Community Articles
General News · 14th March 2024
David Shipway, president CCFC
This startling but very accurate satellite mapping from Global Forest Change shows how much Cortes Island has been spared the large scale disturbances of timber extractions (and some fire) that have taken place in this region during this century alone.
This bigger picture perspective exemplifies how this island community has resisted the regional trend, and we are now quite notorious for that justified protection, and should celebrate our imperfect victory.
On Cortes you can see the squarish yellow patches on private F1 lands where the absence of good regulations facilitates wholesale logging, and you can see the blue Von 1 patch cut in 2022 that contained so much Fir root rot that it required an experimental conversion to White Pine. But you will need very good eyes to see the other tiny patches that were harvested with care in our Community Forest, in the unceded territory of the region's First Nations.
The close-up map presented on Tideline by the Friends of Anvil Lake is not a product from CFGP, and is not quite accurate. It has erroneous watershed boundaries drawn on it that makes it look like the Partnership is making a far bigger incursion into the Anvil watershed at this time than in reality. Reality and accuracy is very important in these ongoing discussions, and so is the fact that no matter where we might go in this Community Forest, we are standing in a very sensitive watershed, and must act with great care not to do any harm to the water, the source of all life.
We do need to set a good example in forestry, and think of it like permaculture. There are several important things that the whole community should appreciate, which may help illuminate the never-ending discussion about best practices as we develop practical, safe, minimal and ecological access where necessary to conduct small-scale ecosystem-based forestry, and use smarter technologies when they become available. By cutting a very small percentage of the growth rate, the overall forest profile will age significantly, and a large amount of carbon will indeed be sequestered. It's also the Community Forest's social obligation to provide some recommended yet limited access for rapid fire suppression if needed during dry spells.
BC is finally starting to implement a new province-wide program of Landscape Planning and consultation requirements for all forest licensees. Our Sunshine Coast Forest District, in discussions and workshops with other licensees, is now presenting our Cortes Community Forest and it's quality in landscape-level planning and community consultation as the Gold Standard that they can all learn from. Wow! So our CFGP venture is already having a positive influence on the region as a whole, and we should celebrate that recognition, rather than think we are always failing to do what's necessary. There's that saying that the Perfect can be the enemy of the Good, but we need to have some faith that good practice can make perfect over time, in a cautious and creative interaction with this wonderful forested ecosystem.
At least 3 years of interdisciplinary planning have already gone into the current activities in the Gorge Harbour block of the CF, along with two years of exhaustive public involvement and accommodations to local community input. Folks can also go to the CFGP and CCFC websites and download accurate maps, showing precisely how much of the Community Forest is off limits to timber extraction, and this reduced area is like a legal obligation we made both to this community and the province when we obtained the CFA tenure with Klahoose. There are also more details posted about the current operations, and the general areas of interest that form the new 5 year Plan, which will only proceed with more community consultation.
We are in all honesty proceeding at a snail's pace with this planning for many different reasons, and call for patience and fuller understanding of the complexities of the process, and the deep commitments we have made towards some of the highest forestry standards in BC. Our mapping will get better and better, especially with LIDAR which is coming to Cortes soon.
We sure don't have to all think exactly alike in how we perceive the world, but we do have to respect each other's differences because we do need to live together on this island in peace, and protect our beautiful living ecosystems as well as the nascent and indigenous local economy in wood-related creativity. We need to be honest and not perpetrate falsehoods and distortions that get people angry and alarmed for the wrong reasons. Changes are often very difficult to adapt to, and yet the whole living world is constantly changing around us and always has, perhaps making the goal of "preservation" something that really only exists in theory.
Hopefully this posting reduces disinformation, and leads to further calm and creative conversations that are based in reality and compassion. There's certainly far more to this complex and evolving story, but it needs to be told by the Partnership and not by me.
Again, visit the CFGP website for a fair but admittedly imperfect public presentation of the current facts, and keep asking your good questions, providing good suggestions.
http://www.cortesforestrypartnership.com/
https://cortescommunityforestcoop.squarespace.com/
This bigger picture perspective exemplifies how this island community has resisted the regional trend, and we are now quite notorious for that justified protection, and should celebrate our imperfect victory.
On Cortes you can see the squarish yellow patches on private F1 lands where the absence of good regulations facilitates wholesale logging, and you can see the blue Von 1 patch cut in 2022 that contained so much Fir root rot that it required an experimental conversion to White Pine. But you will need very good eyes to see the other tiny patches that were harvested with care in our Community Forest, in the unceded territory of the region's First Nations.
The close-up map presented on Tideline by the Friends of Anvil Lake is not a product from CFGP, and is not quite accurate. It has erroneous watershed boundaries drawn on it that makes it look like the Partnership is making a far bigger incursion into the Anvil watershed at this time than in reality. Reality and accuracy is very important in these ongoing discussions, and so is the fact that no matter where we might go in this Community Forest, we are standing in a very sensitive watershed, and must act with great care not to do any harm to the water, the source of all life.
We do need to set a good example in forestry, and think of it like permaculture. There are several important things that the whole community should appreciate, which may help illuminate the never-ending discussion about best practices as we develop practical, safe, minimal and ecological access where necessary to conduct small-scale ecosystem-based forestry, and use smarter technologies when they become available. By cutting a very small percentage of the growth rate, the overall forest profile will age significantly, and a large amount of carbon will indeed be sequestered. It's also the Community Forest's social obligation to provide some recommended yet limited access for rapid fire suppression if needed during dry spells.
BC is finally starting to implement a new province-wide program of Landscape Planning and consultation requirements for all forest licensees. Our Sunshine Coast Forest District, in discussions and workshops with other licensees, is now presenting our Cortes Community Forest and it's quality in landscape-level planning and community consultation as the Gold Standard that they can all learn from. Wow! So our CFGP venture is already having a positive influence on the region as a whole, and we should celebrate that recognition, rather than think we are always failing to do what's necessary. There's that saying that the Perfect can be the enemy of the Good, but we need to have some faith that good practice can make perfect over time, in a cautious and creative interaction with this wonderful forested ecosystem.
At least 3 years of interdisciplinary planning have already gone into the current activities in the Gorge Harbour block of the CF, along with two years of exhaustive public involvement and accommodations to local community input. Folks can also go to the CFGP and CCFC websites and download accurate maps, showing precisely how much of the Community Forest is off limits to timber extraction, and this reduced area is like a legal obligation we made both to this community and the province when we obtained the CFA tenure with Klahoose. There are also more details posted about the current operations, and the general areas of interest that form the new 5 year Plan, which will only proceed with more community consultation.
We are in all honesty proceeding at a snail's pace with this planning for many different reasons, and call for patience and fuller understanding of the complexities of the process, and the deep commitments we have made towards some of the highest forestry standards in BC. Our mapping will get better and better, especially with LIDAR which is coming to Cortes soon.
We sure don't have to all think exactly alike in how we perceive the world, but we do have to respect each other's differences because we do need to live together on this island in peace, and protect our beautiful living ecosystems as well as the nascent and indigenous local economy in wood-related creativity. We need to be honest and not perpetrate falsehoods and distortions that get people angry and alarmed for the wrong reasons. Changes are often very difficult to adapt to, and yet the whole living world is constantly changing around us and always has, perhaps making the goal of "preservation" something that really only exists in theory.
Hopefully this posting reduces disinformation, and leads to further calm and creative conversations that are based in reality and compassion. There's certainly far more to this complex and evolving story, but it needs to be told by the Partnership and not by me.
Again, visit the CFGP website for a fair but admittedly imperfect public presentation of the current facts, and keep asking your good questions, providing good suggestions.
http://www.cortesforestrypartnership.com/
https://cortescommunityforestcoop.squarespace.com/