Feb 21, 2008. PRESS RELEASE.

Directors of the Rocky Mountain Trench Natural Resources Society (the Trench Society) have appointed Cranbrook forester Dan Murphy to replace retiring coordinator Maurice Hansen.

The Trench Society is an alliance of hunting, ranching, environmental and wildlife organizations working to restore the grassland and open forest ecosystems of the East Kootenay and Upper Columbia Valley.

 “Maurice’s work on behalf of ecosystem restoration has been a labour of love, not just a job, and he will be missed,” said Trench Society Chair Peter Davidson, a wildlife biologist. “We are fortunate, though, to have attracted a successor as qualified as Dan, who brings years of experience in forest-related issues, especially habitat enhancement.”

Hansen, who ranches north of Kimberley, has served the Trench Society since helping to found it in 1996. 

“After 12 years of range restoration advocacy, we’ve come a long way,” he said. “We still have much further to go but, with the support of the Ministry of Forests and Range, we’ve shown that grassroots stakeholders can look after their own resource problems.”

Incoming coordinator Dan Murphy is well known in the East Kootenay forest industry. Most recently, he was general manager of the Creston Valley Forest Corporation. He has also worked for the Ministry of Forests, Crestbrook Forest Industries, Tembec, the BC Forestry Association, and as a consulting forester.

 “As a professional forester and avid outdoorsman, I have worked and played throughout the Trench since 1982,” Murphy said. “I strongly support the Trench Society’s vision of ecosystem-based Crown land stewardship that respects all values and functions.”  

The Society’s most recent and ambitious undertaking is its Waldo North pilot project on the northeast side of Lake Koocanusa. Covering more than 1,500 hectares, it is the biggest grassland-open forest restoration project ever undertaken in British Columbia.

The Waldo North project is part of a Trench-wide restoration program initiated in 1998 by East Kootenay stakeholders and government agencies. Using the internationally recognized Trench program as a model, the BC government launched a province-wide restoration program in 2006.

The restoration process aims to restore the ecological potential of native rangeland. Treatment starts with timber harvesting and spacing to re-establish historic tree densities, followed by periodic prescribed burns to control tree regeneration. Prescribed burning attempts to mimic the effects of the routine low-intensity fires that occurred in the Trench before European settlement.

Restoration has multiple benefits. Elk, deer and cattle depend on natural forage produced by healthy rangeland. Many rare, endangered and vulnerable species of wildlife also depend on East Kootenay grasslands. Thinning dense stands of stagnant trees improves forest health, while removing forest fuels reduces the probability of severe wildfire.