Category Archives: Forests

Animals, Forests

Connecting the Dots: Forestry Management And Some Implications For Wildlife

In 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. 

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Forests

Logging in watershed frustrates Quadra Island residents

Editor’s note: On January 27, 2022, Mosaic unveiled its three year plan to log Cortes Island. Community opinion quickly turned against them after it became apparent that the forestry giant intended to harvest the forest at a rate six times greater than that of the Cortes Forestry General Partnership. Many Cortesians want to see the forest restored to what it was before the advent of industrial scale logging. In the face of a potential large scale community resistance, Mosiac has not commenced logging.

In 2010, the Forest Trust for the Children of Cortes Island was formed to purchase 600 acres of Mosaic’s land in the James Creek Watershed. Negotiations have been ongoing, and there is hope that the deal will soon be finalized.

Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

A Quadra Island community is increasingly frustrated by its inability to protect vital watersheds from being clear-cut despite the increasing risks of climate change. 

Many residents in the Copper Bluffs community and elsewhere on the island have been urging Mosaic Forest Management to reconsider logging remnants of mature forests, particularly in stream sheds and wetlands. 

Despite long-standing opposition from residents, Mosaic has harvested six parcels totalling five hectares from tree farm licence 47 (TFL 47), which spans most of the island north of Gowlland Harbour and Hyacinth Bay. 

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Forests

Cortes Community Forest Five-Year Plan Update: Tour of the Larsen’s Meadow Cut Block

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Public 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). 

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Forests

Once A Major Source of Employment

The number of jobs provided by cutting island forests is no longer a key concern of either tenure holders or government

Originally published by the Discovery Islands Forest Conservation Project

By David Broadland

Ministry of Forests’ records suggest 80 to 90 percent of the cut on Quadra Island is exported as raw logs by Mosaic Forest Management—all to support government employee pensions.

At one time in BC, the damage done by logging forests was considered an acceptable cost for the jobs provided. In 1965, for example, for each 1000 cubic metres of wood harvested, there were 1.69 people employed in logging, milling and allied industries.

But by 2019, that number had fallen to less than a full job—.79 person per 1000 cubic metres. That’s less than half of what it was in 1965. Ouch.

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Forests

The Quadra Project – The Log Exporting Business

In response to Quadra Islanders’ concerns about the amount of our Island’s logs that are exported internationally rather than being processed in British Columbia, Mosaic sent an explanatory website link (https://www.mosaicforests.com/about-our-business#servinglocal). This link attempts to justify the exports, but it also reveals the wider social and economic strategy that guides Mosaic’s behaviour and its logging practices on both Quadra and elsewhere. It makes informative reading.

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