Tag Archives: Logging

Regional History

How People’s Attitudes Towards Nature Changed

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By Roy L Hales

What was life like in the era before cell phones, computers and televisions. Did British Columbians feel closer to nature when they worked outside in the elements rather than within the artificial confines of a building? In this mornings program I ask Mike Manson, a descendant of one of Cortes Island’s oldest European families, and Mike Moore, one of our better known eco-tour guides, how public attitudes towards nature changed since the first settlers arrived.
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Lifestyle

Visiting Avatar Grove

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By Roy L Hales

Though it is no longer a secret, relatively few North Americans have visited one of the continent’s oldest extant stands of giant old-growth red cedar and Douglas fir. The site was slated to be clearcut, when T J Watt spotted a large cedar close to Route 14 just outside of Port Renfrew, British Columbia, in 2009. Figuring there was likely to be more, he hiked into the forest. The Victoria based Ancient Forest Alliance was born out of the campaign to protect the ten acre site now known as Avatar Grove.
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Local News

Cortes Community Forest’s First Five Years

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By Roy L Hales

British Columbia’s old growth forests fertilize themselves as efficiently as a farmer looking after his fields. The tree plantations that are fast replacing them lack this ability. If this trend continues, the province’s vast forests may be a memory in the next two or three centuries. The inhabitants of one tiny island are trying to change this. In this morning’s program one of the directors, Bruce Ellingsen, tells me about Cortes Community Forest’s first five years of operations.

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Sustainability

British Columbia’s Fight For Sustainable Logging

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By Roy L Hales

When Island Timberlands arrived in 2012, they found Cortes island residents waiting behind a blockade. The Vancouver Observer sent a young film maker to cover the story, but Daniel Pierce found more than just another clash between a logging company and local environmentalists. He is still documenting British Columbia’s fight for sustainable logging.

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Sustainability

Potentially Embarrassing Questions About BC’s Stumpage Rates

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By Roy L Hales

screen-shot-2014-03-18-at-3-43-47-pm1During a recent interview,  film maker Damien Gillis said “there would be a great deal of outrage” if the public knew the degree to which we subsidize logging old growth forests. These subsidies come in the form of lower stumpage fees for the remote areas where most of our surviving ancient forests still persist.  Gillis also informed me this is a central issue in the United States’ softwood dispute with Canada. After the interview, I drew up a series of potentially embarrassing questions about BC’s stumpage rates.

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