brown's main

February 10, 2010
Since the middle of January, Eli and I have been exploring the Brown's Main. So far, we've pretty-much covered the first six kilometers, including most of the branch roads.

Brown's Main climbs quite steeply from the Duncan Bay Main, at the base of Mount Washington, into one recently-cut second-growth clearcut block after another. By the 2km sign it has leveled off somewhat, and on the few days that aren't either too foggy or raining, offers great views of the Comox Valley and the waters of the Georgia Strait beyond. The weather hasn't yet been clear enough to see the Coast Range, but one of these days I'll get that photo too.

In the month we've been doing this, we've seen only one other dog, and there are very few vehicles, so Eli - who isn't turning out to be any better with other dogs as he ages - can go off-leash and explore or run like a dog possessed, as the mood takes him. Because of the logging, I can see him much of the time, and I can usually hear him, because he wears a bear bell, meant to warn off the deer and elk whose tracks we very occasionally see. I think it's probably too early for bears. (Just in case, however, I carry the can of pepper spray Mike Lent me!)

Some observations, in no particular order, from our winter (!) rambling:

1 It has been unusually warm and wet this winter, with few of the southeast winds that usually accompany such weather. Today I saw the first signs of green on the salmon berries (Rubus specabilis). Most days we walk into the cloud, and the few days I've skied on Washington I did so in cloud. Several times already I've been able to walk without a jacket, and I've never worn my wet-weather gear so regularly. The thermometer in the car has not read below 6 or above 10 on any day as we've set out, and we have yet to encounter snow... in January and February!

2 The people who use the road drink beer and have shotguns. The beer of choice comes in Lucky Lager and Budweiser cans, and the shotgun shells come primarily in red and blue and are deposited in large numbers at the ends of roads and in places where vehicles can pull off. I'm guessing there's not a lot of slaying going on during shotgun season, but that there is a lot of blasting at the environment.

We heard gunshots one day, and Eli didn't like them at all. He also doesn't like the sound of the CF18's practicing to keep terrorists away from Olympic venues.

I collected cans for Linda, who does our bottle and can recycling, in the first week we walked there. That's three full grocery-bags full in 6km, and I'd guess the best part of another bag has been deposited since.

3 The clearcuts don't look particularly picturesque, but this is some of the best tree-growing terrain anywhere, and logging is inevitable. (In fact, years ago I read a forestry expert on the subject, who claimed that if we just managed our best land more intensively, we could produce more wood, do less environmental damage, and never have to log the high, steep slopes at all.) In this area, one notices that there's very little erosion, and that the ground-cover is thriving. These blocks all appear to have been replanted, and the seedlings seem to be doing well. In less than twenty years - fewer in summer, when the alders are in leaf - the views of the ocean will be no more.

But there's a distressing amount of wood left, mostly in huge piles which appear to be destined ultimately for burning. There's lots of evidence the more accessible of these piles are scavenged for firewood, but most are relatively inaccessible without machinery, and those appear to be untouched.
This is private land, and the wood at best isn't worth much, but surely such waste is unproductive. I wonder why it's better to mine coal to burn in the co-generation plant in Campbell River than to use this wood, and the wood like it all over the North Island, already collected in piles, to feed a facility purpose-built for dealing with wood waste. Especially if, one way or another, that wood is going to burn and especially while there are hundreds of experienced loggers in the North Island drawing "Employment Insurance" or welfare, who would love the work.