Beaver Lodge Forest Lands

One Saturday earlier this month, shortly after Sandy and I had parked at the McPhedran access to the Beaver Lodge Lands in preparation for setting off, we were accosted by a gentleman(1) who asked us if we would take a UBC survey dealing with the Lands.

Of course we were delighted to do so. To our minds the BLL is one of the very best things about living in Campbell River (not least because of the back story of how they came to be, for which see http://www.for.gov.bc.ca/dcr/blflfolder/index.html) one of those geographical attributes that would make us the envy of the rest of the world if only it knew about them.(2)

At present, the Beaver Lodge Lands is a relatively-undeveloped 502 hectare gem within Campbell River's municipal boundaries. The area was heavily logged in the late 1920’s, and was either the first or one of the first replanted forests on the Coast. Consequently, large sections are mixed forest, featuring 75-year old Douglas Firs and Sitka Spruces, huge Bigleaf Maples, Red Alders, and Black Cottonwoods, as well as Western Hemlocks, Grand Firs, White Pines, Cascara and Dogwood, plus cherries and crab-apples, and all the shrubs, flowers and ferns associated with an East Vancouver Island forest. The only thing missing in numbers are the Red Cedars that must once have been among the most impressive features of the area; today there are some, but one has to know where to look, and it will take another few decades before these really stick out.

There are also areas that were logged more recently, and thus illustrate what happens while a coastal forest recovers.

The area is crossed by the remains of several logging roads, plus the grades of the original logging railway and its spurs. There are also a number of lovely unimproved trails following the various manifestations of Simms Creek as well as some linking trails and even a couple created by mountain bikers which fulfill their eccentric requirements.

I’ve been running in this area since the 1970’s, long before we knew it had been given to the province as an experimental forest, and that eventually it would be protected, by legislation, from development. In fact, to those of us who used it to run from Carihi to Southgate, the trail now called the “Rail Trail” was known as the “Jeep Trail”. It was quite overgrown in places, and in winter so muddy that it was an uncomfortable, if not impassable route. We fully expected that, as Campbell River grew, it would eventually be covered by the subdivisions that now squeeze up to the boundaries.

Anyway, I talked to other agents soliciting survey completion on at least three more occasions, at other entrances to the Lands. Although it was unusually cold and snowy for most of the survey time, I hope they got a good sample; it’s always amazing to me the number of people one sees on the trails, particularly on weekends, at all times of the year, and how few of them are people I recognize, although I walk or run there almost every day. I also hope that people won’t press for more development or more infrastructure. Our experience of the area won’t be enhanced by interpretive signs or fencing or more wheelchair access or restrictions on dogs and horses.

It’s not Stanley Park, and Campbell River isn’t Vancouver. The Beaver Lodge Forest Lands are pretty much perfect the way they are, and I hope they are left that way.

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1) Turned out he was a former student from Carihi days. He did not appear disappointed that I couldn’t remember him.
2) Happily most of it doesn’t, or we’d be overrun!