Road Exploration Part I
May 9, 2014 10:16 am Leave your thoughts
Amazing start to the season! After a week of being guided through the safety culture and orientation to principles of Tembec, my fellow summer students and I have been released into the Martel forest. After a hard, snowy winter, the roads moving through these forests have been revealed, so we begin explore them for access.
On Thursday of this week, we travelled to the south-eastern tip of the lands managed by Tembec. On this trip, we viewed numerous hawks perched along the power lines, surveying recently harvested areas for an afternoon meal, heard the ever more numerous calls of songbirds, spotted wolf tracks in deep sand along a waterway, witnessed a bald eagle catch a fish from a nearby river, and startled a moose from its grazing. Who else gets to see these things at work!?
Even better was Friday (yesterday). We were to scout an area planted last year to help our supervisors gauge the volume of trees within in. This area resides within the Chapleau game preserve (largest on earth according the local signage!) and is filled with an assortment of wild critters tucked away within it- moose, hundreds of bird species and, above all, bears. We did spot our first bear of the season, but the real high point of the day was the Sandhill Cranes occupying a nearby stand of trees. We saw but one bird, but the sound of their calls penetrated the afternoon air, and us, as we worked. This call is a long, haunting cry which is reminiscent of something prehistoric which, if one sees these creatures, seems not that far from the truth. Their strange, gangly bodies, awkwardly long necks, and heads that seem far too small for such a body certainly remind one of their dinosaur heritage. All of their ungainly body shape completely disappears, however, during their elaborate seasonal dances. Bowing their necks to one another, long wings outstretched, legs poised and precise, they become elegant ballet dancers courting one another.
These are the creatures we share this forest with; not only Tembec, but all the inhabitants of the town in his area. It is a reminder that we are in a relationship with everything on this planet. These cranes, and many other creatures, find homes within the edges of our timber-harvested areas, some even assisted in their lives by the disturbed areas.
I hope that this abundance of wildlife is but a glimpse of all the majestic life we get to see in the course of summer forest wanderings!