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
The Cortes Forestry General Partnership held its public meeting on October 9th, 2025. In today’s interview, Operations Manager Mark Lombard talks about leadership transitions, plans for selective logging, the Forest Stewardship Plan review, and other topics from the meeting. He also shares his personal opinion about how climate change is affecting our forest.
“We try to have a public meeting every year and we cover whatever topics are relevant at that point. There’s always the year in review, so what have we done in the last year since the last public meeting and what are we planning in the coming year,” explained Lombard.
Continue reading Cortes Island’s Community Forest Operations in 2025/26
The Cortes Community Forest Co-operative’s 2024 AGM will be from 7:30 to 9 PM on Mansons Hall on Wednesday October 9th.
Together with Klahoose Forestry, they make up the Cortes Forestry General Partnership. Mark Lombard, General Manager for the Partnership gave Cortes Currents an overview of their operations this year and plans for the future:
Mark Lombard: “We have pretty good support from the community. Our emphasis is building value for the community, training workers and providing firewood for seniors and logs for local mills. We’re the lightest touch logging operation in the province by a mile and a half.”
“Log prices are really low right now. There’s potential concerns about a recession in the US, or globally, for whatever reasons and because prices are low, we’re not planning to do any logging right now.”
Cortes Currents: So where were you working this year?
Continue reading September 2024 Update from the Cortes Community Forest
The Cortes Forestry General Partnership (CFGP) held a public meeting on Thursday, May 30, 2024. CFGP is an equal partnership between the Klahoose First Nation and the Cortes Community Forest Co-operative and manages operations in the Community Forest, comprised of much of the island’s Crown forests.
The main theme of the meeting was wildfire prevention. Fire Chief Eli McKenty offered an opening presentation on ways the Community Forest and Cortes Island Fire Department are collaborating to reduce fire risks.
Continue reading Cortes Forestry General Partnership Public Meeting Covers Wildfire Prevention and the Five-Year Plan
On a recent, crisp, spring morning, eleven Cortes Islanders joined Mark Lombard, Operations Manager for the Cortes Forestry General Partnership, for a tour and conversation about the future of the Green Mountain area of the Community Forest. CFGP is an equal partnership between the Klahoose First Nation and the Cortes Community Forest Cooperative (CCFC). This tour was part of community consultation around the development of the CFGP’s new five-year plan. Operations in this area are expected to occur in the later part of the next five-year period.
Continue reading Cortes Community Forest Five-Year Plan Update: Tour of the Green Mountain Cut Block
