David Shipway started learning about forestry in the early 70’s, first in engineering and survey with MacBlo on Vancouver Island, then in treeplanting all over BC. He discovered Cortes soon after the ferry service started, and bought a home in the early 80’s, making his living in construction and woodworking. “By managing my own land I realized it takes at least a century to grow big trees that produce good wood.” David became active in conservation issues.
Attn: Colin Koszman/ Land Use Forester, Molly Hudson/ Director of Sustainability
I started my working life in the late 60’s, surveying cutblocks and new roads with MacMillan Bloedel on many of the lands now being managed by Mosaic – up in the headwaters of the Oyster, the Quinsam, the Campbell, the Eve and the Salmon. I witnessed the last of the valley bottom old growth being logged, magnificent cedar groves that would now be considered a national treasure, and saw the montaine plateaus of Mountain Hemlock, ancient Yellow Cedar and Western Yew before anyone had touched them.
As a woodworker on the drier southern BC coast with a very small woodlot, and some working familiarity with the timber journey – from seed to old tree and from sawn lumber to sailboat, it seems obvious to me that there’s still a tug of war between two polarized goals in forestry. One strives for Quantity, the other strives for Quality. It’s a simplification I know, but then we could also call it Ishmael’s battle between Takers and Leavers, and ask who is winning. Nearly always in our modern addiction to economic growth, gross volume wins over real value. But the short-term quest for higher quantity has already severely compromised long term timber quality in many coastal watersheds. Does this have to be the eternal dilemma in our transient relationship with wild forests, trees and wood? Or is this really a false dichotomy built on ignorant assumptions? Is there a better middle path, a more gracious future in a truly sustainable forestry?
