Dear Friends of Snowden,

This email is to thank you for signing the petition, which helped to ensure that BC Timber Sales (BCTS) listened to the concerns that we all raised 2 years ago about proposed roadbuilding and logging in the Snowden Demonstration Forest. By signing the petition you helped us convince City Council, the Regional District, and the Province that Snowden's Trails are a valuable asset for both the public and the business community.

Also, in response BCTS formed the Snowden Advisory Group, which consists of representatives from a variety of local outdoor recreation and tourism groups.  BCTS is to be commended for taking seriously and responding to the concerns expressed by the Group. Some of the major changes to the logging practices in Snowden are contained within the Snowden Forest Guiding Principles document, which expanded from 4 pages to 7, thanks to the contributions of the Snowden Advisory Group.

As a snapshot, the major changes are as follows:

1. A roughly 50% reduction in the annual allowable cut in Snowden from ~10,000m3/yr to 5,000-6,000m3/yr. This will greatly reduce the impact of logging in the Snowden Forest. BCTS is to be commended for this change because it explicitly recognizes the exceedingly high recreational value of Snowden, compared to other forested areas.
 

2. Construction of 1.6m of new trail to replace a section of one of the highest use trails in Snowden (Riley Lake trail), that will be completely logged in order to remove trees from an area with a high incidence of root rot. The new trail section will be machine built, was laid out / designed jointly with the River City Cycle Club trail representative, Geoff Payne, and will have a wide buffer from the proposed cut block.
 

3. One block within the watershed and within the high use area was moved out of the watershed.
 

4. BCTS will now ensure that the risk of blowdown (windthrow) is low in those areas where new clearcuts are close to trails. Trees blowing over and falling across trails has been a problem in the past. BCTS will take extra care to minimize the risk of this happening. This will be achieved by widening the buffers that are left next to trails and/or by pruning the trees that are left in the buffer so that they are less likely to be blown over.
 

5. When the proposed revised cut-blocks were laid out, BCTS staff took care to minimize the degree to which the cutblocks will be visible from the adjacent trails.
 

6. One block in a high use area will not be clearcut. Instead, individual trees will be scattered throughout the block. This will be a test of sorts so that we can gauge whether this is a less visually impactful way of logging. If yes, this method will likely be used in the future in areas with particularly high recreation and tourism values.
 

7. BCTS approved the construction of a new trail (to be designed by the cycle club and built by volunteers) in the “core area” adjacent to Lost Lake. They committed not to log in this area, which is a triangle surrounded by the highest use trails in Snowden. This will maintain a wild forest experience in the heart of Snowden.
 

Apart from ensuring that this next round of road building and logging minimized the impacts on Snowden’s recreational and tourism values, our big goal was to develop a 20 year logging and roadbuilding plan with BCTS so that volunteers could plan future trailbuilding or trail maintenance projects in areas that would not be harvested and to ensure that impacts across the landscape would be kept to an acceptable level. The Group worked with BCTS to identify areas where logging would take place in each of the next four, five year harvest cycles and BCTS also agreed to:

a. Review with the Snowden Advisory Group the roadbuilding impacts from this current (upcoming) road construction work that will be done in 2020/21.

b. Review with the Advisory Group the impacts and results from the logging that will be done in Snowden in 2020/21.
 

The goal is to identify what worked well and what needs to be improved or changed. That information will help guide the next round of roadbuilding and logging in five years time. The Advisory Group will continue to meet with BCTS on an as needed basis over the ensuing years to ensure that the future rounds of logging strike an acceptable balance between the competing interests that are at play in this incredibly valuable asset on Campbell River’s doorstep.

Thank you everyone! When we work together, we can accomplish a lot.

Garry Ullstrom

Friends of Snowden