This week:

Living — and logging.
— up by the tree line

Last week we learned how frag-
ile the upper mountain slopes are.
Thin soils and extreme sub-alpine
weather make it difficult for any
kind of plant life to grow, and any
damage caused by logging or other
industrial development could easily
turn a site into an zlpine desert for
decades.

Obviously, then, logging at these
elevations is a questionable prac-
tice —.but the fact remains that
we have, and still are, logging our
upper slope forests. On occasion,
they’re logged selectively but most
often these sites are clear-cut and
many are nothing more than waste-
lands today, a lifeless testimony to
man’s ignorance of nature.

You can find examples of this
within a few miles of Terrace. One
area of note was first logged in
1976. Even though four separate
attempts have been made to replant
the site, it’s still a virtual desert.
The first time we planted spruce
and hemlock; they died. The next
two attempts saw western hemlock
planted; both efforts failed, On the
fourth try we used mountain hem-
lock seedlings, but only a few
survived. It could take up to 200

years before nature alone repairs
the damage. Why? Because the site
was clear-cut when it was ques-
lionable as to whether it should
every have been logged at all and,
out of ignorance we followed our
first great error with a second; we
planted the wrong kind of trees.
.Imagine the original site. A pic-
turesque, thinly-forested meadow
dotted with flowers in-summer; a
wind-driven arctic desert in winter.
A difficult environment for plant
life. Plant life that is forced to
survive with as little as a half-inch
of soil, a two-month growing
season with summertime highs of
only around 65 degrees Fahrenheit,
and during nearly 10 months of
winter, gale force winds and tem-
peratures far below zero.

Plant life has adapted to these
harsh conditions, though, and the
importance of this plant life in
ensuring the health of the forested
valleys below is significant. These
upper valley regions make up
about 82 percent of any one par-
ticular forested area in the prov-
ince and are an important primary
source of nutrients for the valuable
timber below.

Terrace Review — Wednesday, May 30,, I 990 Al.

by Tod Strachan

=

Now try to imagine this same
sub-alpine area after it’s been
logged. The few stunted trees that
once grew there are gone. And this
means that the thin layer of soil

_ that took hundreds of years to

collect is now open to the
elements. Unprotected from rain
and wind, much of this soi! either
washes down the mountain side or
simply blows away. Slope failure
(landsliding) is also common.

The climate has changed. No
longer protected by trees and
shrubs from the effects of nearby
glaciers, temperatures plummet. An
unhindered summer's breeze can
drop the temperature on this once-
important site by as much as 30
degrees Fahrenheit. This cools the
little soil that remains and it loses
its ability to host any significant

Days

Contributed by
Mary Ann Burdett
The Riverboat Days Society
‘Salute of the Week’? goes to

Riverboat -

Salutes...

Pifer — continued from
page A6 .

date of how the premiers and
prime minister hammered out
the shaky accord.

No-one trusted Mulroney
then any more than they do to-
day; and Cohen’s insight into
that and into Vander Zalm’s
fledgling fumbling as the new
kid on the block are not to be
missed by anyone who wonders
whatinhell this national angst is

. all about

Parting Thought: It was
most welcome, finally, to get
the announcement last week
about the go-ahead for the
Gold Road into the Iskut
Valley. Crowns Lands Minister
Dave Parker could prove to be
more of a benificiary, political-
ly, from the decision to set up
the’$20-million highway, than
shareholders in gold stocks will
be, financially. Parker has
done a lot of work to get the
thing lined up, and it must help
his re-election chances. _

the Kermode Friendship Society.

Begun in 1972 as ‘Native
Resource Centre’’, this non-
profit organization was in-
corporated in its present form in
1976 with the aim of assisting to
meet the needs and generally
promote the best interest of
Native people who are making
the transition to the urban com-
munity. It also organizes and
unites Native people, carries out
programs consistent with those
of a charitable organization, for
the advancement of the level of
education and training oppor-
tunities among Native peoples of
Terrace and the Kitimat-Stikine
Regional District.

The Kermode is responsible
for founding such projects as
Northern Native Broadcasting,
Muks-Kum-Ol Housing Society
and Lax-Ghels Community Law
Centre Society. Under the able
leadership of president Terry
Brown and vice president Elmer
Derrick, this organization works
closely with many community
organizations and governmental
services to aid and represent ur-
ban Native people in the com-
munity of Terrace.

A nominal membership fee
(and membership is open to

_everyone) will make you eligible

eerie >

for programs and activities for
adults, youth and children that
are coordinated by this group.

The Kermode Friendship
Society has been instrumental in
organizing displays of Native
Art and Culture and sharing
them with the citizens of Ter-
race, -

For a considerable number of
years now, this group of people
has been tremendously involved
in our Riverboat Days celebra-
tions, adding much to the spirit
of the occasion, This year is no
exception, and Aug. 4 will see
their entry of two floats in the
parade —- if they are even close
to the excellence that has been
portrayed in past years, you will
be most impressed.

The Society is planning
numerous activities in Lower
Little Park to be held after the
parade, commencing at noon
and continuing until 6 p.m.
These include a display of tradi-
tional native dancing, native
foods, an arts and crafts show
and a salmon barbecue.

A most respectful salute to the
Kermode Friendship Society for
their works in our community —
let’s all meet at their displays on
Aug. 4, the Saturday afternoon
of Riverboat Days 1990,"

forms of plant life. Our sub-alpine
meadow has become an alpine
desert, its development set back at
least 200 years.

This is a worst-case scenario, of
course, and there are some upper
slope areas that can be logged... if
the job is done right. Small, selec-
tively-logged or clear-cut sites, no
larger than five hectares, can be
successfully logged but manage-

ment procedures in these areas are:

both complex and expensive. Im-
mediate reforestation is a must.
Nature simply takes too long.

In a growing season only two
months long, trees don’t have time
to flower and produce and dissemi-
nate seed. This process, a normal
single-season process at lower
elevations, takes years in a sub--
alpine climate. It could take as
long as thirty years in some cases
but no one really knows for sure
— very little research has been
done.

But if we’re going to cut this
Marginal forest and replant it with
a new one, we have to do it right.
There have been too many failures
in the past, We know that species
other than those we cut won't
grow and no one is currently col-
lecting the right seeds. Our only
option then is to harvest seeds
from the trees we cut in order to
produce seedlings for our next
logging operation. If this had
already been done, the right seed-
lings would be available for our
current operation.

There is a problem, however —
we don’t know how often the right
species of trees produce seeds.
With no research data to go on, an
educated guess is about once every
five to 30 years. In order to have
the correct seedlings available,
then, would take a great deal of
very careful planning.

So given these facts, why are we
cutting our upper slope forests at
all? Management is difficult and
expensive, road access is expen-
sive, the trees there are small —
only about a foot in diameter, and
not very valuable from the saw-
mills point of view. So why bother
Boing to these upper slopes at all?

The truth is, we’ve been forced
to go there out of desperation.
We’ve cut almost all the good
lrees that are easy to get at.

Remember our story on the "Fall
Down Effect"? That was the one
that told how we’re running out of
trees; how management problems
will soon be. academic because
there will soon be nothing to

manage. Today’ s story is. proof
that the Fall Down Effect is real.

The forest industry today has a

choice: drive a few hundred miles

to log .good trees or. only .a. few...

‘miles to cut marginal trees. The

choice is a financial balancing act.
Upper slope access and manage-
ment is expensive but so is fuel,
maintenance and the truck driver's
time. And in the final analysis the
forest industry may decide that
their best option from an economi-
cal point of view is to cut inferior
trees.

A good indication of how much
things have changed over the
years, is found in the lowering
volume of wood per hectare con-
sidered acceptable by the industry.
Twenty years ago, 200 to 250
cubic meters per hectare was ac-
ceptable; anything less was
laughed at. But 10 years ago this
dropped to an even 200 cubic
meters per hectare, and today 100
to 120 cubic metres per hectare is
just fine.

Since we brought up the topic of
the Fall Down Effect, perhaps we
Should clarify this just a bit. A

cubic meter of wood in the bush is

equivalent to 424 board feet of
finished lumber . That’s about 18,
12-foot 2x12s,

In the mill, though, it’s much
less. The same cubic foot of wood
is turned into the equivalent of 48
board feet of sawdust, 161 board
feet of chips, and 215 board feet of
jumber. From our potential of 18,
12-foot 2x12s, we only get only
nine in reality. And that’s in an
"efficient" state-of-the-art sawmill.

In more realistic terms, then, an’
acceptable yield of actual lumber
per hectare of forest has dropped
from 2,240, 2x12’s twenty years
ago to only 896 today. Using more
sophisticated management tech-
niques, Scandinavian countries are
getting about 14, 2x12’s per cubic
meter of wood and, because it’s
higher quality, more than half
again as much money per board
foot than we do in B.C,

In the meantime, we will prob-
ably hear many success stories
about lower slope management
practices in the years to come but
most upper slope management
Stories, for obvious reasons, will
never be told. Those were areas
that never should have been
logged. And they wouldn't have
been... if we had done a good job
in the valleys below,

Next week, we’ll talk about
alpine ecology and management.
These are areas like the tops of
Copper and Trapline Mountains
that are better used, if at all, for
recreation,

The following week we'll move
onto & more controversial topic:
"The Ecology and Management of
Wildemess .Reserves",. Are these
areas of irreplaceable -.value, . or,
like the.dinosaurs, destined: to. fall?: