Looking for Friends, Part 2

Some of you will recall Looking for Friends, Part 1 starring Benji and the lynx. Watch who came to visit this time!

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

ICE OFF - the movie

There have been some questions about the accuracy of the Lac Le Jeune ICE OFF records. This year Steve, operator of the Lac Le Jeune webcam, decided to record this historical event. Here you have it folks, ICE OFF -- the movie! This section only covers April 12 - 17, 2010. Stay tuned! It can only get better!

Ice Off

Well, it's that time of year again when we inspect the shore line each day to see if the ice is receding and watch for pools of water forming on top. It's a daily topic of conversation for LLJ residents out on their walks. Will it be earlier this year than last? We're always hopeful on days like today with that nice, warm breeze.

Well don't hold your breath! Mike Brugger drilled a hole 5' in front of his wharf and the ice was 21" thick. His report: "Sorry, but NO fishing this weekend."

Last year we posted ice off dates back to 1982.

Community Fuel Management Plan, update #3

This is an update prepared by
Tim Cole, RPF
Lonely Mountain Consulting Co.
tim.cole@telus.net

250-377-7654office

250-318-3196cell

I am pleased to inform you that we are approximately 60% finished the fuel management plan and are on time and on budget. There are now significant changes observable in the community and so far, we have had tremendous positive feedback. We have been completing the sites as conditions allow as the ground is still frozen in many sites and we will complete these in the next few weeks. Many of you are also aware of the fire guard that we constructed south of the community on the ridge that can only be seen from viewpoints north of Lac le Jeune, however very little is visual from the community itself. The guard does cross the trail accessing the top of the ski hill as well as the old road accessing Ridge Lakes on the west side of the ski hill. If you are crossing the guard or are inclined to walk or ride on the guard, please use caution as there are numerous hazards such as lose logs and small stubs that can sneak up a pant leg and do some damage. We will be moving a hand crew to go through in the spring and remove these stubs, but please be careful in the meantime. The construction of the multi-use trail on the main guard will also be completed when the ground thaws.

There has been some discussion in the community regarding the construction of a multi use access trail on the south side of the lake that will access properties on Lookout, Marmot, Osprey and Ridgemont and I wanted to inform all concerned that our fuel management plan does not address this issue and we have no plans or budget to construct a trail. I did not add this proposed trail into my initial proposal and referrals, so it would have to follow a separate approval process.

We are happy to see the popularity of the firewood that has been made accessible to the residents as well as the kind gestures to the crews. Currently there is firewood available on the Park Dr West Road near the cattle guard. Next week, there will be firewood available at the end of the Walloper Lake Road near the wildlife fence/gate. Please refrain from cutting firewood yourself while the crews are on site as this is a safety issue for yourself and the crew. If you enter the worksite you are under the supervision of the site crew leader and need to follow their instructions to maintain a safe work site. H.I.S. also incurs liability for all people on site including visitors and visitors with chain saws is not acceptable. You are welcome to cut firewood from designated logs set aside after hours when the crews are gone and still welcome to collect pre-cut firewood while the crews are on site. Thank you for your understanding. Also, please do cut logs that are left on site and generally away from the road as these are prescribed for wildlife and soil conservation purposes as well as any standing trees on site. All dead and/or dangerous trees close to the road will be removed and all remaining standing timber has been prescribed to be there. If there are logs along the ditchline, you are free to cut and remove this as firewood.

The main access road will be treated within the next two weeks as we are waiting for it to be mostly snow free. Please watch for warning signs, trucks and crews along the road as we all travel this route a bit faster than the internal residential roads where the crews have been so far.

As this plan addresses fuels outside our property boundaries and tactical suppression in the event of a wildfire, we also need to address fuels on our own properties to enhance the plan overall. Some of us have had the pine beetle do this work for us, however there many other things we can do. Here is a link to a Fire Smart brochure (PDF) from the Ministry of Forests that has some very good information for rural residents. The more residents that fire smart their properties, the more effective our fuel plan as a whole becomes, reducing the threat of catastrophic loss of our homes and community.

Thanks to everybody for the positive and constructive feedback and understanding as this project continues. Please call or email me if you have any questions or concerns and I will try to get back to you as soon as possible.

Pine Grosbeaks

This important information about Pine Grosbeaks is from Bev Lorimer and Edel Mattfeld.

In the past week there have been a number of deaths of pine grosbeaks. They are the male red/gray birds and the mustard/gray coloured females. I have been quite concerned as I have been feeding them all winter and feel some responsibility as to their well being. At first I wondered if it had something to do with the cleanliness of the feeders but Ross and I are very careful about that. We use only black oiled sunflower seeds from Purity Feeds. I feed a large population of common redpolls, chickadees, evening grosbeaks and pine grosbeaks. They remain healthy.

Today I called a local veterinary clinic and spoke to one of the technicians. We reviewed the situation and she wondered if anyone in the neighbourhood had put out poison to control rodents (squirrels). If you have, please do it safely so that other species are not affected. I then called the Conservation Officer Service and reviewed the problem with Francis at the CO office. After a long discussion he wondered if the birds might be eating food not intended for bird consumption. This would include table scraps, especially bread.

The symptoms of the sick birds include bloating, especially in their abdominal area, lethargy, very slow and sleepy. They do not react to other birds flying around them, as if they do not see them or are too tired to care. They still come to feed and drink but seem to have trouble swallowing. They die within 3-5 days of the symptoms being noticed.

The CO suggested that we DO NOT FEED BREAD or other food not intended for the bird population. Please alert your neighbours and friends. Hopefully this will be a starting point for solving the problem. If the deaths continue to occur the CO or Wildlife services will come out to investigate.

If you notice birds with the symptoms mentioned above, or deaths, please call me at (250) 828-2160 or email blorimer@telus.net (I am unavailable after April 3) or call Edel at (250) 374-7838 or email her at hmattfeld@yahoo.ca. If you are unable to reach one of us please call Ministry of Environment, General Inquiries at (250) 371-6281 and leave a detailed message for Francis.

UPDATE

More information about our grosbeak population from Bev Lorimer:

Today I spoke with a veterinarian who specializes in wild birds and he gave me a couple of suggestions as to what might be happening.

• Poisoning unlikely as only 1 species involved.
• Bread will not kill the birds, it just does not provide any nutrition.
• More likely to be a digestive upset…leading to enteritis…possibly leading to “salmonellosis”. Birds have salmonella bacteria as normal flora in their digestive gut. If for some reason it increases, as it would with enteritis, it becomes a big problem (as it does in humans). If this is indeed the problem please be very careful handling sick or dead birds. Wash hands very well when cleaning out feeders.

Now reasons possibly explaining what has happened:

• STRESS environmental or otherwise
• OVEREATING. As the temperature increases the birds increase their activity resulting in overeating especially if there is an abundance of food easily available( as in our feeders).It is important to decrease intake of carbohydrates as the weather and activity change. This overeating leads to digestive upset….as noted above.

The plan would be to feed the birds good nutritious food in the cold of the winter…start to slow down as the temperature goes up. Keep feeders very clean. Do not stop suddenly but if you are still using your feeders gradually stop over the next week.

This is likely what has happened as the distended belly kind of matches the disease. Please keep in mind the vet has not seen the birds he has just listened to me via a phone conversation. The next bird that dies I will take into the vet clinic.

Please let Edel or me know when you find sick or dying birds. No need to call Francis at Min of Environment.

A Thank You from the Heart & Stroke Foundation

Jenny Perry and Pat Burton would like to thank all the generous members of the Lac Le Jeune community who helped to make the 2010 House to House Campaign for Heart and Stroke so successful. Once again we raised almost $700.00. Your response has always been very warm and welcoming, despite our inundation with so many needs worldwide. If anyone is interested in joining us in canvassing next year, particularly from Park Drive East, please let us know, as it is a large community and the two of us can't always visit everyone.

Again, thanks very much! Jenny Perry jennyperry@gmail.com ~ Pat Burton hughlejeune@telus.net

Congratulations to local speed skater!

Congratulations to Gillian Michell, age 9, of the River City Racers Speed Skating Club for winning a gold medal in the bantam girls category at the WorkSafeBC Southern Regional speed skating championships held in Kamloops this past weekend. Gillian also skated personal best times in all four of her distances. She skated to 2 first place finishes and 2 second place finishes. Gillian took off up to 5 1/2 seconds off of her previous times.

Update on Community Wildfire Plan

This is an update prepared by Tim Cole on the Community Wildfire Plan.

Hello everyone at Lac le Jeune and Walloper Lake. I want to let everybody know we have started operational work on the wildfire plan for our community and to be aware of our activities.

Ground work has started on the Park Drive West Road and the first 800 meters of the Ridge Mountain FSR. This area consists mainly of Douglas fir and the focus is cleaning up ground fuels and latter fuels. We have also started heavy equipment work on either end of the fire guard and this work should take 10-14 days.

We had to plough out the Rossmore road today to gain access to the east end of Lac le Jeune for pickups and heavy equipment. If you have been using this route for snowmobiling, please be aware that snowmobiling is always prohibited on ploughed forestry roads. If you have to use it, please use caution and reduce your speed. If you are going to access Rossmore Lake via the trail from the east end of Lac Le Jeune, a portion of this trail has also been cleared. You will only be on it for a short period of time, but please use caution if you have to use it. This road will be maintained for approximately 2 weeks and hopefully we will get some more snow after we are done. If you use the ski trails at Stake Lake, the crossings have been maintained but use caution when crossing as there may be traffic or exposed gravel. Sorry for any inconvenience opening up this road may cause.

The areas that have been logged in the past three years and adjacent to roadways will be treated after the snow melts as most of the fuel in on the ground and under snow.

There have been some inquiries about the availability of firewood from this activity and the answer is yes. Cutting firewood for residents saves us time and money and allows us to do more work. The fire wood will be bucked and stacked adjacent to the roads and everybody is welcome to it. Please do not cut any logs on the ground within our treated areas as many of these are to be left for wildlife and soil conservation purposes. All the firewood will be bucked so you will not need your saw.

We have started burning at 2.5km on the Ridge Mountain Road and will continue to burn as long as it is safe to do so. You will see smoke on the ridge to south on and off for the next 5-6 weeks. We will also start burning our smaller piles within the next week.

Thank you for the tremendous support for this project, everything has been very positive.

Once again, please feel free to email me if you have questions or concerns and I will try to get back to you as soon as possible. I will be sending out periodic updates to keep everybody informed.

Tim Cole, RPF
Lonely Mountain Consulting Co.
3776 Pineridge Drive, LLJ
250-377-7654
250-318-3196 cell
tim.cole@telus.net

Feeling Lucky?

This "Feeling Lucky" article published in today's Sun Peaks News was written by local photographer Peter Sulzle and features the photo of our neighbourhood lynx.

Update on community wildfire plan

This update is from Tim Cole:

(click to enlarge map)

Hello everybody, I hope everyone is having a great “winter”.  As many of you know, I have been working in conjunction with the LLJCA to apply for funding to start a community wildfire plan that would help reduce the risk of wildfire to our community. After 18 months, we have secured $430 000 from the Ministry of Community Development through the Job Opportunity Program as well as from the Union of BC Municipalities. We were also granted $16 000 to develop a plan for the area which consisted of planning, layout, referrals and liaison with all the numerous public agencies.  I am sure many people have seen my flagging in and around the community which is mainly orange in color with black stripes. We are now at the final stages of approvals and may start work as early as next week. The main areas of our work will be along access routes in and out of the community and on crown land adjacent to private lots. Work will focus on ground fuels, spacing and pruning immature stems and spacing out dense of small-pine stands (mainly on north side of sub-division and south side of lake). All dead pine will be spaced firstly and the intent will be to leave as much green healthy stems as possible. The impact of the treatments will not be drastic but will help improve the aesthetics of our area, especially along the clearcut areas on the north side of the lake.

Many people are also aware we are looking at a fireguard/fuel break along the ridge above the ski hill. We will be putting in this feature and this will be done using heavy equipment this winter with follow up work in the spring. This guard will be 50 meters in width, however it will still contain green, well spaced stems reducing the original densities by about 70%. As the stands are very dense on the ridge, a full clear-cut strip would be highly visible from many areas and would not blend into the natural landscape of our area. Within this guard is an access trail that will be constructed as a multi use recreation trail (<2.0meters in width). This trail is engineered to be constructed as an industrial road only if a wildfire threatens our community to provide quick and easy access to the ridge for wildfire managers and act as a point of attack from the air. This trail will also help motorized recreation users to access the Ridge Lakes area from the east LLJ and Rossmore areas as the only current access is along the lake or the Gus Johnson Trail. Hopefully this will take away pressure from the Gus and allow non-resident users to by-pass our community. This trail will not be open to full size vehicles (unless there is a fire).

All debris will be burned on site and will be conducted when conditions are favorable that allow for the smoke to blown out of the valley quickly and when the fire hazard is low. If works start this month, we will burn as much debris as possible and burn until the snow melts. The remaining debris will be burned in the fall when the snow returns. The company conducting the on-the-ground work will be H.I.S. Venture Ltd. from Kamloops. This company has been instrumental in helping us secure this funding and is taking on the accountability and responsibility for managing this project. One of the conditions of the funding is that HIS hire unemployed forestry workers that will help train and employ many workers impacted by the recent recession. The trucks will be white crew cabs and will be parked at many locations on the public roads so please use caution when passing a work site as there will be many workers near-by. Please obey any posted signs as these will be for your safety.

Please feel free to email me if you have any questions or concerns and I will try to get back to you as soon as I can.

Thanks, Tim

Tim Cole, RPF
Lonely Mountain Consulting Co.
3776 Pineridge Drive, LLJ
250-377-7654
250-318-3196 cell
tim.cole@telus.net