– T. Koleszar
– T. Koleszar
– T. Koleszar
– T. Koleszar
– T. Koleszar
– T. Koleszar
– T. Koleszar
– T. Koleszar
– T. Koleszar
– T. Koleszar
Streams and Trees
by Tom Koleszar, 29 May 2022
Fifteen club members headed into the back country to learn about riparian areas and find some big trees. After leaving Lang Bay, we drove for an hour to get to the canoe route portage at the head of Windsor Lake. Here we parked and walked the ~1km route down to the lake, learning about the stream running through the valley and the forests around it. Most of the area around the stream has never been logged but was burned ~120 years ago, leaving some very interesting snags behind! We had lunch down at Windsor Lake before heading back up to the vehicles and on to our second stop.
To get to our second stop – the big trees – we had to go a few km down the Rainbow Main, then up an unused spur road that Nancy and I had previously cleared out – and it’s a good thing I had my saw as I had to clear it again to get the vehicles through! At this stop we saw a group of very old, very tall (~80m) Douglas Firs. This area was burned ~90 years ago, and most of the forest dates from that time, except for a handful of old giants! Though these trees are not large enough to be protected by the provincial government big tree regulations (the largest was “only” 2.05m in diameter) they are being protected by the TFL holder Western Forest Products. We were able to clamber up the steep hillside to get up close and personal with the trees and measure their diameters. Nancy described the trees and the area history for us, and measured one of the tree’s height for a guessing contest – which David Bedry won!
