Steve Lorimer was on hand at the village council this week to give an update on TimberWest’s activities during the past year and to advise councillors and the public about logging plans in their area for 2008.

The presentation came at the request of council, who voiced some concerns recently about activity in the Hamilton Lake watershed, Cumberland’s water source.

Lorimer and other TimberWest staff talked about the plans to log in four blocks in the Trent area as they call it.

Two are lower, closer to the highway and less of a concern to the village. The other two, though, have larger impacts — one is just downstream of Hamilton Lake above the reservoir, and the other, farther down, is the home to the popular mountain biking trail Bucket of Blood.

“We have a harvest block that is located where the trail goes through right now,” said Lorimer about the impacts of their plans.

While he said preliminary meetings have been held with Jeremy Grasby, local mountain-biker and owner of Cumberland’s Riding Fool Hostel, he didn’t say the trail could be left as is. Perhaps it can be rebuilt after, he suggested, or parts of it moved into a reserve area being left on the land.

Their concern largely with mountain-biking in the area involves potential liability issues, said Lorimer — and Grasby said he’d look into how other communities had dealt with that.

Councillors asked some questions about the hydrological studies required before logging in the watershed, and Coun. Bronco Moncrief also suggested a possible land swap to protect areas around the Hamilton Lake.

The presentation was only for information, and no motion was considered by council.

reporter@comoxvalleyrecord.com