Expiraments in extermination at Elk and Anderson Creek British Columbia. A critique of the logging industry in defence of a species pushed to the furthest brink...

Hunting Spotted Owls With Chainsaws
Joey Only

ANDERSON CREEK OLD GROWTH
Nestled in the mountains of industrial logging north of Hope British Columbia is a bastion of old growth forest. These woods at Anderson Creek are/were home to one of the most endangered birds in Canada, the Northern Spotted Owl. The Anderson Creek logging road starts off the Trans Canada Hwy near the Spuzzum (First Nation) Band Office in the Fraser Canyon. Early last summer Cattermole Timber Co. gated the logging road at kilometre 14 so that a dirt bike or vehicle could not pass. People at the Spuzzum Band Office were aware that the Chilliwack based logging company had put these gates up. A Cattermole manager justified the gate saying ‘their property could be damaged by trespassers’ and that ‘drunken yahoos could come in and shoot up the machinery’.

On Aug. 21st myself, and two others, stumbled across a newly locked gate at kilometre 6.5. We’d brought bicycles to venture past the gate at km.14 but we were forced to park the car at km.6.5. The Anderson Creek logging road, on Crown land, had numerous ‘private property’ signs posted along it. Nonetheless we set off in the hot sun pushing our bikes up the mountain in the direction of a logging project Cattermole wanted no one to see.

We met a yellow Cattermole pickup truck, heard and saw some machinery, but there was no logging. Because of forest fire hazards forest work had stalled across the province until mid September.

The lookout at km.14.5 has a splendid view of the region; the damage from industrial development is evident. To the west are hydro towers running through the round mountains near the Fraser Canyon. The forests are devastated, cut to the extent that there are dozens of re-growing cut blocks at different heights. It is difficult from a distance to tell what has been cut when. Some blocks are bald because of erosion, while others are brown from nutrient loss. Sometimes it is possible to look around the effects of logging and pretend they are not there, but this region has been logged so that it leaves little to the imagination. Amongst the devastation it’s a wonder that an old growth can still be found.

From the lookout the ecological uniqueness of the region is also evident, it is a transition zone, neither Coastal Mountains nor Interior. East of the cut block there are mountains rocky, bald and scoured by ancient glaciers. South of here the Coquihalla Hwy meanders around similar mountains, passing between summits east of Hope.

From kilometre 14 the logging road goes along a ridge, passes long abandoned logging camps, goes down then over Anderson Creek, follows along the north side of the valley up a series of switchbacks, and through a recently reforested block. At kilometre 23 the old growth can be seen on the south side of the creek clear across the valley. The road carries on and crosses the creek again at kilometre 26. The old growth is about a kilometre and a half further.

This ancient forest is on a steep grade so that its trees have not grown beyond a certain width, it is profitable tall and straight lumber. In September Cattermole cut this rare ancient forest, it is in these last great trees of Anderson Creek the spotted owl may “hoot - hoot hoot - hoot