Clear Cut in Bragg creek/K-country

[morerpmfred]

I think the cut blocks on a freshly cut clearcut are buetifull. Ever try driving down a reclaimed trail over all the logs criss crossing all over the place. Makes for better and more enjoyable wheeling. More challenges. More fun.

[Spinalguy]

^ too bad that government mandates that all the roads and stuff put in be RECLAIMED when done leaving the area IMPASSABLE.

The bike community will be making new trails when this mess is over with. The 4x4 community should be doing the same

[Sugarphreak]

Fixed it for ya.

Cut blocks are UGLY. There's no way around it.

What needs to happen is a REAL strategy to make all uses sustainable. When a block is going to be logged, the recreation uses should be looked at, and appropriate alternative area should be opened for recreational use - and also wildlife habitat needs to be looked at. If habitat is being destroyed/altered, what habitat of comparable sort has opened up in the past few years?

It's not as simple as "logging is good" or "logging is bad". It's a matter of "logging done right can be good for the people, environment, and economy" or "logging done poorly can be bad for people and the environment, and the economic benefits will not be sustainable."

That is really going to depend on the type of wood growing there, there are a lot of species of trees (where I used to be involved in logging when I was younger) that were already at 2nd growth by 20 years and can even be harvested again. Granted if you look across a valley you will see the block 20 or 30 years later easily definable as the forest is in a different cycle than those beside it, however on foot and within those areas they green up nicely within about 2 to 3 years.

It goes back to what I was saying before, you can choose logging modeled after forest fires, or you can choose to prolong the fire cycle until it finally breaks free from fire fighters and burns potentially millions of hectares to the ground. At least with logging you have the opportunity to look at how it will change the recreational use and alter habitat and how to mitigate those, with fire you don't really get that option.

[vantagetes]

Fixed it for ya.

Cut blocks are UGLY. There's no way around it.

What needs to happen is a REAL strategy to make all uses sustainable. When a block is going to be logged, the recreation uses should be looked at, and appropriate alternative area should be opened for recreational use - and also wildlife habitat needs to be looked at. If habitat is being destroyed/altered, what habitat of comparable sort has opened up in the past few years?

It's not as simple as "logging is good" or "logging is bad". It's a matter of "logging done right can be good for the people, environment, and economy" or "logging done poorly can be bad for people and the environment, and the economic benefits will not be sustainable."

Those things are looked at before cutting. I spent a couple years in the industry and for some reason "clear cutting" has a bad rep. It's not just wiping out everything in a big area anymore. Green zones (patches containing x amount of each tree species found in the area) have to be left for wildlife, buffer zones set up along water ways, proper culverts installed to prevent erosion, wildlife survey, buffer zones around any endangered nesting/den wildlife, replanting/reclaimation etc etc etc. It's not just "lets go cut over here" anymore.

Plus all these really nice roads that everyone who bitches likes to use while they go hiking/riding/biking/whatever. When you start wiping your arse with plastic toilet paper, THEN you can complain about forestry 

[w squared]

Problem is - we don't get to use the roads that are put in. They get reclaimed so that we can't use them.

[Sugarphreak]

^^ There is some legislation being looked at in BC regarding exactly this issue (BC Resource Road Act)
http://www.for.gov.bc.ca/mof/nrra/

The idea being that liability can be transferred from the companies that build them so they can be used for public (or private) use by others.  Hopefully whatever ends up coming out of that will give Alberta a precedent to start working towards similar acts here as well.

The problem right now is that the companies that construct and build roads are responsible for maintaining them and liability. Once the job is done, they deactivate them to clear themselves legally.

[JohnB]

The problem right now is that the companies that construct and build roads are responsible for maintaining them and liability. Once the job is done, they deactivate them to clear themselves legally.

The problem is that they destroy the old roads/trails that existed before the clearcut.....  This is not necessarily the case in K country, but it is the norm to the north.