Western Silvicultural Contractors’ Association
Rumour Mill RoundUpDate
March 23, 2015
Vol. 15, Issue 6
Warning: Some articles in this edition may contain corrected facts pertaining to previously published facts. Those incorrect facts should not be considered factual facts. The corrected facts are the actual factual facts, in fact.
Tree Planting Vessel Sinks
Sixteen tree planters were rescued after their vessel Lasqueti Daughters sank in Georgia Strait last week. The unique wooden landing craft was well known to west coast planting crews as a transport for trucks and trees and a floating live-aboard camp specializing in remote inlet silviculture work. News reports indicated the vessel was salvaged and towed to Campbell River. The Transportation Safety Board of Canada is investigating the sinking.
RoundUpDate Gets It Wrong
We always stand behind our mistakes at the RoundUpDate. Even when we stand corrected. This year is not the biggest planting year on record at 264.3 million seedlings as we said last time. The banner year looks more like 2007 at 276.5 million, followed by 1995 at 268.9 million and 1994 at 264.9 million. That makes this year fourth highest. Our mistake was to compare annual planting year’s sowing requests with trees reported planted on Crown land for the same year. Not all seedlings sown are planted on Crown land so that accounts for some of the difference, being private land planting is not required to report. Nevertheless it’s quite a big difference actually totaling about 400-million seedlings since 2001. And it is not exactly certain if private planting can account for all the seedlings. We may still have some unaccounted for trees in the system.
WSCA Website To Be Upgraded
The WSCA website wfca.ca will go through a metamorphosis over the next few weeks as it goes through a major redesign. Visitors over the next while may find the site temporarily deranged as its circuits are rerouted and its digitals restyled. The revamped site will be full of new purpose and better looking. It will also be linked to the revived and colourful BCBushwhacker website covering the community of practice angle, while the wfca.ca site takes care of business. So stay tuned.
Sticking To Tucks Getting Stuck
We continue to collect recent examples of road deactivation gone awry. In some cases the deactivation has been aggravated by weather blowing out otherwise passable roadwork. But the majority of cases reflect a serious disconnect between road management and reforestation planning. The worst examples suggest some managers consider silviculture crew access and safety secondary. There are, of course, good examples of managing road deactivation. With those in mind the BC SAFE Silviculture Program will host an on-line conference call to discuss constructive proposals to remedy hazardous road deactivation scheduled for Friday, April 17 at 9AM. Call toll-free 1-866-613-5223, access code 7647151#.
Warm Weather to Continue in BC and Alaska
Please veiw the above image to see the map predicting deviation from seasonal norms for temperature for April through June 2015.
Seats May Still Be Open for FS704 Training Workshops
Silviculture contractors may still be able to attend a series of FS704 MFLNRO training workshops scheduled for March and April:
- Nanaimo, 26 March 2015
- Kamloops, 15 April 2015
- Williams Lake, 20 April 2015
- Prince George, 22 April 2015
- Smithers, 24 April 2015
For more information, contact the WSCA.
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