do not leave handbags unattended. If your bag has a flap, keep the flap in towards your body.

• Walk and shop in well lit areas.

• Wear clothes and shoes that allow freedom of movement.

• Carry a cell phone and make sure it’s charged and turned on.

• Trust your instincts. If you feel uncomfortable in a situation, leave!

• Make sure your park in a secure and well lit area.

Parking
Tips on Crime Prevention

• Before leaving your car, check that you have closed all the windows, locked all the doors, and if applicable, set the alarm.

• As soon as you get into your vehicle, lock the doors and leave.

ATM Machines
Tips on Crime Prevention

• Plan visits to the automatic teller machine during the day, and select one that is in a busy public place.

• Take a friend or two with you when using an ATM. They can watch the area while you conduct your transactions.

• Spend as little time at the machine as possible.

Home Safety
Tips on Crime Prevention

• Whether you’re at home or out, keep doors and windows locked at all times.

• Close curtains and/or blinds in the evenings, especially if you are not home.

• Leave several lights on when you’re not home.

• Make sure lights can be seen from the outside.

  Can your Christmas tree and presents be seen from the outside? Try moving your tee away from the window as this is a great temptation for thieves.

• Before wrapping presents record any serial numbers.

• Break down boxes. After Christmas, boxes that contained big-ticket items such as TV’s and computers tell potential thieves what you have.

• Install sensor lights outside your home.

• Children should be instructed to never give information to people over the phone.

• Children should be instruct to lock doors and windows and never let anyone in other than those who have been designated by parents.

• Lock outdoor sheds and garages.

• Don’t invite strangers into your home without photo identification.

• When you return home, check that your door is still locked. If it isn’t, leave immediately and call 9-1-1.

Drinking & Driving
Tips on Crime Prevention

• Arrange for a designated sober driver for safe transport home prior to going out to a party or an event where you will be consuming alcohol.

• Do not leave drinks unattended.

• Drink sensibly and not on an empty stomach

Extended Travel
Tips on Crime Prevention

• A dark house indicates that it’s unoccupied. Buy some timer switches for your lamps.

• Leave a radio playing inside your home.

• Lock all windows and doors and set your house alarm. Don’t forget the basement and your garage.

• If you have a sliding glass door, place a wooden rod in the tack and install pins in the overhead frame so the door cannot be lifted out.

• Record passport, credit card, and travelers cheque numbers. Give them to a trusted family member or friend for safekeeping.

• Keep an inventory of valuables. Record serial numbers and take photos. Keep them in a safe and secure place.

• Suspend daily deliveries.

• Ask a trusted neighbour to collect your mail and keep an eye on your home in your absence.

• Check your insurance policy to determine if your residence requires checking every 28 to 48 hours while you are away Some policies are void if this is not done.

While you are away
Tips on Crime Prevention

• Don’t carry a lot of cash. Use traveler’s cheques or credit cards whenever possible.

• Never leave baggage unattended. Request that hotel staff store your baggage if your room is not ready.

• If the front desk clerk mentions your room number loudly, request a new room.

• Don’t enter a room if the door is ajar.

• Use all auxiliary door locking devices.

• Leave valuables in the hotel’s safe.

• Do not answer the door without verifying who is there. If you are unsure, call the front desk to confirm if an employee was sent to your room.

  Be extremely cautious in parking lots and parking garages.

• Ask the concierge about areas to avoid.

Honoring Committed Crime Fighters

The Government of Alberta would like to invite you to help recognize citizens of Alberta who go the extra mile to prevent and address crime in their communities by nominating them for an Alberta Solicitor General and Public Security Crime Prevention Award.

The categories for nomination are:

• Individual
• Business
• Community Organization
• Police Member
• Media some
• Youth leadership (individual/group); and
• Police-Community Collaboration, new for 2011!

(Recipients of an Alberta Crime Prevention Award within the past two years are not eligible)

• Winners will be announced at the 20th Annual Alberta Crime Prevention Awards ceremony held at Government House in Edmonton, May 6th, 2011.

• Information on the Crime Prevention Awards, nomination process and criteria, as well as a printable nomination form, are available at www.crimeprevention.gov.ab.ca.

• Nominations will be accepted from January 5, until noon February 11, 2011.

• For more information email lori.pailer@gov.ab.ca or call 780- 415- 1819.

Submitted by Lori Pailer, SolGen’s office

Community Forests for Rural Development

“Community forests are the farmers markets of the forest industry,” says Robin Hood, Coordinator of British Columbia’s Likely-Xat’sull Community Forest and president of the B.C. Community Forest Association (BCCFA), speaking in a BCCFA video. In that succinct statement, he is pointing out that the structure of community forests is such that small mills and wood craftsmen can obtain specific wood needs locally. Like the local food movement, community forests encourage the use of local fibre in the community. Also like the local food movement, community forests represent and are managed for a multitude of values, not all of which are directly economic, yet contribute to the diversity of the rural community. For example, one community that protested industrial logging has the protection of the community’s watershed as the priority of their community forest management while a First Nations community forest is prioritizing education and employment for band members.

There is no single best approach to the organizational design of community forests. They may be run as co-operatives, non-profit societies, corporations wholly owned by municipalities or First Nations, or be combined into partnerships with shareholders including the municipality and First Nations, business, non-governmental organizations and local individuals. In B.C., the Community Forest Agreement is a form of forest tenure which, under legislation, accepts a of range of structures.

But beyond being a farmer’s market-like, diverse structured entity, what is a community forest? Professional Forester John Cathro puts it this way. “A community forest is decisions being made by people who have to live with the outcome; finding local solutions to contentious issues; keeping benefits in the community; a very good idea; and one of the hardest things I have ever done!”

Community forests are typically located in the crown land surrounding a rural community. Governments around the world have long recognized the capacity of a rural community to serve as stewards of the land surrounding the community: maximizing the recreational, spiritual and economic opportunities within the forest for sustainable community development. B.C. has embraced this direction and has mobilized to diversify the tenure system to allocate a portion of the Annual Allowable Cut to community forests.

A benefit of B.C.’s community forests is that the economic value of the forest products are retained by and for the community. For example the Burns Lake Community Forest has invested in recreation, purchasing 160 acres of land on the lower slopes of Boer Mountain in 2006 and contributing $100,000 towards developing mountain bike trails by the Burns Lake Mountain Bike Association. That initial investment by the Community Forest has led to Boer Mountain becoming a designated recreation site, giving the bike club access to a further 4,000 acres on the upper slopes of the mountain, creating a significant recreation attraction for the community. In 2010 the Wetzin’kwa Community Forest Corporation provided 31 grants totalling $120,000 to community groups and it provides funds to the governing bodies of the towns of Smithers and Telkwa and the Office of the Wet’suwet’en, all of which contribute to running the corporation. The McBride Community Forest Corporation (MCFC) has funded a new community hall, contributed funds to sewer infrastructure updates and funded an economic development officer for three years. That last investment has translated into a further $6 million in grants acquired by that officer for the village of McBride. These kinds of community benefits represent only 1.5% of B.C.’s annual harvest. That small portion of harvest has translated into positive outcomes for dozens of communities in B.C.

Though community forests are run on a business model, not only can the profits from the operation of the community forest be reinvested in the community, but because the corporation is run by and for the community, there is benefit for local small market loggers. “We have to run like a business in order to be sustainable,” says Marc van der Gonna, manager of the MCFC, “that said, this year we are going to lose some money but we are prepared to do that in the short run to keep our small loggers in work.”

Though B.C. has a longer history of community forests, Alberta is now home to the first community forest in the Prairie Provinces. January 2008 saw the birth of the Weberville Community Forest, located north of the Town of Peace River. Unlike the community forests in B.C., this one covers both privately owned and crown land, an area of approximately 33,000 hectares.

A brain-child of Doug Macaulay, Woodlot Specialist with Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development’s Woodlot Extension Program (now Agroforestry and Woodlot Extension Society), and Juri Agapow of FPInnovations –Feric Division (now FPInnovations Forest Operations Division), the Weberville Community Forest Project was initiated as a pilot in the creation of a landscape level woodlot management plan for the community. “I’ve always found it quite problematic that we have great woodlots out there and people interested in woodlot management but it’s usually on a small scale,” said Agapow, “but to really do forest management you really have to look at the big picture.”

Macauly and Agapow pulled together an organizing committee that included representatives from Agriculture and Agri-food Canada, novaNAIT Boreal Research Institute, and Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development, sought funding partners and developed a two year pilot project in the Weberville area. The site was chosen for its defined geographical boundaries, the diversity of forest stand types and its high level of social interaction of community members.

By August of 2009, the agencies that made up the original organizing committee stepped aside into a supporting role, a community board was established and the group became an official Association, the Weberville Community Forest Association (WCFA). “Initially people were distant, not too sure what to make of the project,” said Agapow, “but they are now at the point where they have taken on the project, bringing in their own ideas and forming the project to suit the community.”

Creating a landscape level management plan for the community forest addresses multiple benefits. In terms of economic benefits for the individual woodlot owners, Agapow notes that “by working together we have enough volume of logs for local industry to be interested in bringing a truck out to pick up our logs.” Similar to B.C.’s Community Forests, environmental and social benefits are also addressed in the plan as the WCFA looks to derive recreation and tourism benefits from the wildlife and natural areas.

Recognizing that the efforts of the WCFA looked an awful lot like a model forest, Macaulay approached the Canadian Model Forest Network (CMFN) to inquire about the possibility of the WCFA becoming a member. Weberville fit in every way except their size. The only glitch was that the CMFN bylaws stated that a model forest had to be a minimum of 100,000 hectares. Indicative of the great work happening in Weberville, the CMFN modified their bylaws to be able to include smaller forests. Now the Weberville Community Model Forest is the second model forest in Alberta and the 15th nationwide.

The CMFN involves over 500 organizations including both aboriginal and non-aboriginal communities, land-based industry, all levels of government, NGOs, academia and researchers. The network provides a forum for discussions of diverse opportunities and challenges that face Canada’s forests, encouraging collaboration on solutions. Through programs that advance research and providing tools and best practices, the network helps forest communities overcome challenges to their sustainability.

CMFN President Daniel Ryan is pleased to include the Weberville Community Forest in the Network, stating that “Acceptance of their membership request is both a tribute to the work we are doing, and demonstrates that we are leaders in promoting and demonstrating sustainable forest management and processes both nationally and internationally. The CMFN will be welcoming other new members in the next year as we continue our strategy of membership marketing in tandem with increasing our benefits and capacity to develop tools to enhance the development of those regional members. An expanded membership strengthens and endorses our leadership role as a national network.” Lisa Ladd, General Manager of the new Weberville Community Forest, explains the benefits of gaining membership in the CMFN: “There is an opportunity to partner on international projects, to access training on climate change adaptation for forest-based communities and as importantly, it increases the profile of the Weberville Model Forest and acknowledges all the effort community members have put into making the project a success.”

There is now talk of extending the forest beyond its original boundaries to include, for example, Ladd’s birch syrup operation, currently the only commercial operation in Alberta.

Having the credentials of being a model forest already appears to be paying off. The County of Northern Sunrise is wanting to develop energy from biomass but didn’t have local feedstock. They are now looking to Weberville to supply guaranteed feedstock. A local pulp mill is interested in developing opportunities to plant trees for biomass feedstock and to fertilize the plantation with what is currently just waste product from the mill.

A community forest model doesn’t necessarily make resource management decision making easy, but it does mean that multiple values and priorities can be addressed. Whether the model of the community forest is one that is a village owned corporation whose profits are paid back in dividends to the community or a non-profit society where members gain benefit through the diversification of agricultural operations, a community forest is an effective method of rural development, sustaining the social, economic and environmental aspects of communities.

For more information on the organizations in this article see their websites:

B.C. Community Forest Association - http://www.bccfa.ca/
Weberville Community Forest Association - http://www.wcmf.ca/
Canadian Model Forest Network - http://www.modelforest.net/

Submitted by Patricia Macklin, Rural Development

As Frank said in the President’s message – ‘tis the season. It’s crept up on us once again – and as always, some are more prepared than others.

Whether you are staying home or travelling, the tips on pages 3-5 provide excellent information.

Protect your property, but always remember that things can be replaced, people cannot. Lo

ok forward to seeing as many of you as possible at the AGM and Crime Symposium in February.

Cheery Merry, everyone and a Happy New Year.

Bonnie

Contact the APRCWA Office
#106-7000 113 Street
Edmonton, AB T5H 5T6
Ph: 780-422-0922
Fax: 780-427-4227
Email: aprcwa@interbaun.com
Website: www.ruralcrimewatch.ab.ca

Editor’s note. Articles are always solicited for upcoming editions of The Bulletin, and to date we have been very fortunate to receive information from a variety of sources. Please note that articles in The Bulletin express the opinion of the contributor/writer, and are not the opinion of the Provincial Board. The Board does not condone or promote vigilantism or the taking of the law into the hands of common citizens. Please take the information you glean from articles in this newsletter with a grain of salt, and consider the current climate that the article may have been written in.

Disclaimer: Editorial opinions, reports and articles published herein do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the Alberta Provincial Rural Crime Watch Association.

Deadlines for Submission to the Bulletin: March 15, June 15, September 15 and November 15 Thank you to the United Farmer’s Association for their support of APRCWA - they print and help distribute this newsletter. We couldn’t do it without you!

Disclaimer: Editorial opinions, reports and articles published herein do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the Alberta Provincial Rural Crime Watch Association.