Sproule/Rixen 2024 BCTS Clearcuts

Bear witness to these 6 BCTS clearcuts in the already heavily logged Sproule & Rixen Creek community watershed. We've checked out 5 of the 6 blocks so far. SMA034 and SMA095 are the richest ecologically, although we haven't yet explored SMA086.   

BCTS cutblock SMA095. There are not a lot of old growth trees here; it is mostly forest that is about 100 years old. SMA095  is a 100 acre (40.7 hectare), very wet, steep, north-facing clearcut in a community watershed. It should never be logged in this day and age.

This ridge is SMA034, slated to be logged in 2024-25. BCTS would not disclose when the additional new road would be blasted in to this cutblock.

There are dozens of fire-surviving old growth giants in cutblock SMA034. There is a wet area that goes vertically down through the middle of this cutblock where the big trees are. We use an app called Theodolite to track data about what will be lost.

BCTS has used the excuse of pine beetle, and now fir beetle, to log the Sproule & Rixen Creek area at an unsustainable rate. Bark beetles in coniferous trees are a normal part of a forest ecosystem. Their prevalence has increased due to climate change, but it is unjustifiable that clearcutting due to beetle kill helps anything except short term forest industry profits. SMA034 has many huge firs.  

This is the road centerline for SMA034. It cuts through a lot of very rare forest for this area. BCTS agreed with us in a June 2024 meeting that they usually push roads through the biggest tree areas and ungulate winter range because that is usually where there is more soil, and it is flatter.

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