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JULY Clearcuts closing on the Sturgeon
For a long time the upper Sturgeon River Not anymore. It never was safe, but out-of-sight out-of-mind denial is more comforting than facing the grim future.
Gervais Forest Products of Falconbridge is closing from the west, prepared to rebuild the Portelance Road bridge over the Sturgeon, in preparation to roll into a patch of unprotected forest on its east bank. This patch, bisected by Selkirk Creek is enclosed by protected lands: Sturgeon River and Solace parks, and the North Yorston Conservation Reserve. The road to the Selkirk forest will cross the Sturgeon River Park and the reserve.
The area forester at Vermilion Forest Management Company expects the
bridge to be built next year.
Gervais is a clearcutter, taking everything because
everything —
To see Gervais' handiwork, look at Google's satellite image. It is several years old and does not reveal the recent march of cuts to the east. These new cuts are closing in on the Sturgeon River in the upper-right corner. As a consequence we should expect new illegal vehicle landings cut through the meager park buffer around Eaglenest Lake. The same happened on Paul Lake after the early 1990s cutting there. Today, traffic on the new logging road can be heard from a canoe on Eaglenest. Yorston Wilderness Goulard Lumber, a pine sawmill in Sturgeon Falls, has approval to extend a road north of Seagram Lake and into the virgin wilderness along the upper Yorston River. The planned route crosses the Yorston at the stunning Talking Falls lagoon and campsite. However, roads in this area cross tough terrain, and this makes the pine expensive to retrieve. With the low demand and low price of pine, Goulard postponed road construction. Vermilion told me it is not likely to be built before 2010. Another bridge over the Sturgeon By next year the industry will have two bridges — Portelance Road and Lower Goose Falls — across the Sturgeon and extensive road networks on both sides. Gervais' will be given timber south of Solace Park, near Goulard's limits. Because Gervais has built a good road network west of the Sturgeon, Vermilion is considering bridging the river so this company can access the timber by avoiding Goulard's poor roads in the area. Does it sound like they are acting as if they own the forest? |
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JULY 10, 2008 — This is the year of the big water. Water is high everywhere, but proportionately higher on the Sturgeon River. The top photo was taken Sunday, July 6. |
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JULY Hum of summer Summer is off and running and raining and humming. The hummers — mosquitoes, blackflies, deerflies and horseflies — are out in numbers not seen in years. The rain and cool temperatures have made it the winged-ones' nirvana. Yes, there are STILL blackflies, though nearly gone, lingering in the backcountry near running water. Deerflies, while an irritant in the past, are terrible affront. On Saturday, while standing on the summit of a gusty Ishpatina, deerflies were spinning around me like a swarm of a bees. It was surreal. Happy slugs crawl onto anything put down too long. Look before you sit. High water has drowned many portage landings. Portions of trails once as hard as bedrock, are mucky, or turned into boot-eating bogs. Lake levels are high everywhere, though off peak, but the highest may be the Sturgeon River. It is so swollen that it is almost at spring surge. Stay locked and loaded with your rain suit, rubber boots, bug dope.
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