All posts by Mike Moore

Mike dives deep into the issues of Cortes Island, from examining what's on the bottom of the ocean to the tops of the trees. He has decades of experience as a diver, naturalist/ lecturer in the Antarctic, and Desolation Sound tour boat operator aboard Misty Isles. Calling Cortes Island home for over 30 years, Mike is also known as an engaging story teller, speaking over the airwaves of CKTZ or in person on subjects ranging from history, penguins, ecology and the giant pacific octopus.
Forests, Opinion

A Brief History of Forest Activism on Cortes Island

[researched and written by Mike Moore, edited and produced for radio by De Clarke]

Cortes Islanders are very aware that we live on an island. The landbase has a very defined perimeter with the ocean; but the way the land wraps around and encloses the island’s many harbours and bays means that the land has a very intimate and close connection with the ocean. We know that the land, lakes, creeks and ocean are all interrelated.

Standing on a Cortes beach allows one to see what is happening on the lands around us in a bigger perspective. From Smelt Bay, we could witness the clearcuts sprawling across the mountainsides on Vancouver Island. From either side of Sutil Point, we could see the pulp mills in Campbell River and Powell River belching steam and smoke into the sky.

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Forests, History

A brief history of Cortes, Forestry and Mosaic

(De Clarke produced the audio version of this story, which is part of the March 15th Cortes Currents broadcast.)

The people living on this island have had a long and deep history with its forests. First Nation people lived here at least 4,000 years ago with new research pushing that date back to 10,000 years and perhaps even more.

In 1896 the first European settlers arrived and began clearing the forest for their homesteads. By the 1920’s, there were 120 families on this island making a living from logging so that by the 40’s and 50’s, much of the easily accessible old growth forests were already fallen. Today on any walk in the woods, you can still see those massive, ancient stumps.

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Forests

Safety, Security and Mosaic

Originally published on the Cortes Tideline

Mosaic Forest Management
Colin Koszman, Land Use Forester

Hello Colin,
Thank you and the rest of your team for taking the time to do your recent Zoom presentation with some limited Q&A time for Cortes Islanders. During that presentation, I recall one of you saying that Mosaic is a new company and that you are just beginning to explore the landbase of your Cortes Island holdings. I’m sorry that I cannot be clearer on the exact wording because of course there is no recording of the Zoom presentation available to check the veracity of my memory.

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