(Eco)Logical Logging in the Park Rick Johnson
Last month, Gord invited me to go for a dog walk out at Syringa Provincial Park so that I could see “the brushing” going on in the Park. It sounded fun, so out we went to take a look. Wow….was I surprised! I am sure many of you who frequent the Park were similarly surprised, maybe even shocked, to see large decks of logs along the main road, logging equipment and obviously fresh logging activity. From a professional viewpoint, what I saw looked like good logging but I was still curious about this activity. After reading several lengthy reports about Syringa’s ecosystems and a “Vegetation Management Plan” for the Park, and talking to Dave Heagy of BC Parks, I was satisfied that the logging activity out there was logical and a good thing. It was neither for campground expansion nor for making a quick buck logging (very hard to do these days anyway). It was to restore the many values of the Park that are currently threatened or compromised by the forest ingrowth and encroachment that has resulted from historic fire suppression efforts. These values include ungulate winter range; rare and endangered animal species and plant communities; and a rare biogeoclimatic subzone variant (i.e. a unique ecosystem). The logging activity was part of the process to maintain and enhance these values by returning the forest ecosystem to a state that more closely resembles pre-European conditions.
 Before |  After |
Over many decades, the natural state of the forest in Syringa Park has dramatically changed from that of open grassland, with well-spaced large ponderosa pine and Douglas-fir in a ground cover of bunchgrass, to a more forested site with several tree species and brush that have encroached into the grasslands. This now dense forest was a threat on two fronts. It created a completely different ecosystem that esulted in the disappearance of several species, such as Lewis’s woodpecker, Badgers and goshawks, which preferred the open grassland ecosystem. Also, there is the potential of increased insect and disease outbreaks, loss of wildlife habitat and biodiversity and degraded forage values for wildlife. Secondly, the denser forest could suffer a catastrophic wildfire. In the past, natural light-intensity ground fires every few years would keep things neat and tidy but modern fire suppression activities have allowed a buildup of high volumes of fuel such as dead trees and branches. Such a fire ould literally wipe out everything including the big ponderosas, and allow the introduction of invasive weeds.
continued on page 7