By Roy L Hales

The Watershed Sentinel’s origins go back to 1990. Most of Cortes Island’s forest is second growth, which has grown up up since the turn of the 20th century. When MacMillan Bloedel came to harvest these trees, they found themselves opposed by 100 to 200 local residents. Delores Broten kept local residents abreast of of developments with a newsletter that  grew to become an award-winning environmental news magazine. This morning’s broadcast focuses on Delores Broten & the Watershed Sentinel.

Delores Broten & the Watershed Sentinel

The first periodical she edited was a high school yearbook. She went on to write for campus newspapers, which “was a blast.” However Delores is primarily remembered as the editor of the Watershed Sentinel.

“I started putting the newsletter in everyone’s mailbox, to explain why we were trying to stop clearcutting … After awhile more and more folks started sending me information  … and I started to see how all of these environmental, ecological issues were connected,” says Broten.

“Small island being logged for raw log export; [logs]not being processed on the island they grew on; People on the island importing their lumber from off island;  … We were just discovering that the pulp mills were contaminating the shellfish … etc”

The first issue of the  Watershed Sentinel was published in January, 1991.

The magazine has come a long way since then.

In the podcast above Delores talks about the growth of the Watershed Sentinel and the internet’s impact on modern journalism.

Click on this link to go directly to the Watershed Sentinel’s website.