The municipality will be working with Pacific Forest Products on a recreation plan for Lot 320, adjacent to the Cal-Cheak Recreation Site, after the forestry company selectively logs the 3 ha. site this summer. Representatives from Pacific Forest Products and the Squamish Forest District appeared before council Monday to outline their plans for logging the site, which is designated as a future park on the municipality’s recreation maps. Pacific Forest Products owns the timber on the Crown land at Cal-Cheak and at the train wreck site south of Function Junction through a timber licence grandfathered from 1909. The company hopes to do some selective heli-logging of the train wreck site next summer. The forest district has approved the company’s plans for selectively logging the Cal-Cheak site, although exactly how much timber will come out is unclear. John Phillips of PFP suggested 1,000 cubic metres, while Mayor Ted Nebbeling said he was told by Forest District Manager Paul Kuster it would be about 500 cubic metres. Phillips said some of the hemlock in the Cal-Cheak area is becoming diseased and should be harvested while it still has value. Don MacLaurin, the municipality’s forestry consultant, said selective logging of Cal-Cheak is better than the original plan to clearcut the area, but "the best plan would be not to log." The site will be logged using a hoe-forwarding technique, meaning a road will be built into the area and the logs skidded out. A 30-metre buffer of trees will be left standing around the logged area. Selective logging of the site will leave clumps of trees up to about 1 foot in diameter. Because the company owns the timber it could go back in seven or eight years and harvest the timber left this summer. After logging the area will be replanted and the road de-activated. The road could become part of a cycling trail. Meanwhile, a plan for logging the train wreck site will likely be presented some time this summer. That site will have a 50 metre buffer of trees surrounding the logged area. Most of the cars from the train wreck are within the 50 metre buffer.
