Hey everyone!
I’m back and fully recovered from my four day trip around British Columbia. It was a great experience and an excellent addition to my masters program. Even though classes haven’t started yet, I’ve had the opportunity to meet my cohort and make new friends.
Each day of the trip meant waking up excruciatingly early, driving for hours in a van filled with 14 other students, and stopping off throughout the province to meet with officials working in natural resource management. Even after a long day, our evenings were filled with more lessons and chances to drink and socialize. Safe to say, I’ve been catching up on sleep for the past few days.
Only a few of the stop-offs particularly applied to my research interests, but I still found it was a great opportunity to learn more about the province. Having never had the opportunity to travel here before, I really enjoyed seeing the different climates and landscapes. The mountains here are a treat for me; nothing comes as close in size in Ontario.
Here are some pictures from the trip, along with some noteworthy moments.
We spent our first night sleeping in cabins at a resort called Lac le Jeune. This was the view from our front porch. It looks relaxing, but I actually found it terribly cold. It was around 10 degrees that night, and I’ve definitely not aclimated to cooler temperatures yet.
My favorite visit was to a small woodlot in Savona that was on the ancestral land of a First Nation band. The forester who runs the woodlot met with us to discuss his method of selectively harvesting wood. He works closely with the First Nation community to preserve the natural diversity in the area. Instead of clear cutting the whole area of trees, he’ll only cut down one or two trees from an area. As well, he also leaves any fallen wood to decompose knowing that it’ll eventually return nutrients to the soil.
My level of respect for this practice is quite high, especially since it goes against the norm and isn’t seen as profitable in our fast-paced and short-term economy. However, this forest will last for generations, just as ancestral First Nations had maintained it for thousands of years. Just walking through the area gave you a sense of how well managed it was. There were several raptors flying around, the forest was lush, and we even found hundreds of young toads that were an endangered species.
At the end of our visit, we stopped by a nearby forest that had just been clear-cut. The difference was remarkable.
When we first arrived, we all made the safe assumption that all the wood lying around in piles still had to be collected. Nope. Apparently, these trunks were deemed not cost-effective enough to collect. They were too small or thin to be worth the cost in gas to transport them to a mill. Instead, they are left in piles and are usually burned. Burned or not, leaving them this way does little to help the give back nutrients to the soil.
The next part of the trip took us through Lillooet, BC. While Vancouver gets days upon days of rain due to the mountains, Lillooet gets very little. Being in the interior of BC, very little rain clouds make it past the mountains. This makes for dry, scrubland habitat.
On the third day of the trip we drove to Whistler, BC. Whistler is a popular resort town with some impeccable ski hills, which is where some of the 2010 Winter Olympics were held. There we got to ride several chairlifts to the top of the mountain where we learnt all about Whister’s sustainability practices.
It is absolutely beautiful at that elevation. The chairlifts took us through clouds as we were brought up the snow-capped mountain.
We had a bit of spare time afterwards at the top of the mountain. We took the time to go for a short hike and admire the beautiful alpine environment. We also met a few cheeky marmot that were very friendly as well as fat. I suspect they are fed by tourists and have learned to pose for food.
Isn’t he cute?
Anyways, that’s my update for now. Hopefully this isn’t too much rambling, but I really wanted to share my photos. Thankfully I feel a lot less homesick and nervous now that I’ve made friends in my program and I know a bit more of what to expect. I think I said it in my previous post, but this was a really great start to my studies.
Like this:
Like Loading...
Related
I’m not sure why but this site is loading incredibly slow for me.
Is anyone else having this issue or is it a problem on my end?
I’ll check back later on and see if the problem still exists.
Hello, Neat post. There’s a problem along with your site in internet
explorer, may check this? IE nonetheless is the marketplace chief and a good portion of other folks will
miss your great writing due to this problem.
Somebody essentially assist to make critically posts I’d state.
This is the very first time I frequented your website page and
up to now? I surprised with the analysis you made to create this actual submit amazing.
Magnificent process!
Cool blog! Is your theme custom made or did you download it from somewhere?
A design like yours with a few simple adjustements would really make my blog shine.
Please let me know where you got your design. Many thanks
Great blog! Is your theme custom made or did you download it from somewhere?
A theme like yours with a few simple adjustements would really make my blog stand out.
Please let me know where you got your theme. Thanks
Greate post. Keep writing such kind of information on your
site. Im really impressed by your blog.
Hey there, You have performed a great job. I’ll certainly digg it and in my opinion recommend to my friends.
I’m confident they’ll be benefited from this website.
Hey there just wanted to give you a quick heads up and let you know
a few of the pictures aren’t loading correctly. I’m not sure why but I think
its a linking issue. I’ve tried it in two different browsers and both show the same results.
Do you mind if I quote a couple of your articles
as long as I provide credit and sources back to your site?
My website is in the exact same area of interest
as yours and my users would certainly benefit from
a lot of the information you provide here.
Please let me know if this okay with you. Appreciate it!
You actually make it seem so easy together with your presentation but I in finding this
matter to be really one thing which I believe I might never understand.
It kind of feels too complex and very broad for me.
I’m taking a look forward for your subsequent post, I will try to get the
grasp of it!
Hello! Do you know if they make any plugins to safeguard against hackers?
I’m kinda paranoid about losing everything I’ve worked hard on. Any
recommendations?
What’s up, this weekend is good designed for me, since this moment i am reading this wonderful informative article here at my residence.
Hi there to all, how is the whole thing, I think every one is getting more from this web site, and your views are
nice in support of new visitors.
I like the valuable info you provide in your articles.
I will bookmark your weblog and check again here regularly.
I’m quite certain I’ll learn plenty of new stuff right here!
Good luck for the next!
My coder is trying to persuade me to move to .net from PHP.
I have always disliked the idea because of the expenses.
But he’s tryiong none the less. I’ve been using Movable-type on a variety of websites for about a year and am concerned about
switching to another platform. I have heard good things about blogengine.net.
Is there a way I can import all my wordpress
posts into it? Any kind of help would be greatly appreciated!
Wonderful post however I was wondering if you could
write a litte more on this topic? I’d be very grateful if you could elaborate a little bit more.
Cheers!
I like the helpful info you provide in your articles.
I will bookmark your weblog and check again here frequently.
I am quite sure I will learn a lot of new stuff right here!
Best of luck for the next!
I am regular reader, how are you everybody? This piece of writing posted at this website is in fact good.
I know this if off topic but I’m looking into starting my own blog and was wondering
what all is required to get set up? I’m assuming having a blog like yours would cost
a pretty penny? I’m not very internet smart so I’m not 100% positive.
Any suggestions or advice would be greatly appreciated. Appreciate it
I am curious to find out what blog platform
you are using? I’m experiencing some minor security
issues with my latest blog and I’d like to find something
more risk-free. Do you have any suggestions?
Hi! This is my first visit to your blog! We are a group of volunteers and
starting a new initiative in a community
in the same niche. Your blog provided us useful information to work on.
You have done a outstanding job!