By: Korie Marshall
Mistletoe will kill the seedlings that are about to be planted on the west side of McKirdy Road, opposite Cranberry Marsh, so crews were removing the remaining mistletoe-infected trees last week. A bonus for locals – they’ve piled the wood near the road so residents won’t drive over the seedlings to collect firewood.
Mark Videgain of Seneca Enterprises says the area had been salvage logged, and that agreement had not required the logging company to do any replanting. Seneca was hired by the Ministry of Lands, Forests and Natural Resource Operations to carry out the silviculture for the area, and Videgain says planting crews were scheduled for about a day and a half early this week (around June 3rd), planting mostly pine in the area.
Videgain says the area is a known spot for Valemount locals to collect firewood, so to hopefully deter them from driving over the seedlings, they’ve stacked the wood in four-foot lengths near McKirdy Road. He says residents are welcome to come cut their own firewood from the stacks.
