Tag Archives: Root Rot

Wildfire Risk Reduction in Squirrel Cove area

There’s a wildfire risk reduction underway in the Community Forest  near Squirrel Cove.

“This is something that we’ve been working on since 2018.  It was identified as a priority in the 2020 Community Wildfire Protection Plan.  We received funding for a prescription, then we got funding to do an archaeological assessment, as required by law in the Tla’amin First Nation and then this year we obtained funding through the Forest Enhancement Society of BC to carry out the treatment..  I’m just really excited to see it happening because when you see an overgrown plantation like this,  it feels really good to be able to reinvest in the land base to leave a better forest for the future generation and reduce the wildfire risk in this neighbourhood,” explained to Mark Lombard, General Manager of the Cortes Forestry General Partnership.

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Brian Scott, Sherman Barker & Isabelle LaPlante: on the Cortes Experience

Around 40 people turned out to the Cortes Island Museum on November 10 for the launch of a series of community speakers. The host, Brian Scott traced the idea for ‘Finding Home: The Cortes Island Experience’  to a conversation he had with Sherman Barker. 

“Sherman and I have known each other for a few years, it’s long other story, but he was up on Easter Bluff one day when Jane and I went up for a hike.  We’re chatting, and he started telling us his arrival story. It actually goes even further back to when he came as a kid.  He said, there’s lots of stories on the island here and if we don’t somehow capture them, we’re going to lose them.” 

“I thought it would be an interesting thing for the museum to do because the museum has artifacts that it’s saving and preserving and sharing with the public. Stories are artifacts as well. How do we capture those? Then it occurred to me, well, why don’t we do a speaker series? I approached Sherman and said, ‘Hey, what do you think? You want to be the first?’ And he’s like, ‘yep, It’s awesome.’”  

Continue reading Brian Scott, Sherman Barker & Isabelle LaPlante: on the Cortes Experience

Confusion around the proposed Anvil Lake logging road

Cortes Currents published a factually incorrect story about the proposed Anvil Lake logging road on Tuesday, August 30, 2022.

Few people knew this, because I pulled the story before it was broadcast on Cortes Radio.

Nick Reed, a local resident, told me, “The concern is mainly the wetlands that this road has to go through, and what effect that will have on Gunflint (and Anvil) Lakes. It is the last wetland on the southern part of Cortes.”

Mark Lombard, general manager of the Cortes Forestry General Partnership (CFGP),  responded, “The CFGP never builds roads through wetlands.”

Continue reading Confusion around the proposed Anvil Lake logging road

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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Mark Lombard looks back over this past year in the Cortes community forest

(The first in a series of articles coming out of the Cortes Forestry General Partnership’s 2022 AGM)

This has been the Cortes Community Forest’s most profitable year, but that is not the Cortes Forestry General Partnership’s only objective. 

“I always start with what areas do we want to keep,” explained General Manager Mark Lombard. 

He used a recent conversation to illustrate how Cortes is taking a different approach than the industry at large. 

Continue reading Mark Lombard looks back over this past year in the Cortes community forest