Tag Archives: Ron Wolda

Cortes Day: Then and now

The Southern Cortes Community Association (SCCA) estimate 500 people may have turned out for Cortes Day on Saturday, July 15, 2023.

Mike Manson, whose great uncle(1) and grandfather(2) were among the island’s first known European settler, remembers there were once two festivals.

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Cortes Island’s Business Roadmap for Value-Added Forestry Products

On Monday, May 15, Rami Rothkop and Oliver Scholfield unveiled their ‘Business Roadmap for Value-Added Forestry Products’ on Cortes Island at Mansons Hall. 

Most of what they presented has been discussed before, the difference being that they were not just talking about ‘ideas.’ These were things they had already accomplished. That is why the Cortes Community Forest Cooperative hired them. 

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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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Cortes value-added wood products: A workshop for Champions

Narrator: “Mills have closed across rural British Columbia, devastating the economies of many small forestry dependent communities. Tiny Harrop-Proctor Community Forest has bucked this trend. The Harrop-Proctor experience shows that even a small, locally controlled mill can make a significant difference in creating local jobs while adding value to forestry operations generally.”

“ About a quarter of the wood from the community forest  is staying in the community. Comes four kilometres down the hill, ends up here, gets bucked up,  runs through the mill, and local builders are coming to buy stuff.  There’s a huge benefit there because those jobs weren’t here before,” explained Rami Rothkop speaking in a film about Harrop-Procter Forest Products (close to Nelson, in the Kootenays). 

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Bruce Ellingsen: 2022 recipient of the Jo Ann Green Award

Every year, the Friends of Cortes Island (FOCI) give the Jo Ann Green Award to a Cortes Islander who has made a significant contribution to the environmental wellbeing of the community. Bruce Ellingsen is this year’s recipient.

“Jo Ann Green was an exemplary environmentalist who came to Cortes in 1969, and she immediately became involved in social environmental activities on the island,” explained Helen Hall, Executive Director of FOCI. 

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