Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - September 29, 1997, Winnipeg, Manitoba Winnipeg free september a9 naturalists worry about decline in ground squirrels Prairie wildlife fading Canadian press Edmonton George Landis has spent much of his 81 years Riding the wide open ranges of Southern Saskatchewan and so when he recently visited the Coulee and pastures of the Southeastern Alberta ranch that his son now he could Tell something was the Richardson ground the so called Gopher familiar from Prairie Road sides was nowhere to be i thought they were virtually until he ground squirrels remain common in Many but naturalists have reported Sim Ilar drops Between Kindersley and Saskatoon Over the past few on the grasslands Border of Montana and provincial biologist Wayne Harris cant remember when there were so few Swain sons and ferruginous and Vari Ous reptile and fish populations Are All in a precipitous just 250 Sage grouse were counted on the Bor Der grasslands this Down from nine years at the same researchers Are just As perplexed by the sudden Bloom of Deer coyotes and red and the emergence of some Prairie insects that Haven been seen since the burrowing owls on the regi Iii How Iii Tow a Rowtoo tfn1 two knit j Sass find pc Jcj it Itti for Terrt Ahi Esmon Regina Plain test offer defines Irene Wilson touches up a Gopher on display at the Gopher Hole museum in a Plain declined to an Al time Low of just 35 says Geoff Holroyd of the Canad an wildlife but biologists have never counted so Many on the bad lands of South Prairie species have always been affected by alternating droughts and but the cur rent population swings have scientists and some worry the Prairie ecosystem is in Dan Ger of if i knew Why any of this was id Tell says agriculture Canada scientist Dan but the fact is there Are so Many factors at play in the Prairie ecosystem and so few people studying it that it is virtually impossible to pro vide a lot of the widespread use of pesticides is thought responsible for a severe decline in the numbers of Prairie songbirds and Birds of although pesticides Are now tightly regulated in about Swain sons Hawks were found dead in Argentina in victims of the pesticide pesticides Are also suspected in the near total collapse of v Gens since a m left i sub wifi by i Fattma pronghorn slowly recovering until recent when population fib sly grouse while Sage grouse along Saskatchewan Montana Border dropped from to 250 since Sharp tailed grouse has been cabbage Root Maggot once now a million a year darkling seen in any number on the Prairies in the has recently shown up Albertas Northern Leopard Frog population and the decline of other Prairie amphibians since land use is also a says University of Alberta zoologist Wayne that probably Why the great Plains Toad is now about half As common As it was 20 years Drain As Many wetlands and dam As Many Prairie Rivers As we have Over the past half and you Are bound to have changed the hydrology of the Prairie something has to phone wars rage across Canada bytes Vetelino Palvanova Canadian press Ottawa any any anywhere in sound familiar per haps so does the commercial telling you How Many people came Back to Bell for their Lon distance the warring sides in the five year old Battle for customers Are getting More sophisticated and More they now have new weapons simpler savings plans and Ever lower As one telecommunications consultant put what were seeing is a marketing revolution in the Long Dis Tance phone Consumers were getting very bewildered by so Many savings said Ian president of Angus Tel management group based in Lon distance phone companies had to come up with something new and easy to he sprint Canada revolutionized the Industry in Gebru when it introduced its 15centsaminute plan that applies any time of Day for anywhere in now other companies Are buying the same sprint rewrote the they introduced a plan that easy to its not Angus but people like it because its like the postal service matter where in Canada you mail the Price is always the he followed suit two weeks ago with a 10centsa minute plan for weekend Calls across the lucrative Lon distance Market is Worth an estimated billion and residential Calls account for More than half of that Consumers really have to evaluate their calling Pat there is no Best Angus sprint May give you the Best Deal if youre calling inside Canada weekdays during the but if youre calling Hong Kong Over the weekend you May want to see who will offer you the lowest Bell customers can Call the United kingdom for Only 27 cents a if they Are calling Over the weekend and Are enrolled in the real plus extra savings plan and Are spending Over a which reduces their overseas Calls by 40 per we Are offering these incentives to the customers we already we Are not aim ing at new As sprint and Pepper in sprint tells its customers they can Call the any any Day for 36 cents a and apparently customers care More about Bell lost two per cent of its Market share in the first Quarter of this year alone and then Cut jobs in blaming customer losses in the Lon distance mar Cable to wants second Chance and Blitz Aims to sell new channels by Michael Macdonald Canadian press Toronto Canadas Cable to saddled with an image problem and threatened by new launches the most expensive and crucial sales Campaign in its his tory the and expected to Cost tens of millions of is asking con Sumers for a second says Richard head of the Cana Dian Cable television the last time Cable operators tried to sell a new Batch of customers unleashed a storm of protest when told the costs would be automatically added to their Bills unless they specifically asked Cable firms called it a negative canadians called it a the Federal broadcast regulator received angry phone Calls and 600 letters from livid Consumers with in three weeks of the launch in Janu Ary Rogers the country largest Cable was forced to publicly the bad news from the last launch was we ended up with this bad relationship with our Stursberg nobody in business wants the Cable companies now say Treyve cleaned up their act Nega Tive options Are dead and its time for canadians to forgive and what were hoping is that when Consumers see this new there going to lets give them a Send Chance because this is fab Stursberg not so says Eamon telecommunications consultant and head of Hoey associates in when youve harmed your Cus Tomer it takes a Long time for them to accept you As a new entity and in going to forgive last Straw canadians Haven forgot ten the poor service and Steep fees Treyve endured under the Cable Hoey the negative option was probably the last Straw in a series of total mis Treyve abused con Sumers for 20 the new direct Home satellite services Are Chipping away at the Cable Market while the country largest Telephone companies Are gear ing up to offer their own Esble services next a Pilot project by Bell Canada to sell Cable services has already begun in Ontario and Consumers Are More willing to switch now to other says Mamie head of the con s association of Long taming attraction on your care to dial number 10 to depending on your Cable company air Date a free three month trial period starts Cost a Flat fee of channels a wide assortment devoted to the outdoors and potential subscribers million households outside quote i dont think its any secret to say that theres been a change of Cul Ture in the Cable we really now have to be customer Cus Tomer Richard president of the Canadian Cable television Asso distance Telephone Competition has taught Consumers a bit about How you do the Cable firms Are convinced most of their subscribers will hand Over an extra a month for 10 to 16 new specially channels following a three month free trial period that starts we have been in the Field right across Canada for the past six months and i think the perception of Cable to has says Kevin president of global television net work and head of prime a new Spe Fialty Channel aimed at an older Mccall if theres residual anger out i think it would have to be somebody who really wanted to carry a the Cable companies did hear their approach this time is entirely Cable companies across the country have come together for the first time to coordinate their feelgood Strate therell be heaps of radio and to Early sign up con direct mail and but if the advertising Blitz fails to attract enough per cent penetration is the magic says results could be very costly for the Cable Industry for every customer who turns Down the till Cost the Cable operators at least Cost of sending a technician to install a so called trap to catch the unwanted and the Industry Slick sales pitch could whenever somebody does a major advertising Mccall a lot of people that Money could have been used to reduce Ray 3ft our Euora Murra Chov Rolett oldsm001le w 772u31 ;