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B4 - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, February 13, 2002
Forest watching

A walk in the working woods

By ROB HART
AS I GOT out of the car, I
laoked down and saw a
pretty little plant stretch-
ing its leaves across the
gravel, “What's that?”

“Twinflower. Linnaea
borealis,” Renee replied.

She knows these things.

That is one of the won-
derful things about walking
in the woods with someone
who knows them. It’s like
petting a tour of their
home. By the end-of the
tour it feels like your
home, too.

In this case it should
feel like home, The land
we were to tour was pro-
posed cut block AS50592,
Block 1 — part of the
Siuai} Business Forest De-
velopment Plan for the
Kalum District of the
Ministry of Forests.

It’s public land, our
land, and. this particular
part has been laid out for
next year’s logging,

Our task today is to
assess Whether the land
has been laid out well.

The four of us are part
of Forest Watch, a provin-
cial network of volunteers
who check active logging
sites to make sure they
conform to the Forest
Practices Code.

In the days before the
Code, logging often cre-
ated needless environ-
mental damage and com-
promised other economic
activity like fishing or
tourism. Now each cut re-
quires a plan.

The public can review
these plans and comment
on whether they meet the
Tequirements of the Cade.

Once the area has been
logged, we can also go
back to check how it was
actually done in compari-
son to the approved plan.

The area around the
Sandur Forest Service
Road was burned in the
early part of the 1900s and
had regenerated in lodge-
pole pine.

That happens naturally:
pine is a “pioneer species”
that comes in and. reesta-
blishes a forest cover.

It is then slowly re-
placed by a greater divers-
ity of species as the forest
returns to a healthy bal-
ance.

Part of this pine forest
was logged last year. The
marketable trees have
been hauled away from
Block 1 of A64880 and the
site is still filled with burn
piles. The piles are huge.

They have been bull-
dozed with everything that
was left. That includes not
only branches but also any
trees that weren’t consid-
ered marketable.

The soil is thin here. It
has only been 10,000 years
since the glaciers scoured
this valley and that’s nat a
lot of time to develop a
good soil layer over the
gravel.

If everything has to be
cut, it would at least be a
good idea to chip what is
not taken so that the soil
layer gets built up. Burning
this storehouse of organic
matter is faster and seems
more “economical” in the
short run, but it returns
nothing except perhaps
some air pollution.

We head further down
the road to A50592, Log-
ging here is planned for
next year. The cut block
has been laid out parallel
to Sockeye Creek, an area
rich in forest and wildlife
values.

Our main concern is
that it may be too close to
the creek. As we walk in
from the road it is possible
to see the forest in the pro-
cess of maturing. Head
high amabilis fir, western
hemlock, and western red
cedar are starting to grow
among the pine. Renee
shows how the pine is gra-
dually being replaced by
the other conifers in the
understory, The forest is
working on its own.

If this ground is clear-
cut next year, it will push
the cycle back and recre-
ate the monoculture that
this forest has spent 90
years diversifying.

We notice gall rust in
the lodgepole pine trees.
Galls are those ball-like

swellings in tree trunks,
They are interesting to
look at but too many is a
sign of imbalance in for-
ests.

Another pine monocul-
ture will give the rust. a
chance to really take hold.
That’s the trouble with
monocultures: they en-
courage disease: and are
harder to manage. Pine
beelles have been here be-
fore too, Renee remem-
bers,

Horse logging would
work well here, we think,
or small skidders. The best
pine could be taken ‘and
the remainder could pro-
vide cover for the other
Species that are showing
up ta become part of the
Mature or climax forest,
such as amabilis fir, hem-
lock, and cedar - trees
that are worth more money
in the long run. It would
mean fewer roads and

more skid trails, which ©

could be used in the winter
to minimize ground dam-
age. The forest could be
left to grow and to keep on
working. ;

We walk parallel to the
ridge and notice how the
moose have cropped the
huckleberry bushes. They
will drop down lower to-

A-2-BOY ers

ward the creck in the win-
ler to lake advantage of
the shelter and the more
abundant feed there: wil-
lows and red osier dog-
wood bushes. Bears have
come this way as well,
making their marks high
on the cedar trunks,

We drop dawn to Sock-
eye Creek, The area where
the creek runs, the riparian
zone, has never been tou-
ched and it is still true old
growth, richly diverse. As
such it offers excellent ha-
bitat for its namesake,
coming in to spawn here.

Andrew is the fly fisher
of the group and he notes
the trail other fishermen
have made to come in and
tap this resource. Coho
will arrive later, in Octo-
ber, for their turn to spawn,
die, and become the
eagles’ winter food.

Walking back up to the
ridge we note that the
black is laid cut so as to
stay away from stream
where the richest biodi-
versily is.

That’s hard to do for
loggers because, of contrse,
the rich bottomland also
produces the biggest and
best trees, Leaving them
took restraint but it laid a
solid base for tomorrow’s

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forest.

Leaving, we come
across and old trail and
two mushroom pickers’
bikes. This is truly a work-
ing forest. It works for log-
gers and for moose and
bear. It supports fishers and
eagles. It generates in-
come for the gatherers of
its products and it keeps
right on growing.

That is how it should
be. Under the Forest Prac-
tices Code the District
Manager has to check that

logging will “adequately .

manage and conserve the
forest resource.” “Forest
resource” means all the
resources and values, in-
cluding not only timber but
also water, wildlife, fisher-
ies, recreation, botanical
forest products, forage, and
biological diversity.

We leave with mixed
feelings. We are thankful
that A50592’s Block 1 has
been laid out well away
from the most sensitive
part of the forest. But we
still wonder about how a
more selective logging
process could give the best
timber value and leave the
rest.

Back at the truck, the

twinflower is still growing, -
busy with its own work.

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me Mardi
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Newspapers
want to get
it right.

So if at times they fall
short, let their editors
know.

if they can’t solve the
problem, contact the B.C,
Press Council, a -
voluntary body that .
looks Into and tries to

' mediate unresolved
reader complaints about
news and opinion in B.C,
newspapers.

B.C. Press COUNCIL
201-1290 Broad Street,
Victorla, 8.C. V8W 2A5

1Ph. 250-384-3344

Fax: 250-384-3346
E-mail; councl@bepresscouncil.org

Web: bepresscouncilorg