The weather has not changed that much since my last posting except that it is now warmer. In fact, so far, the winter has been very mild with only a few days of chilly temperatures and a light covering of snow.
We are still doing our winter projects and have achieved much in the form of milling lumber and adding to the supply for later use.
Towards the end of the year a Heli logging camp was moved in to Darby Channel which is our main route to Dawsons Landing for the mail. They tied the camp up and started preparations for the upcoming logging operation.
Shortly after Christmas a second camp appeared so we knew they were serious about logging more of the islands. These areas have been logged over the years before. In the old days it was two men and a crosscut saw spending days cutting down each tree and hauling it out. There have been hand loggers and 'A Frame' loggers as well as road shows and now heli logging, which as the name implies is logging using a helicopter.
There are many arguments for and against logging. I will not get into that but will try to give you facts about the type of operation going on right now and you can make your own mind up about the environmental/economic effects.
The two camps hold about 60 men in all. They are completly self contained with sewage, water and garbage systems built in. As they are moved from place to place it is easy for them to set up wherever they need too.
This time they are using a Sikorsky S64 Aircrane helicopter. It was obviously designed by someone with a liking for giant insects as it 'buzzes' about and hovers over the trees.
As you can see this is a single rotor machine and can lift approx 25,000 lb . Previous operations used Vertol and Chinook machines which are both twin rotor choppers. THe vertol lifted under 10,000lb and the chinook over 10,000lb......these are huge and heavy logs!!
After the fallers have gone in the bush and 'fallen' the trees they are then chokered with a cable. The helicopter hovers over the tree with a 300 foot cable dangling underneath. The chokermen attach the choker and the helicopter lift the tree out. They can lift a couple of logs at a time and are then swung out over the water to the drop zone and released into the water.
Boom boats are on hand to push the logs around and when a suitable sized 'bag' of logs has been made the whole thing is pushed to a holding area to await the tug and barge.
The camp is a busy place. The kitchens provide huge, healthy and filling meals. Each man has his own room which is cleaned daily and beds made. There are louges with tV, internet and quite often a gym or exercise machines. Dry rooms, showers and laundry are also part of the floating camp where the guys are on a two week on two week off rotation.
The general form of transport is crew boats and Hughes 500 helicopters which buzz around taking fallers into the bush, dropping bundles of chokers and running to the store for beer!!
In front of the camp you can see a turbo beaver sea plane. That flys in just about every day and brings supplies and crew. You can also see the Hughes chopper on the top deck.
THe log barge comes about every two weeks once the first load is ready. This particular barge is one of the biggest on the coast. It is secured next to the bags of wood and then log loaders are flown in. They work 24 hours to get loaded and then the tug will set off south towards Vancouver and back for the next load.
Boom boats push the wood close so the loaders can grab them with grapples. There is also a small crew of limb pickers or branch managers, as they like to be known, who run around and gather limbs that have dropped off. This operation is working in navagable water so it has to be kept clear of debris so we locals don't run into it.
Depending on your point of view logging can be detramental to the environment. Having seen clear cuts and areas that have been ruined through bad logging practices, heli logging is perhaps one of the kinder ways. It is far more selective and individual trees can be extracted without damage to the surrounding ones. This also means the smaller trees can grow better. It is a fact of life here in BC and on this coast. Our interaction with the logging companies has been for the most part good and they do respect that we live here too.
The trap is a 'U' shaped construction with a large cone surrounding a screw. The cone is lowered in the water as in the picture above and the water flow makes it turn. The fish swim in are funneled down the screw and into a holding tank.
All the fry, infact any fish caught, have to be dipped out of the holding tank. Fry are put in one bucket, smolts in another and notes are taken of any other species that may be present.
Fry are this years hatching so are about 2.5cm long. The smolts are about a year and heading out to the ocean. These are about 6 to 8 cm long. The fry we counted back into the river and took a sampling of about 30 smolts which were weighed, measured and a scale smear taken for DNA.
To handle them we put a small amount of anesthetic in a bucket and placed them in a few at a time. They soon become dozy so can be handled with out any harm.
Not a very flattering picture, but here I am counting fry and putting them back in!
A classic Coho smolt on the measuring board.
The white bucket is fry and the blue one misc fish. The larger fish in here is a rainbow trout. We also caught scuplin and eels.
After catching and recording etc all the fish were released back and the trap was winched up so the cone was out of the water. This allows the water flow around but no fish can get trapped. In the coming months a helicopter will be called in to take the trap out where it can be used elsewhere.
A very interesting project and important to gather data about fish returns, health and habitat in the creek.
