Aug 10

More fog/cloud 16C.

Bowled then into Victoria for part of the afternoon then bowled in there until almost 8pm.

My goldfinches have pretty well all returned again and a chickadee but still no sparrows which is quite odd as they are usually about. I hear the salmon fishing is good this year, but won't be taking advantage of it as I would have to unprepare the boat from being for sale.

More of Forestry.

These districts were key to all things forestry in the territory they served.

Reforestation

  Reforestation by way of tree planting has been ongoing since the 1930’s on coastal BC. Climatic conditions have always favored the probability of successful plantations along the coast and these successes are evidenced by those earlier plantations now being ready for harvest.

  Tree planting was not introduced into interior BC until the 1960’s. The harsher climate and temperature extremes made successful plantations a challenge. Slow growth due to short growing seasons, competition with grass and brush and setbacks resulting from rodents and other animals has hindered the establishment and success of many of the plantations. However perseverance, new techniques, superior stock have prevailed and eventually a second harvest will be ready. Unfortunately plantations were generally single specie plantings until perhaps the last twenty years.  Consequently a risk exists to specie oriented disease and insect attack. Also in the beginning the trees were planted on a predetermined spacing in rows as straight as the terrain would allow. This was usually eight by eight foot spacing but sometimes six by six.

Bare root stock was the only thing available until the late ‘60’s, then mudpacks came along and eventually container stock. This was an important evolvement as bare root by necessity is larger (usually was two years old with one transplant we called it 2+1) and required a great deal of care to protect the roots. Container stock or plugs were much smaller, one year old, and quite protected in their container.

Where as in the beginning four hundred trees planted per day per planter was acceptable, twelve to fifteen hundred a day is now the norm.

There was a time when follow up on the reforested sites would see natural regen destroyed in fear of the natural tree dominating the planted one. This has all changed with accepting natural trees and planting to “plantable” spots rather than the spacing method.

Today companies are not relieved of their stewardship of an area that they logged and reforested until it is deemed “free to grow”.

Fire Suppression

The science of fighting fires has in a sense not changed over the years, but with the advent of better and better communications, quick access (horses to trucks to airplanes to helicopters) then the development of sophisticated aerial attack capability coupled with training of specialized crews has enormously benefited the ability to detect, find and attack fires quickly and efficiently.

However because of the warping of the Forest Service’s role and the dissolution of an all purpose forestry program, some things have unfortunately been lost. Number one is because of centralization, in depth knowledge of geographic areas and the people of those areas has withered. By changing the forest officers role in supervising the everyday harvesting and developing a structure that depends on its ability to control fires before they become conflagrations (a worthy objective) the knowledge of how to supervise and work with heavy machinery has been seriously stressed.