There were two public forestry events, while Mosaic visited Cortes Island this week.
About 135 people attended the mixed in-person/ZOOM ‘Celebrating our Forests’ meeting at Mansons Hall on the evening of April 20, 2022.
Around 16 people joined Mosaic on at least one of the two field walks of proposed cutblocks the following day. (Someone* went on both trips.)
Continue reading Mosaic visits Cortes Island: A community meeting and forest walkHello Colin Koszman and Molly Hudson, representatives of Mosaic:
In the face of a climate emergency and the accelerating loss of biodiversity, the Friends of Cortes Island Society (FOCI) has serious concerns regarding Mosaic’s current plans to cut ecologically significant forests on Cortes. We would like to see Mosaic join the efforts of the Cortes community to create an alternative model for forestry that would sustain the environment and local communities over the long term, rather than spend our time and energy in opposition.
Continue reading Letter to Mosaic, from FOCI
[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.
Continue reading A Brief History of Forest Activism on Cortes Island
Regional Director Noba Anderson unveiled some new information about TELUS’s proposed Cortes Island cell phone tower(s), in a report she gave the SRD Board on Wednesday March 16th, 2022.
Continue reading SRD Report: New details on the TELUS tower(s)(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.
Continue reading A brief history of Cortes, Forestry and Mosaic
