Anyone who has been to the lake recently will have already seen the logging progress made in our area so far this winter. Driving an ATV east from the entrance of the Resort is not the same experience that it used to be. There is now a lot of, well … everything, that can be seen in the distance of the newly opened views. However, it is surprizing to see wildlife playing in the rolling hills, and it is nice to see many small “islands” of mature growth still left standing here and there while passing along the trail to Five Corners. There are a few places along Fawcett Lake East Road (especially across from Moose Park) where the view is pretty open to the East. Happily, along most of this MD road there is still a nice row of healthy growth left behind which maintains the feeling of the natural Alberta bush, that we all appreciate around us. It will be interesting to watch as nature quickly takes over the logged areas again and to see how the area changes to a more deciduous and fire safe forest.
Chris Bélanger of Vanderwell provided an update this week. He confirmed that most of the cutting and other work on the east side of the MD road is now complete, except for the hauling. He also mentioned that they have started to reclaim some of the temporary roads as well. It was stressed to him that this is important to us, as we don’t want any new access points made to the government road. They did tell us last spring, that there will be burning of brush piles early next winter. It is expected that there will be another update of this work to come next fall.
South of us, there is still cutting, skidding and processing work to be done on the west side of East Fawcett Road. This will open up some new views from the Haul Road. This cutting is expected to be completed in January, with the rest of the work to be done shortly after. They still expect to have all heavy machinery removed from the area by spring. This is good to hear as many of us are looking forward to the return of “Silent Nights” at Fawcett Lake.
This map shows where the remaining cutting is to take place, as well as the location of the temporary roads to be built. It shows an area that is further south than what was shared last spring (apologies to those who asked about the map at the meeting). Note that the dark green shows areas within 400m of the shoreline. No logging is to take place within 100m of the shoreline.
There were discussions with the Municipal District about creating a firebreak along the MD road. It is expected that in coming years, a narrow stretch of the newly logged areas will be kept open to help keep our community safe. Hopefully there will be more news about this sometime soon.
We all appreciate that our community was selected to be a part of the new Community Hazardous Fuels Reduction Program in Alberta. The reduction of fire risk that comes with this logging work will help us to breathe a little easier. However, we must all remember to do our part to protect the forested areas around us and to “Keep it Green”.