In Nature, everything is Interrelated

Wild potato blossoms blanket the alpine meadows and ridges so intensely that it gives the appearance of new fallen snow in June. At the bottom of each flower is a little brown round tuber ranging in size from a pea to a golf ball. In nature’s scheme, everything is interrelated. These little potatoes are gathered up by the field mice and stock piled in their food stores. The grizzly bear find these as a delicacy and search out the caches; they help themselves until they have their fill, and then round out their meal with some cow parsnip.

During late August and September, a similar relationship between the squirrels and the grizzlies takes place as the white bark pine cones mature. The squirrels scurry from branch to branch, causing the cones to fall to the ground, where the squirrel gathers them up and carries them to large central caches, sometimes large enough to cover a ten meter area, a foot deep, this being in excess of what the squirrel could possibly need for the winter. The squirrel willingly shares his fall harvest with the grizzly bear. The pine cones are the size of apples and the grizzly eat them whole. The cone and nuts inside are a very rich food source, and a critical one for the bear to build up fat reserves for the winter. In the Chilcotin mountains, the number of cubs a female will have in the den that winter is partially dictated by how many white bark pine cones the squirrels share with the grizzly, as the numbers of eggs held to maturity is dictated by how fat the female is when it goes into hibernation.

Internship Opportunities

Apply for a valuable internship position in southwestern British Columbia’s wilderness where you learn, through hands-on experience, Canadian practices in various disciplines including forestry, wildlife management, tourism management, languages and culture, business administration, and natural resources. Put the theory you learned in university into practice. At our wilderness guest ranch with a surrounding guide territory totaling 5,000 sq. km and an accompanying woodlot, we have wildlife management projects, stewardship programs, logging, and many other real-life business entities and projects in place with opportunities for new studies or data analysis. An authentic wilderness ranch combined with a friendly communal lifestyle adds a unique and valuable dimension to the experiences you’ll gain with endless opportunities for you to grow and evolve.

Health of the Flora and Fauna in the Chilcotin Mountains

To update you on Kjell and Cornelius’ progress, they have now started to analyze the data they recovered from their visit to the alpine areas in our guided territory last month. They’re creating a yearly census of the many different kinds of plants that grow there to monitor the health and development of the alpine meadows. This will assist us in determing whether the meadows are suitable for grazing and the impact grazing has on the flora.
In addition, our three German forestry interns are also gathering data on the populations of big game in the area. Wolfgang is currently putting a database together to keep track of growth and the location of grizzly bear, sheep, goat and moose population.They’ll also start monitoring bird populations along our network of trails. Nest boxes will be placed along the trails and every year, after nesting, we’ll check the boxes to see if there has been a nest of young birds and which species have used the nest box. This data will provide us with valuable information on which species inhabit the area.

The Bees are Buzzing

Guido, our forestry manager, is happy to report that his new honey bee colony has made themselves right at home at the ranch and starting to travel further afield in search of pollen. They’re in for a real treat as the alpine wildflowers have started blooming in the mountains.
Last week we had a little more excitement than normal as we watched Guido and Kevan cut down a newly swarmed colony from a nearby tree limb, and place them in a new bee box. As Guido tells us, once a hive has run out of storage room, the new mature queen bee, accompanied by a number of worker bees, will swarm together and build a new hive elsewhere. This is how bees propagate their species – and there’s only room for one queen bee in a hive.

Spruce Lake Mountain-Bike Trail – A Safer Route for all Users

Most cities have developed designated bike lanes to protect riders from the faster moving cars and trucks as well as hikers from high-speed bikers. Out here it’s no different, except on the trail to Spruce Lake where mountain bikes are the faster moving vehicle compared to hikers and horseback riders.

Conflicts arise when mountain bikers speed down the trails, turn a corner, and come face to face with a hiker, horseback rider, or even a grizzly bear. Unfortunately, we can’t convince the bears to follow signs, but we can work with the human trail users to protect everyone’s safety.

On single track trails, with multiple users, horseback riders have the right-of-way, followed by hikers, followed by mountain bikers who are required to yield to all other users. This hierarchy generally prevents most conflicts, but with blind corners and steep grades the risk is high. By designating a separate trail for mountain bikers, high-speed and low-speed users can safely enjoy the trails in this beautiful area.

Most of the trail from Jewel Bridge to Spruce Lake has two routes available. We want to officially designate one of these routes exclusively for mountain bikes and thereby protect everyone’s safety by reducing encounters between mountain bikers and horseback riders. By developing different trail maintenance policies, bike trails can become more technically appealing.

New Website Launched

We’ve established a non-profit society to oversee the resource management issues in our area. The foundation’s mission statement is threefold:
· develop environmental research and training programs in the fields of resource management and environmental stewardship
· distribute literature-based research findings in the fields described above
· promote sustainable-living practices and responsible management among businesses and households
Be sure to check out the Wilderness Stewardship and Training Foundation website for further information on our programs and how you can become involved. If the website cannot be found, check back soon – we’re in the process of uploading it.
Wilderness stewardship is second nature to us for we’ve been involved in local resource management issues for as long as we’ve operated Chilcotin Holidays. We’ve been involved in all minor and major resource management issues, arising over the last 18 years in the Cariboo Chilcotin region. Our involvement has included participating in the Lillooet Land Resource Mangement Plan (LRMP) over a six-year period, the creation of the South Chilcotin Mountain Park, risk assessment on the River Run Hydro Projects, mountain goat surveys, log-road risk assessments, and deactivation.
With the development of the Wilderness Stewardship and Training Foundation we look forward to overseeing further projects, thus ensuring future generations will be able to continue to experience the five-star wilderness that we now enjoy. And, more importantly, to teach responsible stewardship land-use practices.