Logging activity near Sechelt Airport is expected to start shortly and be completed by mid-March.
The work is to be done to allow for the eventual opening of the runway for night aircraft landings. Installation of improved navigational lighting at the site was recently completed. Clearing of trees alongside the runway, which was expanded in 2021, is required to ensure aircraft have full view of the lights, which they will be able to be activate on approach.
“Aircraft would follow the light path and as they stand right now, the trees are in the way,” Sechelt’s communications manager Lindsay Vickers stated in an email to Coast Reporter. She also noted that the runway approach for larger aircraft passes over the treed area on a three-degree glide slope and if one were to experience turbulence or other unforeseen issues “it could very well strike a tree top” if they are not removed.
Sunshine Coast Community Forest, as Sechelt's agent, has selected local company RJM Contracting, to harvest two cutblocks – about 2,400 cubic metres of timber – on the airport lands, Vickers said.
Call to document significant trees
Elphinstone Logging Focus (ELF) has reached out to the shíshálh Nation to ensure that they have the opportunity to document what may be culturally modified and wildlife trees within the cutblock before they are removed. Those included several instances of three red cedars growing together at the base and then separating. “We have not seen this type of tree before which suggests some kind of cultural modification…recall that the seasonal village was steps away from this location so past activities could very well have occurred,” ELF spokesperson Ross Muirhead stated in a Feb. 17 email to the Nation which was shared with Coast Reporter.
“We know that the trees will come down and yet want proper documentation of what was here,” he said.
Airport activity stable
Speaking to the benefits of the upgrades to the lighting at the airport, Vickers stated, “If there was ever a disaster, this expansion means that larger military, police and medical aircraft can land in our community.”
Sechelt Airport reports about 40 aircraft movements (landings and takeoffs) weekly, which is similar to activity levels before the $3.7 million runway expansion project was completed.
One activity that decreased in recent years as a result of the COVID pandemic was flight lessons and training. "We expect this area to increase again,” Vickers reported, noting that the district continues to receive inquiries from operators interested in expanding services out of the airport.
