We meet at the Ballpark in Gillies Bay at 10:00am.
Last week we set off from the Ballpark in vehicles and headed up to Thompson Road driving south to park about a kilometre north of the Vancouver Island Hydro line. It was still very windy with a gale blowing from the south-east, but while the cloud cover was thick it was not raining. Rain was in the weather forecast and we were lucky it held off until our lunchtime break which we had at the start of the Cook Bay Rd. Being on the west side of Texada with high ground to the east and south of us meant we were generally sheltered from the worst of the wind. From time to time we caught glimpses of the ocean far below us and could see the way the waves were breaking into irregular masses of white water as far as the eye could see.
I took the photo of the forestry notice at the road side where the forest is now fairly mature and was not too surprised to see the majority of the trees were healthy fir and hemlock. However, I could see no live White Pine, just a small number of dead or dying ones here and there. Clearly some of the White Pine that had been pruned the way the notice explains did survive long enough to grow quite tall, but the long term survival rate was extremely low. Some of the trees of this species that have grown to maturity in other parts of Texada clearly have a genetic resistance to the rust disease and forestry is attempting to breed resistant strains for future replanting projects.
JD.
Forestry Notice on Thompson Road near Mt. Davies.
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