Tag Archives: MacMillan Bloedel

Forests, Rivers & Oceans

Environmental concerns about the Gorge Harbour log dump

When a large volume of logs were dumped in Gorge Harbour, during the 1970s and 80s, they caused extensive damage to the underwater environment.

One of the questions raised at Mosaic’s Cortes Island ZOOM meeting, last January, revolved around the possibility that reactivating the log dump could also have negative impacts. Mike Moore dove beneath the log dump about fifteen years ago. At that time, he observed a thick layer of wood debris and sediments, covered by ‘bacterial mats.’ Moore was concerned about the possibility a new disturbance of the sediments could pollute nearby shellfish operations. 

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Environment, Forests

Delores Broten: the 1990 logging blockade, FOCI and origins of the Watershed Sentinel

The Friends of Cortes Island (FOCI) was talked about in the past tense, when Delores Broten and Don Malcom moved to Cortes in 1987. In the first of a series of posts about the origins of FOCI, Broten talks about the 1990 logging blockade that inspired FOCI’s rebirth, and led to the award-winning environmental magazine ‘the Watershed Sentinel.’

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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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Forests, Opinion

A Brief History of Forest Activism on Cortes Island

[researched and written by Mike Moore, edited and produced for radio by De Clarke]

Cortes Islanders are very aware that we live on an island. The landbase has a very defined perimeter with the ocean; but the way the land wraps around and encloses the island’s many harbours and bays means that the land has a very intimate and close connection with the ocean. We know that the land, lakes, creeks and ocean are all interrelated.

Standing on a Cortes beach allows one to see what is happening on the lands around us in a bigger perspective. From Smelt Bay, we could witness the clearcuts sprawling across the mountainsides on Vancouver Island. From either side of Sutil Point, we could see the pulp mills in Campbell River and Powell River belching steam and smoke into the sky.

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Forests, History

A brief history of Cortes, Forestry and Mosaic

(De Clarke produced the audio version of this story, which is part of the March 15th Cortes Currents broadcast.)

The people living on this island have had a long and deep history with its forests. First Nation people lived here at least 4,000 years ago with new research pushing that date back to 10,000 years and perhaps even more.

In 1896 the first European settlers arrived and began clearing the forest for their homesteads. By the 1920’s, there were 120 families on this island making a living from logging so that by the 40’s and 50’s, much of the easily accessible old growth forests were already fallen. Today on any walk in the woods, you can still see those massive, ancient stumps.

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