FireSmart program takes to the slopes 

The ongoing FireSmart project to thin forests began last week in the Pyramid Lake Road area behind the RCMP detachment with the help of a giant arthropod.

The steep slopes in that area require crews to wait until the ground freezes, as well as the assistance of a specialized machine, called a Spider Hoe, to reduce or eliminate any impacts that might otherwise be cause for concern.  There is “virtually no environmental impact with this machine,” said Alan Westhaver, project manager for the FireSmart/ForestWise program.

According to Westhaver, “the technology that we’ve used to approach this slope is all driven by environmental impacts.” There are both “fragile soils and vegetation” in the area, said Westhaver, “so it’s very important both for protection (from fires) and ecological reasons to thin this forest back down to its normal range.”

Initially, Parks Canada looked at two other options before deciding on utilizing the Spider Hoe. “We were aware of helicopter logging techniques,” said Westhaver, “whereby you would just cut the trees and then lift them up to the top... where they could be processed,” he said. “The second one that we looked at and seemed feasible was the cabling system, almost like a gondola system, where you set up towers, cut the trees and then lift the trees up and then take them on a cable up to the top of the slope” for processing.  

Neither of these options were satisfactory due to prohibitive costs and Westhaver was “not satisfied that they could do it within the least ecological impacts.”  

The Spider Hoe is essentially a super-excavator that can walk and stand on steep grades, while being able to pile the fallen timber. Using the Spider Hoe is the best option, said Westhaver, because “rather than moving the trees, they’re cut and burned in place. So, if we were to move the trees up the slope, we would cross that environmental impact and destabilize the slopes and we’d have problems for decades to come.”   

Chainsaw operators, such as Trevor Walker, fell the marked trees and then score them.  The scoring is done so that the Spider Hoe can easily use its ‘hand’ to snap trees into smaller pieces for burning. Felling trees in these kinds of operations must be precise and is “anything but random,” said Walker. Skilled chainsaw operators are required so that the Spider Hoe doesn’t have to do too much walking or maneuvering through a maze of felled timber. It’s also “good for the heart and lungs,” joked Walker.  

Two joysticks control the Spider Hoe and it takes a lot of hand-eye coordination to operate efficiently and safely.  Len Masson, who’s been running a Spider Hoe for about 13 years, said that “it’s almost like running a second excavator because you have to keep your wheels stable, your legs out, sometimes you’ve got to go between trees, so you’re constantly moving your walking equipment... so you don’t start heading down the slope.”  

As with many environmentally-friendly technologies, Europe has been ahead of North America in adopting them.  The Spider Hoe has been used in Europe since the 1960s or 1970s, said Masson.  Initially they were designed for use on older European streets that were extremely narrow.  The Spider Hoe will “narrow down to about seven feet wide,” said Masson, just small enough to fit down streets eight to ten feet wide.  It was then discovered that due to the design of the machines, they would work well on steep slopes.   

Due to stringent environmental controls in Switzerland, the swiss have hundreds of these machines, but there are only a handful of the Spider Hoes in North America, said Masson.  In addition to the FireSmart work, Masson and his Spider Hoe do bio-engineering, creek rehab, and work for the City of Edmonton doing maintenance on its water systems.

The way the timber is piled is also of great importance to Westhaver.  Parks wants to “minimize the smoke, so when Len’s building these nice tight piles that burn hot like a little chimney, we greatly reduce the amount of smoke that’s going to get produced here.  There’s an art to building a campfire,” he said, “and Len’s building bigger campfires.”

“It’s more difficult for the crews to get around” in the winter, said Westhaver, “but it works well from the environmental aspect, which is critical to us.  By doing it this way, there is no soil disturbance.”  

There are benefits to forest thinning beyond fire prevention. “It allows more sunlight to get down to the ground,” said Westhaver, and “it also allows more moisture to hit the surface from rainfall. So actually what we’re seeing in a thinned forest is a pretty good response and increase in the amount of grasses and flowering plants underneath, so we get millions of little plants growing and holding the soil as opposed to under the shady parts of the forest where we have nothing growing and fewer and fewer roots.”  

The crews clear about one hectare per day and there are 22 to 23 hectares that need to be cleared behind the RCMP detachment.  There are some trail closures, so keep your eyes on the lookout and stay clear of operations.