Tag Archives: Hemlock

Forests

Cortes Community Forest Five-Year Plan Update: Tour of the Larsen’s Meadow Cut Block

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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). 

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Forests

Ellingsen Woods search for a value added market

“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. 

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Forests, Parks

Learning about Old Growth on the Rainforest Trail

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.

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Forests

Recognizing Root Rot

(#2 in a series coming out of the Cortes Forestry General Partnership’s 2022 AGM)

According to BC Hydro, more than half the province’s power outages are caused by falling trees. That number is probably higher on Cortes and Quadra Islands, which are heavily forested. Trees appear to be dropping on the power lines every time there is a storm. There are also large numbers of relatively young trees falling over in the forest, and in people’s yards. Some of them were critically weakened by root rot. 

In yesterday’s interview, General Manager Mark Lombard said a significant number of the fir trees that Cortes Forestry General Partnership recently harvested were afflicted by root rot.  

So Cortes Currents asked, “how do you recognize root rot?”

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Forests

David Shipway’s public letter to Mosaic

Attn: Colin Koszman/ Land Use Forester, Molly Hudson/ Director of Sustainability

I started my working life in the late 60’s, surveying cutblocks and new roads with MacMillan Bloedel on many of the lands now being managed by Mosaic – up in the headwaters of the Oyster, the Quinsam, the Campbell, the Eve and the Salmon. I witnessed the last of the valley bottom old growth being logged, magnificent cedar groves that would now be considered a national treasure, and saw the montaine plateaus of Mountain Hemlock, ancient Yellow Cedar and Western Yew before anyone had touched them.

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