Forest for the Trees: Stories from the ground up about old growth in BC

Sean O'Rourke sits nestled among the trees of the primordial grove near Prince George.
Sean O'Rourke sits nestled among the trees of the primordial grove near Prince George.
Pamela Haasen - CICK - SmithersBC | 23-06-2021
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Old growth forests in British Columbia are receiving a lot of media attention as of late. The most notable example of this are the blockades at Fairy Creek in the Fairy Creek watershed and Central Walbran areas of BC.

This recent influx of stories, interviews, and personal blogs of people from the front lines in Fairy Creek created a question for Northern BCers -- what do we know about the old growth forests of the Interior?

CICK News reached out into our community to understand the old growth (or primary) forests of the province (north of 54 degrees).

What we found were a myriad of personal stories from both ecologists, forest scientists, mushroom hunters, tree-planters, and naturalists.

Sybille Haeussler, UNBC Adjunct Professor and Eco-Scientist shared practical ways to be involved in advocacy such as "joining the Bulkley Valley Naturalist group on their forest tours, or listening to the webinars by the Bulkley Valley Research Centre on forest health, politics, and how to advocate for forest health".

This series hosts a number of voices from the Bulkley Valley, Stikine, and Skeena regions. You'll hear from Conservation North's Michelle Connolly about their project Seeing Red, a guide to the protected forests of the Interior with an interactive map of logging and clear cutting that's happened in the Interior. We also spoke with Sean O'Rourke, a self-taught eco-fanatic who mapped a decades-old trail in the ancient forest (called the Chun T'oh Whudujut Provincial Park near Prince George) and found some troubling human behaviour along the way.

CICK News also spoke with Ryan "Zap" Zapisocki, a manager of a tree-planting form called Windfirm about the tree-planter lifestyle, culture and changes since COVID-19 as well as Kara Leighton, a second generation mushroom hunter who doesn't like the way they taste!

Forest for the Trees is a 4 part series by CICK News hosted and produced by Pam Haasen.

The following clip is a trailer for the series and if you want to listen to the series in its entirety, follow CICK News wherever you listen to your favourite podcasts or go to https://www.smithersradio.com/program/cick-news.