YEAR: 1997

SEASON: Summer

MONTH: July

DATE: 20

PROVINCE: British Columbia

COUNTRY: Canada

LOCATION DETAILS: Clear cut block, 50 kilometers west of 100 Mile House near the Gustefson Lake

OBSERVED: We found footprints about sixteen to eighteen inches long in three different areas.

I worked with a silviculture company doing slashing work at the time. I was working on a 50 hectare block with one other person. The country is on the Frazer river plateau and is very dry at this time of the year. We started work late, about noon. My coworker started a half hour earlier than me because I had some stuff to do. When finished I went down the ripped up road in the east corner of the logging block. He was working, but when I came into view he came to meet me. He seemed a little bit confused. We leave our equipment overnight and have never had anyone bother to move or steal it, but this time he said that his safety helmet had been moved and he had trouble finding it. He said he found it about 100 yards northeast of where his helmet was in a hole that excavators had ripped up. They were excavating for treeplanting. I looked at his helmet and there were no scratches or marks because I suspected a bear. We went back to where his saw helmet was and looked for tracks. In the clay mossy ground there were about four sixteen to eighteen inch tracks nearby.

ALSO NOTICED: Felt uneasy working near the tree line near the end of the work day. (around 9 o'clock)

OTHER WITNESSES: Slashing and cutting out diseased pine seedlings

TIME AND CONDITIONS: Around 1pm.

ENVIRONMENT: Very dry country with mostly lodge pole pine trees not far from the Fraser River

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