Old Logging Roads In The Chilcotin Getting A New Life

A crisscross network of logging roads in the Cariboo Chilcotin are being rehabilitated back into a more natural habitat for wildlife.

Daniel Persson, Forestry Superintendent of Central Chilcotin Rehabilitation Ltd. (CCR) said most of these roads are not used today other than for hunting.

“When not rehabilitated back to their original, natural state, these roads create “predator super-highways which allow wolves and other species, including human hunters, to move more quickly and for longer distances than they normally would, becoming more effective hunters at the cost of other wildlife.”

Persson said the planning of this rehabilitation work began in late 2020 and this the first year we’re that we are actually getting into it.

“We’ve completed the rehab of 100 kilometres of road this year. Next year will be the first year of planting so that’s pretty exciting. Now we’re (CCR) going to start expanding on the project year by year. We’re scheduled to do this for the next 7-years. Hopefully all in all we’re aiming for just over a thousand kilometres once we’re done, that’s the main objective.”

Following the rehabilitation of these roads in the Cariboo Chilcotin CCR will begin replanting them with trees and shrubs native to the area which will have the best chance of survival in these environments and help restore these habitats to their natural state.

“If we can get rid of some of those roads and actually re-forest them we would help nature out because otherwise the soil is so compact trees don’t really grow back on roads naturally or it takes a long time for it to erode and loosen itself naturally,” Persson noted.

Ann Neilson, Silviculture Superintendent with Central Chilcotin Rehabilitation Ltd said some of these roads are 20 to 30 years old.

“Most of them are deactivated or considered a non-status road but hunters still use them with their 4 by 4 vehicle,” Persson noted, “Even though they are in rough condition that impedes any trees coming back into that road naturally as well. So that’s why we go in there with equipment like excavators to fully rehab it, re-contour it to its natural contours, then we’ll begin to replant it. It will save us a 100 years for the trees to come back naturally.”

Persson said their objective is to do roughly 300 kilometres of road every year if conditions and everything else allows followed by replanting the following Spring.