Elphinstone Logging Focus

Elphinstone Logging Focus Elphinstone Logging Focus Society (ELF) is a non-profit, BC based environmental group providing information on proposed logging in important forest lands.

01/05/2025

Start 2025 with a hike to the top of the SongBird Forest Trail in Roberts Creek, lower Sunshine Coast. Turn off Hwy 101 at Locyker Rd. Drive to the very top and enter onto the Wilson Creek Forest Service Rd.

In 3km (set your odometer) look on your right for flagging and a sign marking the trailhead. Park off to the side.

The trail is well marked, but is steep the whole way leading to the highest point across this western Elphinstone slope. If you like a cardio hike this is the one for you. Round trip is 1.5-2 hours.

Watch the short video showing the top bluff area. This is Elk habitat. Ravens and Winter Wrens are around this time of year. There's a few watering holes (small ponds) for Elk, cougar and wolf who wander through. Rich lichens are found at the top that Elk and Deer browse on.

During this end of the year period ELF wishes everyone a happy December winter month. These clear days are perfect to ge...
12/03/2024

During this end of the year period ELF wishes everyone a happy December winter month. These clear days are perfect to get out hiking along the Elphinstone Health Trail. The 1st trailhead is easy to find - turn off Hwy 101 at the B & K Rd, drive pass the powerlines, keep on heading straight up and when the road levels out park in the large pull-over on your right. Walk up the spur road, and then in 2 mins. you'll see the Health Trail sign.

Check out this large cauliflower mushroom found yesterday just off the trail. Now that's a world champion. Our Elphinstone Forests have a rich diversity of fungal species and yet the majority of the area continues to remain open to logging by Sunshine Coast Community Forest (a logging company owned by The District of Sechelt) and by BC Timber Sales (a logging division of Ministry of Forests).

Heading into 2025, ELF will continue to step up and say No More Logging in our collective Elphinstone Forests. Please Join Us.

Here's your link to the Health Trail map.

https://loggingfocus.org/campaigns/protect-the-elphinstone-community-health-trail/

A link to a podcast based on the 2015 Elphinstone Conservation Review by Wayne McCrory, RPBio commissioned by ELF. Liste...
11/19/2024

A link to a podcast based on the 2015 Elphinstone Conservation Review by Wayne McCrory, RPBio commissioned by ELF. Listen and learn - its great.

Mark your calendars for an important public meeting & a hike into the little known Burnett Creek Recreational Area this ...
10/23/2024

Mark your calendars for an important public meeting & a hike into the little known Burnett Creek Recreational Area this Sunday, October 27th. Meet in front of the Starbucks in Tsain-Ko Mall in Sechelt. What's the issue? Well, back in the 1990's the Ministry of Forests identified areas of high recreational value across the Province including the Sunshine Coast. Some of these Rec Sites became protected, like the Big Fir Rec Site, or Hidden Grove, and others like this one never surfaced into public awareness. In the meantime, the Sunshine Coast Community Forest ( a logging company 100% owned by Sechelt) gained a logging tenure over this Rec Site and now proposes to log 3 cutblocks and new logging roads into this Burnett Creek Rec Site (3136). We say, hold on a minute the public hasn't had amble opportunity to discuss these logging plans and how they would impact this very scenic site. So come on out this Sunday to discover a hidden gem and find out what you can do to protect this area. Thank you. ELF

Sorry, Community Forest, but we're poking some fun at your expense in this short video. The location are the 2024 blocks...
10/08/2024

Sorry, Community Forest, but we're poking some fun at your expense in this short video. The location are the 2024 blocks in the Gray-Angus Watersheds. Its not advised to take the suggestion presented in the video of inviting families here when you do light the 28 slash piles for a barbecue. Not safe due to the extreme heat generated.

Instead of releasing all that carbon into the airshed, SCCF Directors could rent a chipper and volunteer to get all that good material distributed back to the site to become the next layer of organic material, because you sure left behind a semi-desert like condition in what was previously a lovely cool temperate rainforest. Time to BAN clearcut logging. This mess can't be repeated.

ELF needed to have a little fun to lighten the load after witnessing upfront a big time, old-school ugly clearcut completed by the Sunshine Coast Community F...

https://gofund.me/2fd2b523
09/30/2024

https://gofund.me/2fd2b523

Help Elphinstone Logging Focus (ELF) take on BC Timber Sales in its latest… Ross Muirhead needs your support for Protect the xwesam (Roberts) Creek Headwaters

In case you missed this SCCF webinar (June 10, 2024) looking at their 5-year logging plan here it is. Only 15 people reg...
09/26/2024

In case you missed this SCCF webinar (June 10, 2024) looking at their 5-year logging plan here it is. Only 15 people registered. Doesn't show much community interest.
We were away at that time so didn't present any questions, however ELF did submit a detail report on the plan which SCCF has not responded to. We objected to every block that had an Age Class 5 (81 - 100 years) or older since these represent mature forests that should be conserved as tomorrow's old-growth.

Sunshine Coast Community Forest 2024- 2028 Operations Plan, Webinar presentation June 10, 2024

Hike to the Mt. Elphinstone Peak, August 15. Drove up the B & K Rd. then turned east onto the Sechelt-Roberts FSR Br. 3....
08/17/2024

Hike to the Mt. Elphinstone Peak, August 15. Drove up the B & K Rd. then turned east onto the Sechelt-Roberts FSR Br. 3. Used TrailForks app to locate High Roads Trail. Its an old logging road from the 1950's era. Then a 1-hr long traverse to Summit Trail. Turn uphill, then the 2 hr. steep hike begins to the peak. Here's some pictures form that day. Would rate the hike 4 out of 5 for difficulty. There's a tent platform at the top to provide an over-night option. Small streams were running to cool off. Meet two teenage boys coming down who had camped out at the top. Besides them, nobody else up here on a beautiful Sunshine Coast day.

Sunshine Coast Community Forest (SCCF) wants to log in the Wakefield Creek Watershed - probably this Fall. Blk HM64 is p...
08/02/2024

Sunshine Coast Community Forest (SCCF) wants to log in the Wakefield Creek Watershed - probably this Fall. Blk HM64 is poorly chosen because its situated between a Beaver Pond and Crowston Lake, and lies right above Wakefield Creek. The block would affect groundwater recharge to the channel and impact habitat for this rare and special beaver population that moves between the two water bodies. An existing trail through the block is called "Baby Beaver Trial" - indicating that someone say a small beaver walking through the forest!

Watch this video of shishalh Nation elder and knowledge-keeper hiwus Calvin Craigan speaking from his prepared statement right in the very forest that SCCF wants to wipe out. Its time for SCCF to acknowledge that they can't log ever last critical forest that their timber cruisers identify. These forests hold way more values than just logs for processing. Right?

Prepared statement by hiwus Craigan recorded at the site of a proposed SCCF Blk HM64.

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PO Box 85
Sunshine Coast, BC
V0N2W0

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+16047405654

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Videos

Start 2025 with a hike to the top of the SongBird Forest Trail in Roberts Creek, lower Sunshine Coast. Turn off Hwy 101 at Locyker Rd. Drive to the very top and enter onto the Wilson Creek Forest Service Rd. In 3km (set your odometer) look on your right for flagging and a sign marking the trailhead. Park off to the side. The trail is well marked, but is steep the whole way leading to the highest point across this western Elphinstone slope. If you like a cardio hike this is the one for you. Round trip is 1.5-2 hours. Watch the short video showing the top bluff area. This is Elk habitat. Ravens and Winter Wrens are around this time of year. There's a few watering holes (small ponds) for Elk, cougar and wolf who wander through. Rich lichens are found at the top that Elk and Deer browse on.

Footage from Roberts Creek Study Forest which was the 1st intervention into the low-elevation Elphinstone Forests that was subject of a park protection campaign of 1,500ha that only resulted in 140 ha across three sperate parcels.

Logging cuts the forest down to Ground Zero
Logging cuts the forest down to Ground Zero

Today, under extreme conditions, ELF returned to a BC Timber Sales cutblock that was logged last winter to bear witness to its savage destruction. The block is on the top edge of the proposed Mt. Elphinstone Park expansion. The raw footage shows that greed is at play here when the land is stripped bare such as it is. The 2km of new road is cross-ditched 12x to redirect surface water that gushes off the slope. Much of the water is casted down slope. This can only be described as 'forestry-barbarism'. Can we do better forestry management in this province? Many good examples out there if the government dares to look. Time to also form reconciliation with the land. If this clearcut logging and slash burning continues western civilization will continue to take a nose dive. And, its happening right here on the beautiful Sunshine Coast.

Elphinstone Health Trail Flag
Elphinstone Health Trail Flag

Seeking some welcomed shade during these summer days? Make visiting the Elphinstone Health Trail a priority. Trailhead #1 is found by driving up the B & K Rd (off Sunshine Coast Hwy 101), past the powerlines, keep driving straight past the first intersection, look for the next pull out on the right. Park, walk across road up & old spur road. Look for a Health Trail sign on the left and enter. Go as far as you want and re-trace your steps. Our web site (loggingfocus.org) has a color trail map you can download onto your phone. Soon into the trail you'll come to these beautiful flags created for ELF by Hazel. Enjoy.

Chapman Drinking Watershed Fire
Chapman Drinking Watershed Fire

Slash Burn in Chapman Drinking Watershed, Sunshine Coast, BC

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