Caribou and habitat.

[horshur]

I post this to illustrate a reality...the main pic in article. Look at the standing forest the”Caribou Habitat “ see the reds...look at the greys. Extrapolate. The adjacent forest is 30% dead . Balsam beetle typically involves 10% of stand per year 1% of the spruce..so in this case six years it is a dead stand unless this winters cold killed the beetle...regardless the stand is already nearly half dead and not optimal Caribou habitat currently and even less so in a short time...don’t be blind to the reality of the picture and current situation...it is an emotion picture but actually really look at it...this is actually happening....blame climate change or fire suppression or just natural succession.

https://thenarwhal.ca/b-c-approves-3...t-five-months/

[Treed]

Having flown forest health flights for the last fifteen years... Balsam bark beetle is typically less than .05% of a stand. What we are seeing is not typical but is our new reality. Don’t worry about the fires, the true harbingers of doom are the bugs, pathogens, and stress on trees - but the fires will follow. Unbelievable the state of so many of our forests. Yellow cedar decline on the central coast due to low snow packs, warming periods and frosts has killed hundreds of thousands of hectares and nobody even knows about it except for a few forest health experts. Look at the dead top cedar all up the island hwy due to summer droughts. I was on Haida Gwaii this summer and couldn’t believe how extensive the die back was of 300 year old cedar - drought related I think. I was also in Tweedsmiur this summer, the epi-centre of the pine beetle. What a waste land of dead trees. Pine beetle, white bark pine and blister rust, spruce bark beetle, balsam bark beetle, and fire. Moose sign was so absent it was shocking. Don’t get me started on the poor health of all the pine plantations in the interior due to planting densities and rusts. Our forests are in worse shape than ever and after over a decade of minimal investment in inventory, we dont have a clue how empty the cupboard is. Combine this with salvage harvesting, and fires, no wonder ungulate populations are in flux.

[Bugle M In]

Having flown forest health flights for the last fifteen years... Balsam bark beetle is typically less than .05% of a stand. What we are seeing is not typical but is our new reality. Don’t worry about the fires, the true harbingers of doom are the bugs, pathogens, and stress on trees - but the fires will follow. Unbelievable the state of so many of our forests. Yellow cedar decline on the central coast due to low snow packs, warming periods and frosts has killed hundreds of thousands of hectares and nobody even knows about it except for a few forest health experts. Look at the dead top cedar all up the island hwy due to summer droughts. I was on Haida Gwaii this summer and couldn’t believe how extensive the die back was of 300 year old cedar - drought related I think. I was also in Tweedsmiur this summer, the epi-centre of the pine beetle. What a waste land of dead trees. Pine beetle, white bark pine and blister rust, spruce bark beetle, balsam bark beetle, and fire. Moose sign was so absent it was shocking. Don’t get me started on the poor health of all the pine plantations in the interior due to planting densities and rusts. Our forests are in worse shape than ever and after over a decade of minimal investment in inventory, we dont have a clue how empty the cupboard is. Combine this with salvage harvesting, and fires, no wonder ungulate populations are in flux.

This^^^^^
So many reasons for the state of our forests.
Beetle is a big one, and way worse than it ever was in history.
There was a time when we had cold winters, so global warming hasn't helped us, but did help the beetle accelerate like
it never has in the past.
Throw in hot summers with no rainfall, and some trees are stressed.

I see areas in the EK, that where hit by pine beetle, and the whole mountain of trees dropped in a windstorm like a post nuclear explosion.
Nothing can walk in it, and the only way to clean it up is thru fire or 100 years of sitting and rotting away.
Problem is, we know the area needs to burn, but there are a few human structures in the area, so when I fire does happen, they went in to suppress it!!??
This wasn't just 1 mountain, but several in the area, and some had some important migration trails from summer range to winter range.
I get the whole "cut it" before the "beetle kills it" mentality etc.
Truth is though, this isn't the true plan for forestry and logging as we had intended.
Liberites have been taken with cutting big areas to get to the good timber before it's dead.
Fire suppression still happens due to human structure loss AND also not losing the viable timber that could still be potentially harvested.
Explosion of Preds, and more than likely due to all the accelerated logging and access everywhere, and we got a big problem.

The forests are in "bad shape"....big time, all over the province.
Regaining our wildlife is goint to be "really hard"!
I doubt that even if we take the right steps, that it would take a good 30+ years to recover.

I just watched an area that has been logged for 30 years now, and each year cut blocks got bigger and the timber went down faster.
And yes, they try to replant over the years, BUT, now the area had a huge fire.
Much of the replanted areas are now again lost, not that they were a great way to restore the area in the first place.
So that area will now take 40 years at least to recover and that's in the areas that didn't burn too hot.
Meanwhile, after such devastation, the logging industry is still going to go in now and cut down the firs in the winter range that didn't get burnt and is the only remaking mature growth around for miles.
Yup, that's how bad it is.

It is so F'd up out there in a way we have never seen it before and way beyond the 50's.
This isn't about feed like many think, imo.
This is about habitat to evade and lay in, or winter in, and not being easily accessible to reach.
That's the real problems.
We just made it really easy for preds like wolves to exploit it.

And we have windfall everywhere, so movement at migration times is impossible thru timber.
So I guess creatures like Cariboo have no choice to walk thru these cutblocks which is easy pickings for wolves and such.

So yes, we can blame global warming for not killing beetles like in the past.
We can blame logging for access and large areas cut away because of the beetle.
We can thank the cutblocks and roads for easy wolf migration.
We can blame windfall on both beetle and some logging
We can thank human encroachment with development and housing for fire suppression, thus the windfall remains.

And we need to acknowledge that we are "not acknowledging" any of it as to why our game is missing or cant
repopulate!
We just keep going, we just keep cutting, we just keep putting out fires, and we keep pointing fingers.

[kitnayakwa77]

This^^^^^

It is so F'd up out there in a way we have never seen it before and way beyond the 50's.
This isn't about feed like many think, imo.
This is about habitat to evade and lay in, or winter in, and not being easily accessible to reach.
That's the real problems.
We just made it really easy for preds like wolves to exploit it.

And we have windfall everywhere, so movement at migration times is impossible thru timber.
So I guess creatures like Cariboo have no choice to walk thru these cutblocks which is easy pickings for wolves and such.

So yes, we can blame global warming for not killing beetles like in the past.
We can blame logging for access and large areas cut away because of the beetle.
We can thank the cutblocks and roads for easy wolf migration.
We can blame windfall on both beetle and some logging
We can thank human encroachment with development and housing for fire suppression, thus the windfall remains.

And we need to acknowledge that we are "not acknowledging" any of it as to why our game is missing or cant
repopulate!
We just keep going, we just keep cutting, we just keep putting out fires, and we keep pointing fingers.

This....anyone who has spent time on the ground in Central and Northern BC with some knowledge of ecology, biology and habitat can see this is correct. Add in different branches of government and industry with opposing plans and limited collaboration and the future is scary. BC's dirty not so secret secret...we keep thinking resources are limitless and cutting/spraying/road building/not controlling predators while the canary in the coal mine is dying.

[gcreek]

Ms. Dawe is very adept at skewing facts to further her cause. She was one of the main mouthpieces condemning predator contests last week. She fails to add or recognize the true fact that predators are the main enemy of caribou and all other ungulates dwindling populations in the last 20 years.

[Treed]

Gcreek, I went on my rant and still haven’t read the article. Predators are hammering them because they can travel farther and faster on our roads, hunt more effectively because they can see across a cutblock or down a cut line, and habitat is a mess. It’s habitat change that is driving this cycle of predation and we are the ones doing the driving. I’m bad at following threads, so if I don’t reply I’m not ignoring you!...on purpose

[gcreek]

Gcreek, I went on my rant and still haven’t read the article. Predators are hammering them because they can travel farther and faster on our roads, hunt more effectively because they can see across a cutblock or down a cut line, and habitat is a mess. It’s habitat change that is driving this cycle of predation and we are the ones doing the driving. I’m bad at following threads, so if I don’t reply I’m not ignoring you!...on purpose

So, where were all these logging and mining and oil roads and habitat destruction and clearcuts back in the 40's and early 50's when wolves last nearly wiped out the ungulate herds?

The Federal govt. stepped in and poisoned the crap out of the wolves in the name of saving sustenance animals for the native population. Do a little more homework on this.

If our governments weren't so pussy whipped by the bleeding heart public in order to garner votes, this job would have been done 15 years ago.

[.264winmag]

So, where were all these logging and mining and oil roads and habitat destruction and clearcuts back in the 40's and early 50's when wolves last nearly wiped out the ungulate herds?

The Federal govt. stepped in and poisoned the crap out of the wolves in the name of saving sustenance animals for the native population. Do a little more homework on this.

If our governments weren't so pussy whipped by the bleeding heart public in order to garner votes, this job would have been done 15 years ago.

Winner winner chicken dinner. Bring back the tainted meat folks, it's the only sensible and real solution. Hunt and trap em all you want, you need something effective 24/7/365.

[Lionhill]

Then why do this?

https://www.wildernesscommittee.org/news/bc-approves-314-cutblocks-caribou-critical-habitat-while-negotiating-conservation-plans?fbclid=IwAR3UZg5zk3Jy3NUPMXYIz3Q8icx1ON1nBNT nyBJ3Y1nVEdzbMTivXrenuy8
B.C. approves 314 cutblocks in caribou critical habitat while negotiating conservation plans

[gcreek]

Then why do this?

https://www.wildernesscommittee.org/news/bc-approves-314-cutblocks-caribou-critical-habitat-while-negotiating-conservation-plans?fbclid=IwAR3UZg5zk3Jy3NUPMXYIz3Q8icx1ON1nBNT nyBJ3Y1nVEdzbMTivXrenuy8
B.C. approves 314 cutblocks in caribou critical habitat while negotiating conservation plans

Why not? A big share of this province's timber is dead, dying and falling over. Better to get new growth coming and not burn the rest of the province.