When we hike in the Six Mountains of North Cowichan, we often think about a chance encounter with a large mammal – a black bear, Roosevelt elk or, the longest shot of all, a cougar.
But so often it is the small and unexpected lifeforms that leave us in wonder and awe of the natural world.
Such was the case a while ago when I spotted a spectacular explosion of fungi growing on a Douglas fir.
The species is commonly known as false turkey tail (Stereum hirsutum), and, according to the guidebook, the Mushrooms of BC, by Andy MacKinnon and Kem Luther, grows in shelves on rotting wood.
About a week earlier, another small fungi captured my attention – questionable stropharia (Stropharia ambigua), with its delicately fringed parasol cap, sprouting from the forest floor.
The fall produced a bumper crop of fungi in our Six Mountains, and their ecological importance should not go unnoticed.
“If there wasn’t fungi, there almost certainly wouldn’t be life on earth,” says MacKinnon. “Some are helping the trees grow. Others are decomposers. They are the ultimate recyclers in forest ecosystems. Without them, everything would grind to a halt.”
We are fortunate to live among among the Six Mountains – Prevost, Sicker, Richards, Maple, Tzouhalem, and Stoney Hill – that make up the 5,000-hectare Municipal Forest Reserve.
But we cannot take them for granted.
The coastal Douglas-fir forest (CDF) is the smallest and most at-risk forest type (biogeoclimatic zone) in B.C., and home to the most species at risk.
The CDF’s future in North Cowichan remains an open question.
The results of the final phase of a parallel public consultation released last March showed 76 per cent support for conservation management options.
The next step is up to North Cowichan and First Nations.
In August 2021 Quw’utsun Nation and North Cowichan signed a memorandum of understanding to discuss the future of the forest reserve. Talks have continued longer than anticipated.
Quw’utsun Nation is comprised of Cowichan Tribes and Stz’uminus, Penelakut, Halalt and Lyackson First Nations.
The public has received no hint of what is being discussed, but I gleaned small insight on Dec. 4 at a public meeting at the Halalt First Nation on flood issues on the lower Chemainus River.
Several speakers – both Indigenous and non-Indigenous – cited clearcut logging further up the Chemainus watershed as a major contributor to chronic flooding.
After the meeting I asked Halalt Chief James Thomas about his long-term vision for the forest reserve.
“Not clearcutting,” he bluntly responded.
But he also said he supports selective logging that helps store water, while the timber can be used to create local jobs rather than being shipped offshore as raw logs.
Selective logging can have many definitions, from, say, thinning to improve the overall health of a forest, to the slippery slope of logging the best timber for the highest profit.
How the Municipality ultimately melds the wishes of North Cowichan taxpayers with those of First Nations is the big outstanding question.
As for fungi, the foundation of our forests, what we do know is that once the trees are gone, the ecological damage lasts decades.
Larry Pynn,
Maple Bay