Budding foresters

Thomson and Amanda, both keen Forestry undergrads at UBC, had four days here this week and surely made the most of it.  So much to explore - forest "field work" beckoning:

• Tromping over the clearcut (2013) up above, seeing where and what young trees are taking hold (Douglas fir, white pine, hemlock, tamarack, birch, spruce, occasional cedar), where the ancestor seed-trees are still standing, where streams are still running, where water is collecting in swamps or disappearing underground.  

Colin and Thomson admire a huge, surviving and healthy white pine (on the left)

• Foraging for edibles - lady-fern "fiddleheads", fireweed shoots, morels (a few), nettles. 

On a forest walk with Julia, we found the skunk cabbage patch just coming into bloom ... 

... discovered by A&T to be a great spot for lady-fern fiddleheads

• Sawing and hauling downed logs - with Colin, Norbert and his "arch" - to Norbert's mill by the squirrel barn, for lumber and firewood (one log slated to become a 7th Avenue dining room table, with a bit of work by Doco - stay tuned). 

Chain-saw lesson from uncle Colin

Solo

Norbert's-truck magic to haul the log down from the forest

• And then A&T's two major projects:

1. Getting a map of the ranch from Google and using a software program to draw in the creeks, swampy areas, and rough roads.  Very useful!  (no photo yet)
2. Tackling a couple of patches of young hemlocks that had been identified by Herb Hammond three years ago as major fire-hazard growth - low and dense, with needles full of flammable resin.  Almost all the young trees A&T removed in this round were already dead.
Thank you Thomson and Amanda!

"Before" (actually an adjacent uncut patch)

"After" (can see through the forest)

 We had a massive bonfire!!  Still cool and wet enough, and little breeze.  Good roast potatoes!!  (Tonio's.  Had spent the winter in the reclaimed root cellar under the haybarn.)