New sightings in the Chilliwack area?

[rastaman]

Gerry, have you received any new sighting reports this year from the Chilliwack area?

[Gerry]

Nope!

[rastaman]

There seems to be a large increase in clear-cut logging out here on Vancouver Island in the past decade, as is probably also occurring in many areas of the Chilliwack Valley, and I believe that its having a detrimental effect on sightings. A large animal such as a Sasquatch will stick to the edges of clear-cuts, and will never be found walking in the open, as most large animals will never attempt to do.

It takes decades of tree growth before any large Ungulates will even bother to venture into any large previous clear-cuts. The vast majority of large animals use mature forests not only for cover but as a means of evading predators.

[bushape]

Sorry Rastaman,
but clearcuts are the PRIMARY feeding grounds of ungulates, especially after a year or two when the secondary growth takes place. They do use heavy timber for shelter, but ask any hunter where he sees a majority of his game!

[rastaman]

I'm a hunter myself Bushape so I agree that Ungulates use clear-cuts as an early food source, but the smart ones don't spend much time in them due to the lack of cover.

The less cautious ones are the first usually shot in the season. The smarter ones learn to feed after sunset when there are less hunters out there. Bears also have lots of berries to feed on after a few years of regrowth but this quickly diminishes as the larger trees eventually shade out and kill the berry plants.

However, my real intent was to show that clear-cuts are probably having a detrimental effect on the lives of an animal as large as a Sasquatch. Why then don't hunters or the general public not usually see more BF in clear-cuts?

[vilnoori]

rastaman there are a fair number of sightings of sasquatch in clear cuts, hydro cuts, trails, and rivers, all marginal areas of forest. It only takes about 5 years for the quick-growing varieties of understory plants, herbs that love disturbed soil, aspen and hemlock to grow to a height where deer have cover. They're really not that tall if you think about it. Deer LOVE feeding not IN clearcuts but along the margins of clearcuts because they have much more forage there, and the cover is also not that bad, especially if they stay on the margins and as you say feed at twilight. By and large the amount of clearcuts has INCREASED the number of deer, and if sasquatch feed on deer (as other predators do) then they have benefited from clear cuts, as long as the clear cuts maximize marginal areas (ie, not a big circular or square clearcut but a lot of small, puzzle-piece shaped clearcuts are optimum). It is also the most beneficial for the regrowth of the forest for cut spaces to be irregularly shaped as it encourages a diversity of flora, and not a monoculture-like regrowth of only a few particular plant species.

[rastaman]

Thanks for your insight vilnoori. I just want to stimulate some conversation on this board.

With 289 present members on this board, its too bad that there are only a handful that actually partake in the discussions on this board. Lots of lurkers out there.

Its one of the better BF message boards on the west coast, and I'd hate it to fold. I used to partake with George Karras's PNW board since the millennium, maybe some here know of him, but it quickly slowed down to a trickle.

One thing that's for sure, unless someone out there has a pet Sasquatch that they are hiding from us, its all speculation on the life and times of the Sasquatch.

[superd]

I travel the couc(5) from Kamloops and Merritt every day and all the clear cuts along the way sure keep me lookin. Just another lurker.
Dave

[rastaman]

I keep checking clearcuts myself when I go hunting and hiking when researching, but don't believe BF spend much time in them. Checking the BFRO site and many others, I have found that people rarely seen them in clearcuts. They possibly only frequent them at night when searching for food.

A true message board lurker never contributes their opinion or partakes in a thread, only lurks.

[vilnoori]

Superd, here's a sighting report from that area:

www.bfro.net/GDB/show_report.asp?id=8689

[Deleted]

I had a conversation the other day with a hunter who saw a sasquatch on the east side of Harrison lake about 6 or 7 years ago. He was with another man when they say it on the road while driving down one of the main logging roads, about 100 yds away. It was larger than a man and covered in black hair. It quickly disappeared into cover. One took a blind shot. They checked for tracks and other sign but could find none. (Typical of the type of terrain - gravel roads, mossy forests).
This hunter is still sceptical about the existence of Sasquatch believing an animal that large could not find the needed food in our local habitat.

[superd]

I know the small pond Tim is talking about, and I 've been trying to get intouch with Tim.

[vilnoori]

Yeah, I know that one too. I always look for moose in there when we drive by. Will be going past in on Monday, will keep my eyes peeled though I've never had his luck!