The year of 1967 was a year of change in the south end of the Okanagan Valley. The group I’d gone to school with for 12 years graduated and went on to new careers or higher education. Those who knew what they wanted to do with their lives were fortunate. Some of us, such as myself hadn’t a clue.
In May, I was hired by the BC forest Service to be part of a suppression crew, the first responders to forest fires, now commonly known as wild fires. I was posted to the hamlet of Alexis Creek. We stayed in a camp on a ridge overlooking the Chilcotin River. The camp was located about 8 kilometers south west of the hamlet in an area called Bull Canyon.
During that 4 month fire season we fought 96 fires. Not much rain fell that summer.
The following year of 1968 I returned to the Alexis Creek suppression crew. During that year we only fought 32 fires for the season was a wet one.
In 1969, I wasn’t rehired but returned to the district to see if I could pick up some work, which didn’t happen so I returned to the Okanagan. That was the last trip to the Chilcotin.
Fast forward to June 2015. Nelly and I took a trip to Alexis Creek to see my old stompin’ grounds. I knew the camp had been moved in the mid 1990’s, but I was expecting to see the former site as I remembered it so I could walk around and reminisce.
As we drove to Bull Canyon, I saw blackened trees, signs of a wild fire in the area a few years earlier. The camp site road was covered in weeds as well as the whole area where the camp once was. All the native grasses and trees were gone. The fire had been hot and burned up everything. I didn’t recognize a thing! I was profoundly disappointed.
From there we went on to Oliver to visit family and friends. We had a thoroughly enjoyable time!
I learned from an informed source that the old MacNaughton place up McKinney way has been sold and is being logged. On September 13, 2013, I wrote a story about a tree that Carlton MacNaughton took me and my wife to see on his property up McKinney. The tree was so large that we could just circle it by linking hands.
I didn’t ask Carlton how old the tree was but I would hazard a guess that it would be at least 500 years. Is that tree still standing tall or has it fallen to the greed of the loggers’ saw?
Someone suggested that I go take a look for the tree while I was in Oliver. I wouldn’t know where to find it because Carlton led us through the bush.
I remember one of the readers of this column saying that he knew the location of the tree and he appreciated its size too.
Carlton told me that the old growth forest had once been surveyed as a right of way for the Kettle Valley Railway. There was a change of plans and the forest escaped the loggers’ saw.
If the National Park had gone ahead as planned, would this old growth forest have escaped the loggers’ saw again? I know, this is private land, and anyone can do what they want on private property.
It seems to me that an old growth forest is more valuable standing than the fleeting dollar gained from harvesting that same forest. When will we ever learn?