Tag Archives: Cathedral Grove

Forests, Indigenous Nations, Tourism

Could shifting gears from forestry to tourism pay the bills?

By Nora O’Malley, Ha-Shilth-Sa, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Jordan River, B.C. – At the mouth of Jordan River in Pacheedaht First Nation territory on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, the tide is pushing. Heat from a February sun warms the face as sets of friendly waves roll in under the backdrop of the Olympic Mountains. Parking at the day-use area of this regional park is squeezed on this fine Friday away from the screen. 

A tugboat called Miss Jordan cruises by a bob of surfers, dragging a line of thick rope towards a raft of floating logs, otherwise known as a log boom. Some of the surfers catch a wave towards the cobble shoreline and exit the water.

“They’ll run right over us if we don’t get out of the way,” says a stand-up paddler. 

“But it is a nice day for it,” he concedes.

Continue reading Could shifting gears from forestry to tourism pay the bills? →
Cost of Climate Change

Highway wildfire closure drives home B.C.’s need to think big about climate measures

Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

British Columbia’s enormous effort to speed the partial reopening of Highway 4 on Vancouver Island — closed for upwards of two weeks due to a wildfire — is another illustration of the dramatic costs tied to climate impacts, says an economist.

“It’s a huge hit to the restaurants, hotels, and all the services that would normally be making money at this time of year and potentially jeopardizes their whole summer,” said Marc Lee, senior economist with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA).

“The economic disruption and costs associated with already existing climate change is something that we don’t often think about enough.”

The province’s Transportation Ministry has been pulling out the stops to get the key transportation corridor — the only paved road serving Port Alberni, numerous First Nations and the West Coast tourist hot spots of Ucluelet and Tofino — open to single-lane alternating traffic by the weekend.

Continue reading Highway wildfire closure drives home B.C.’s need to think big about climate measures →
Forests

Conclusion of interview with Bruce Ellingsen: Vancouver Island’s diminishing Tree Harvests

In the second of two broadcasts about more sustainable forestry practices, one of the founders of the Cortes Community Fortes Co-operative talks about the industry’s diminishing harvests in terms that every gardener understands.  (Click here to access part 1)

“Back in the 1970s the justification for logging all the old growth was that the Province was going to be tree farming, to give the public the idea that you’re actually going to be sustainably growing crops off of that landscape each year,” said Ellingsen. 

Every farmer knows that they need to replace the nutrients that they are taking out of the soil, or “pretty soon it will not grow a crop successfully any longer.” 

Continue reading Conclusion of interview with Bruce Ellingsen: Vancouver Island’s diminishing Tree Harvests →