Work is about to resume in the Cortes Community Forest.
Mark Lombard, General Manager for the Cortes Forestry General Partnership, explained, “The spring cut is going to happen in the Coulter Bay area of the community forest. We’ll probably start a small segment of road in about three weeks. While the road is being built, maybe a month from now, we’re going to move over to Larsen’s Meadow. They’re both relatively small projects.”
Continue reading 2026 Spring Cut in the Cortes Community Forest
By Hope Lompe, Gabriola Sounder, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Ahead of the Nanaimo City council meeting on Dec. 15, B.C. Minister of Forests, Ravi Parmar, sent a letter to council requesting a motion for a staff report be rescinded.
The window for the motion to be rescinded would have been at the next council meeting on Dec. 1, 10 days before the minister’s dated letter to council.
“Is it typical? No, but it’s also not typical to see the actions of a councilor and council that have significant implications on British Columbia’s forest sector and on workers and their livelihoods,” said Parmar during a phone call with the Sounder.
Continue reading Minister of Forests requests Nanaimo motion for a staff report be rescinded
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There were a couple of changes in the plan for the Rainbow Ridge Affordable Housing Development as the site was cleared. A small parcel of land along the northern border of the property was given to the Cortes Island Fire Department, to enable it to expand. Plans for a hedge of trees between Rainbow Ridge and the Cortes Island Senior’s Village were altered.
Continue reading Phase One At Rainbow Ridge: Boundaries With The Senior’s Village And Firehall
There’s a wildfire risk reduction underway in the Community Forest near Squirrel Cove.
“This is something that we’ve been working on since 2018. It was identified as a priority in the 2020 Community Wildfire Protection Plan. We received funding for a prescription, then we got funding to do an archaeological assessment, as required by law in the Tla’amin First Nation and then this year we obtained funding through the Forest Enhancement Society of BC to carry out the treatment.. I’m just really excited to see it happening because when you see an overgrown plantation like this, it feels really good to be able to reinvest in the land base to leave a better forest for the future generation and reduce the wildfire risk in this neighbourhood,” explained to Mark Lombard, General Manager of the Cortes Forestry General Partnership.
Continue reading Wildfire Risk Reduction in Squirrel Cove area
Public consultation around plans for the next five years of timber harvesting got back underway on Saturday, March 23, with a tour of the Larsen’s Meadow cut block led by Operations Manager Mark Lombard. Two more public tours are currently scheduled: March 30 in the Carrington/Coulter Bay area and April 20 in the Green Mountain area. These outdoor tours are part of the follow-up to an initial public meeting in the Spring of 2023, when maps and preliminary plans were presented.
Lombard works for the Cortes Forestry General Partnership (CFGP), which holds the tenure (right to log) for the Cortes Community Forest, comprising much of the Crown Land on Cortes Island. CFGP is a partnership between Klahoose First Nation (KFN) and Cortes Community Forest Co-operative (CCFC).
Continue reading Cortes Community Forest Five-Year Plan Update: Tour of the Larsen’s Meadow Cut Block
