July 21: Forestry, Big Trees, Fire and Weeds Hike with Dave Hale and Sally Ruoss
Learn about forests and wildfires on a 5km, 2.5h hike in the Kimberley Nature Park
On July 21, 2024 retired forester and KNPS director Dave Hale led a group from the Campground entrance on an informative walk through the Kimberley Nature Park, describing invasive weeds, forestry, fire, and big trees. He was joined by Sally Ruoss, Education and Outreach Assistant for East Kootenay Invasive Species Council (EKISC).
Dave and Sally generously shared some notes about some of the questions and conversations that came up on the hike.
Dave:
1. Kiosk/boot brush sign at the Campground entrance to the KNP (funded by BC Hydro - Fish and Wildlife Compensation Program)
The boot brush sign is mostly to educate on general concerns with invasive plants with a few specific species seen in this area: Spotted Knapweed, Cheatgrass, Sulphur Cinquefoil and Hawkweed. Use of the boot brush will hopefully stop the spread of invasive seeds back to your garden or your next recreation spot!
Invasives are highly competitive, programmed to take over and are harmful in some way: environmental, economic, social. Noxious species are legislated under the BC Weed Control Act (e.g., Blue Weed, Common Tansy, Canada Thistle, Orange Hawkweed, Knotweeds, most Knapweeds). Introduced or non-native species (any plant not from here, like most plants in your garden). Some are hardy but not considered invasive or noxious, such as Yarrow (hardy local) and Dandelion (introduced, not particularly invasive).
The importance of native species as pollinators: a few of my favourites are Nodding Onion, Meadow Death Camas, Sticky Cinquefoil, Yarrow. Native species like this support 160+ species of native bees. In some cases one plant (e.g., Meadow Death Camas) supports one bee.
2. Jimmy Russell: Previous logging to Open Forest or Managed Forest specs. Open Forests are mostly below Jimmy Russell Road, on the upper drier slopes. They will have 75-400 mature trees per hectare. A common target is 150 trees/ha—you should see a tree closer than every 10m. This is well within FireSmart guidelines, so the forest should be somewhat resilient to wildfire. Managed Forests are above JRR at the bottom of the slope, are slightly wetter and will have a tree every 3m on average.
3. Duck Pond at Skinkuc - WISA Wildlife Habitat Area (for Williamson’s Sapsucker): Thinning and burn piles, discussion of how fuel reduction took into account habitat requirements of WISA: large live potential nest trees, dead trees and downed large logs for ants, mid size fir left as sapwell trees.
How did fuel reduction take into account the habitat requirements of the WISA? First of all this area will not have a broadcast/prescribed burn as that would burn all these habitat elements. The fuel reduction work kept large downed logs, especially where they were already right on the ground. Crews protected dead wildlife trees and worked away from them if they were considered danger trees. The dead trees and downed logs are habitat for ants, which are fed to nestlings.
What are sapwell trees? Sapsuckers (Williamson's and Red Naped) use mid-sized trees for creating sap wells. These are usually within 100m of a nest. They will go back and forth to harvest or "suck" sap. This habitat element was addressed by crews leaving small patches of smaller Fir trees every hectare.
Without reducing tree spacing and ladder fuels (think of pick up sticks—any fire moving through will climb these leading to crown fire and more severe impacts), live trees and all the attributes mentioned above would be at risk in the event of a high intensity wildfire.
4. Hoodoo View: Large Trembling aspen in a creek/riparian area right on the edge of a previous logging area is on the BCBigTree registry.
Recommended links:
Sally (EKISC):
I described how invasive species pose a threat to our ecosystem as they can establish quickly and outcompete native plants. Invasive species have a significant harm either to the economy, society, or the environment.
We also discussed the various terms that are related to invasive species. A noxious weed is an invasive plant that is legislated under the BC Weed Control Act. A non-native species is a species not from here, but that doesn't pose a significant impact to the economy, society or the environment, whereas an invasive species poses a significant impact to one of those three categories.
On the boot brush sign at the start of the trail head on the Campground Trail kiosk, a few invasive species that I described were Spotted Knapweed, Cheatgrass, Sulphur Cinquefoil and Orange Hawkweed.
Check out this boot brush sign to learn more, and be sure to brush off your hiking boots before leaving the trail to avoid spreading invasive seeds. You can also check out our website at ekisc.com to learn more and sign up for our monthly newsletter where you can get updates about events and new information on invasives!
Elaine Burrow, a visitor and participant on the hike, also shared her thoughts:
I really enjoyed the Forestry trek, which epitomised what I like about the Kimberley Nature Park treks: safe, guided walks led by interesting, knowledgeable people. Thank you very much to Dave and Sally for their informative guidance on the forest, fire precautions and invasive species of plants.
As an annual visitor to Kimberley for the past twenty years or so from the U.K. I really appreciate being able to join a group of like-minded people who know the nature park trails so well and who are enthusiastic in sharing their local knowledge of flora and fauna.
Sunday's walk enlightened me on what defines an invasive plant: one that causes environmental harm, economic harm or health harm. Other invasive plants which do not fit these criteria are not as important to get rid of, I learned. It was good to learn about birds I am unfamiliar with too, i.e. the sapsucker.
Equally interesting on the hike was the management of the burn piles and the discussion on when to burn them safely or whether to chip up the wood or even transport them out of the forest.
Thank you Kimberley Nature Park Society for affording me the opportunity, as a visitor to your beautiful BC, to explore and learn about the environment without getting lost or worrying about bears!
Photo credits: Sally Ruoss and Dina Hanson
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