“When I came to Cortes, I imagined just making boards is a great thing to do. I’ve had a number of years to assess and reassess that reality. It’s possible as a one man operation for me to do okay at that, but it’s a subsistence business not a business model. It’s not a business plan,” explained Aaron Ellingsen.
His company, Ellingsen Woods, is about to go through a relaunch.
Continue reading Ellingsen Woods search for a value added market
David Broadland recently wrote a devastating critique of the old growth logging at Hummingbird Lake on Quadra Island. It is sometimes necessary to cut down an old growth tree, so I asked the Cortes Community Forest how often this occurs in their operation.
Continue reading Controversy over a Quadra Island Woodlot
The Rainforest Trail, near Tofino, is much more than a simple path through the woods. Massive western red cedars and western hemlocks tower over visitors as they follow the twisting boardwalks through an enchanted landscape full of the ferns, lichen and fungi typical of an old growth ecosystem. The oldest inhabitant of this stand is a red cedar that was reputedly a sapling when Marco Polo set off for the Orient in 1271. This means it is about 950 years old today. A series of information plaques transform the +2 kilometre hike into an educational experience.
Continue reading Learning about Old Growth on the Rainforest Trail
There were two public forestry events, while Mosaic visited Cortes Island this week.
About 135 people attended the mixed in-person/ZOOM ‘Celebrating our Forests’ meeting at Mansons Hall on the evening of April 20, 2022.
Around 16 people joined Mosaic on at least one of the two field walks of proposed cutblocks the following day. (Someone* went on both trips.)
Continue reading Mosaic visits Cortes Island: A community meeting and forest walkThe photo at the top of this page shows a pile of second growth logs at Mount Elphinstone, on the Sunshine Coast. The yellow ring on the outside is sapwood, which carries water and minerals to the crown of the tree. It both contains more water and is softer than the darker heartwood at a trees core. As trees mature, the sapwood layer grows smaller.
Continue reading When does a tree reach maturity?
