Success: another successful Winter in the Forest Festival in Kaslo. The event highlights the strong volunteer spirit we have here in Kaslo and the love for our magnificent outdoor setting. Our hats are off to our organizers, the Kaslo Housing Society who orchestrated everything skillfully, right down to the biodegradable cutlery.
We assisted Kaslo’s Recreation Groups with the upgrade of the ski trail section along the Wagon Road. This section spans between the Warming Hut and the Buchanan junction. Today we donated 4 hrs of backhoe and supervision time towards improvements of the trail surfacing. This work will facilitate KORTS and KDCFS efforts of leveling the surface and improvements to drainage features to which we contributed an additional $400. Upgrades were done by local contractors Ron Jardine and Stan Baker. We are also experiencing good venting indexes and burning weather and are cleaning up debris from the summer’s harvest in this area.
Approximately 30 percent of our tenure lies in the Keen Creek drainage. Access is from Hwy 31A, through the South Fork community. The steep and narrow valley runs roughly North / South – which means that the sun reaches the narrow valley floor only briefly during the day, when right overhead. It’s a fabulously shady place on a hot summer day, next to glacier-fed Keen Creek, the old Cedars, devilsclub and moist moss. You can inspect the springboard notches left in giant old stumps from a long time ago.
But it’s the winter and spring that amplify the deep-freeze qualities in the valley floor, when the sun is low behind the snowy mountains and fails to make its brief visit overhead. While mountain tops are bathed in the spring sun, its rays are melting the white slopes in the high and mid elevations and turn the tap on for a wild spring freshet rushing down into the dark valley bottom where the road and ditches are still covered under 3 feet of snow and ice. The water comes down the steep slopes with a force, some of it going underground, shooting up through the road surface and adjacent forest floor in geysers.
This reversal of climate in itself would be bad enough, but geology brought soils high in silt into the mix. Silt rubbed between the fingers feels very fine, floury when dry, slippery-soapy when wet, non-cohesive….. and there you have it.
We had spent well over $200,000 in 2015 upgrading unstable sections of the road with log cribbings (such as in the photo above) and bridges. During the spring of 2018 we spent $25,000 maintaining access into this valley to plant trees, including almost daily shovel work to manage water. We commissioned a geo-technical report over the summer with hopes that upgrades and additions of additional drainage structures and careful maintenance may make the road manageable for the future. We were able to install some, but not all recommendations from this report due to a delay in construction equipment and winter settling in. Works included 13 additional culverts, ditching and in-sloping of the road in difficult sections at a cost of $15,000. Recent Keen works were done by Shane McKinnon and Ron Jardine.
Thank you all who made it out on a beautiful late September day to celebrate National Forest Week with us. We appreciated hearing your thoughts and ideas over a hot dog roast and hot chocolate followed by sourdough waffles with whipping cream and ginger applesauce by the campfire.
TRUST FOR KIDS
Trust for Kids has been in existence since 1981. It is set up to help families financially with dependent children who have to leave the area for medical appointments and procedures.
Lardeau Valley Community Club (LVCC)
Several years ago now, LVCC fundraised and purchased a new and improved safer dock for the Glayco Beach. LVCC also holds and pays for an insurance policy for this public use dock at Glayco Beach ( Howser ) on beautiful warm Duncan Lake.
With the severe increase in debris floating in the Duncan Lake reservoir, the Glayco beach becomes a dangerous maze of people trying to navigate through the driftwood debris. Each year hundreds ( maybe thousands ) of people from all over, come to enjoy the beautiful beach and incredibly tolerable waters of Duncan Lake. Since BC Hydro removed the old dangerous booms several years ago, the debris is unbearable. Not only is it a major nuisance for the locals, tourists and regulars from afar, but it also puts a major damper on our Red Cross Certified Swimming lessons that we hold at Glayco Beach. Earlier this year the LVCC board voted to start fundraising the purchase of new and improved ( and much safer ) debris booms for the public to enjoy at Glayco.
JV Humphries School Athletics
The funds would be used to subsidize tournament costs and team gear for multiple sports teams including volleyball, basketball, track and field, and soccer. This would allow more students the opportunity to participate without worrying about cost, as well as build team spirit.
You may cut your own firewood within the KDCFS tenure.
Firewood cutting for personal uses (less than 5 cords) will require an individual to obtain a Free Use Permit (FUP) from the Ministry of Forests (FLNRORD). The application is free, can be filled online and does not require an approval. Guidelines on the type of material classified as firewood are spelled out on the application. All areas within KDCFS will be open for this type of permit and it will be non exclusive from other FUP holders (e.g. multiple individuals on the same area/road system).
Open fire bans are not currently in effect.
A campfire ban is not currently in effect.
Forest use restrictions are currently not in effect.
• See an overview map of zones in the Southeast fire centre.
There are currently no open fire prohibitions in effect for the Southeast fire centre.
There are currently no campfire bans in effect for the Southeast fire centre.
There are currently no forest use restrictions in effect for the Southeast fire centre.
You can follow the latest wildfire news on:
https://www.bcwildfire.ca
https://www.facebook.com/pg/BCForestFireInfo/posts
Contacts:
Carlee Kachman
Fire Information Officer
BC Wildfire Service
Southeast Fire Centre
250 365-4056
Ashley Davidoff
Fire Information Officer
BC Wildfire Service
Southeast Fire Centre
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Not so long ago I participated in a Silviculture conference in the West Kootenays. During the 2 day workshop we visited sites in the forest where forest management topics were presented and discussed. We piled into our rented vans, toured up and down gravel roads, hopped out at designated sites and had our discussions. As the day progressed, the conversations in the van kept shifting back to the almost standard ugly pile of garbage garnishing every first stretch of gravel road leaving the highway. Stoves, fridges, sofas, bags of household trash, garden clippings, roofing, well, most know the sight from their trip to the landfill. Except, some folks never seem to visit there because ….?
Littering is a widespread problem owned by a small number of individuals and what is an easy way out for some, is a drain and shame on the neighborhood who lives and recreates there. Littering is a fine-able offense under Part 2 Section 12 of the Environmental Management Act, which is enforced by the Conservation Officer. We have several sites within the KDCFS tenure that have become habitual dump locations and adjacent land owners rightfully resent living in the mess that others leave them with. While the dumping of garden clippings seems benign, household garbage is obviously not. But hold on: maybe garden clippings warrant another look. Apart from messing up a roadside, are these invasive species being set free into the wild? Maybe evicted from a garden because of prolific overgrowth? The truth is that neither belongs into our natural spaces. The Village of Kaslo does pick up garden clippings twice a year, and the RDCK allows free dumping of garden residue at the landfill in the spring.
We have received requests from the community to guard locations where littering occurs in our tenure and have consulted with the RCMP and RDCK. We will step up our surveillance, identification of offenders, attempts to educate and reporting to the law enforcing agencies. We encourage the community to assist and report to KDCFS management or directly to the RCMP/Conservation Officer. We also appreciate any suggestions from the community how this problem may be managed to provide a lasting solution.
One submission received: If you are a resident hiring help to deliver your garbage to the landfill, please request a landfill delivery/payment receipt and follow up to ensure your load was delivered.
November 2018:
RECENT ILLEGAL DUMPING in Bucky Recreation Area. Do you recognize this chair or mattress? If so, please contact the RCMP with your information. They have been notified.
Harvesting operations in CPs 39 and 40 are now complete. Access restrictions are lifted.
Both cutting permits were sold ‘on the stump’ to Kalesnikoff/Stella Jones and harvested by Iron Peaks from New Denver and Sunshine Logging from Kaslo. The roughly 20,000 cubic meters of logs supplied Kalesnikoff Lumber, Stella Jones, Porcupine Wood Products sawmills. In-block harvest trails have been semi rehabilitated. The daylighting of the Wagon Road from Hwy 31A to the cutblock along the Wagon Road is complete as well.
A KORST crew of volunteers has slashed out the Wagon Road stretch from the CP39 block to the 7 Mile FSR junction and road upgrades are under way between November 1 and 14.
Site preparations for 2020 planting are complete in CP39. We have hired Shane McKinnon to complete this work.
CP 39 Block 1
CP40 BLK 3 landing
Three new spurs have been built to access 3 blocks between 2.5 km and 9 km along the 7 Mile FSR.
Spur to Block 3
For further information and to view current photos about these cutting permits please view our Forest Operations Section.
ALL WOODLANDS, OPERATIONAL AND ORGANIZATIONAL INFORMATION: if you require assistance with any KDCFS operational information or have specific questions and comments, please contact either of the KDCFS management team members at the portals provided or by phone / email / snail mail. We will be happy to communicate and may arrange a meeting if requested. The Management team schedules field tours and chat meetings with the Community throughout the year, which are advertised on the website and on Facebook.
Jeff Reyden, RPF, Sabrina Mutterer, Technologist Tel: 250-353-9677 manager@kaslocommunityforest.org
WEBSITE: this website is frequently updated and here you can access most of our operational information at your convenience. Societal information is located in the member area. If you are missing something specific, please send us a note.
For SOCIETAL FILES and FORMS ONLY: Mel B Digital’s Internet Cafe, #404 Front Street, Suite 3 in Kaslo’s Kootenaian Building. Aside from maintaining her own IT business Mel provides virtual viewing access to our SOCIETAL FILES ONLY on her computers as per Division 2 of the Societies Act. Members may also seek assistance with accessing our website at this location. Please note, that Mel’s site is NOT providing access to Woodlands files and that her expertise lies in IT technology, not forestry. She therefore can not answer any operational questions for the KDCFS.
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