On the wild, forested shores of Cortes Island, a unique relationship has taken root—one of deep respect and mindful coexistence between humans and wolves. At the heart of this ongoing effort is Sabina Leader Mense, a biologist, educator, and champion of wild creatures whose vision helped shape a community-wide approach to living alongside apex predators.
Continue reading Sabina Leader Mense & the Wolves of Cortes: A Story of Coexistence
Over the past few years there have been increasing reports of wolves preying on black bears. There have been no reports of this on Cortes Island, and a lot of residents first heard about it at the 2024 Wildlife Coexistence Gathering, at Linnaea Farm.
Todd Windle of Wild About Wolves explained that the evidences of wolves preying upon bears in the Pacific Rim National Park Reserve go back to the reappearance of wolf population in the area.
Continue reading Study finds Black Bears are #4 in Wolves’ diet
There was an increasing number of wolf sightings and encounters on Cortes Island during the closing months of 2008. A number of posts in the Tideline over the course of the next two years mention ‘an awful lot of them on the island, in an awfully short time.’ There were mixed reactions. A Squirrel Cove resident wrote that 15 ran through one of their neighbours yards at 4 AM. Someone had a ‘magical encounter’ with a large black wolf, standing on the foot bridge over the channel connecting Gunflint and Hague Lakes, as she paddled through with her canoe. Another resident reported that three wolves killed her dog, only 70 feet from her house.
More than 150 people gathered in the Linnaea School, on January 17, 2009, when Sabina Leader Mense brought in two experts to share their experiences with wolves. Conservation Officer Ben York thanked the audience for bringing him in to discuss the situation, rather than put an animal down. He also stated that some of the wolves on Cortes ‘are very habituated’ and ‘˜there is a level of tolerance for these animals that is endangering them.’
The other expert was Bob Hansen, a wildlife/human conflict specialist in the Pacific Rim National Reserve.
Hansen was also one of the principle speakers at the recent Wildlife Coexistence Gathering on Cortes Island. He explained that prior to receiving Sabina’s invitation, his attention was primarily focused on the Pacific Rim community.
Continue reading Origins of the Cortes Community Wolf ProjectIn the first of a series of articles from Cortes Islands recent Wildlife Coexistence Gathering, Cortes Currents looked at Vancouver Island’s first wildlife coexistence program in the Pacific Rim National Park Reserve. The problem at that time was human/bear conflicts. By the time Sabina Leader Mense reached out from Cortes Island, in 2009, Bear Aware (later renamed WildSafeBC) had been dealing with wolves and cougars for more than a decade.
Bob Hansen, Pacific Rim Coordinator for WildSafeBC, described the wolves’ sudden appearance.
“Up until this point in time, it was bears and nothing but bears. In 1998/99, the wolves showed up after being missing from our area for decades. Their presence was very dramatically felt. I remember getting a phone call from the local paper in January of 1999, ‘have you been getting wolf reports?’ I checked our database, and we’d had six wolf reports since 1972. I said, ‘nope.’ Within two weeks it started, the wolves were back.”
Hansen suspects that modern forestry methods may be at least partially responsible for the influx of wolves and cougars into his area.
Continue reading Connecting the Dots: Forestry Management And Some Implications For WildlifePublic consultation around plans for the next five years of timber harvesting got back underway on Saturday, March 23, with a tour of the Larsen’s Meadow cut block led by Operations Manager Mark Lombard. Two more public tours are currently scheduled: March 30 in the Carrington/Coulter Bay area and April 20 in the Green Mountain area. These outdoor tours are part of the follow-up to an initial public meeting in the Spring of 2023, when maps and preliminary plans were presented.
Lombard works for the Cortes Forestry General Partnership (CFGP), which holds the tenure (right to log) for the Cortes Community Forest, comprising much of the Crown Land on Cortes Island. CFGP is a partnership between Klahoose First Nation (KFN) and Cortes Community Forest Co-operative (CCFC).
Continue reading Cortes Community Forest Five-Year Plan Update: Tour of the Larsen’s Meadow Cut Block
