A walk in Kalamalka Lake Provincial Park.

During my recent walk in the Kalamalka Lake Provincial Park I enjoyed some encouraging signs of the slowly advancing spring. There was a convention of seagulls on the lake, thousands of sagebrush buttercups made their appearance and there was even a stray butterfly, kind of lost.

Unfortunately, there were less encouraging signs of the coming spring. Parks Management, in their infinite wisdom, decided to cut down beetle killed trees, had them bucked up and attempted to burn them. Look at the following pictures! The slow burning fires accompanied by acrid smell released tons of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and tiny particles, hazardous to human health during the days they simmered. Obviously, they did not burn well and they are a total aesthetic disaster as can be seen below.

Why did they do this? They have a couple of excuses.

The first one is that the dead trees created a potential hazard to the park visitors. If so, cut the trees down, remove, chip and spread their branches and leave the trunks on the ground to decay naturally. The slow decay would release nutrients for new vegetation, slowly release carbon dioxide and they would provide habitat for myriads of creatures. By the end of the summer they would be hidden by new vegetation (take a peak below).

Parks Branch is part of the Ministry that administers environmental protection. While we pay a carbon tax on gasoline purchases ostensibly to reduce carbon emission this organization happily contributes thousands of tons of carbon while defacing the natural park. Unbelievable!!! As a retired Forester, having been employed by the Forest Service, I am not proud of the job Parks Branch and the Forest Service did to the park.

That's the end of my venting.

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