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November 2004
Newsletter #17
Island Land-Use Update

Contents

Land-Use Updates
1. Crown Lands Update p. 1
2. Weyerhaeuser Lands Update p. 2
3. Renewal Land Company Update p. 3
4. Non-Timber Forest Products Guide p. 3
5. Whaletown Community Commons p. 4
6. Stamets Mycoforestry Project p. 5

About CES
1. Letter from the Executive Director p. 6
2. Garden Soirée & Auction p. 7
3. Sustainability Home Show p. 7
4. Board and Staff Changes p. 8

Crown Lands Update

The BC Liberal government sees no alternative other than to eventually grant Cortes a Community Forest. This was the upshot from our summer meeting with Honourable Roger Harris, Minister of State for Forestry Operations. In fact, they say that community forests are best suited for places precisely like Cortes. They certainly understand that our Crown Lands are “socially inoperable” for industrial logging. Well done everyone for making our small island so clearly heard in Victoria!! To paraphrase Harris: Stop sending us letters, we get it already, most Cortes residents want a community forest!

Since Klahoose Chief and Council are not currently supporting the Community Forest proposal, the situation remains in limbo. The Provincial government is not willing to grant Community Forest licences if they conflict with First Nation wishes, and rightly so while land rights are still under Treaty negotiations.

So, given the current situation, we should not expect steady incremental progress. However, under the right conditions, we will make great strides forward just as we have in the past. CES remains committed to pursuing a Community Forest which will be managed in partnership, and for the benefit of all Cortes residents. Politics and politicians change frequently, but the underlying support for community ecoforestry only seems to get stronger. The long term prospects for a Cortes Community Forest are very good.

Chris Hatch, Secretary

Weyerhaeuser Lands Update

Weyerhaeuser is in the process of selling all their private land holdings on Cortes, as they are doing across much of North America. Weyerhaeuser has already sold 30% of its Cortes holdings, 1,200 of 3,900 acres (areas shaded grey on map). 83% of this has gone to entities who are a part of the community and/or consider themselves responsive to our collective forestry aspirations. CES remains committed to doing whatever we can to see that much of this land remains in the active forest land-base and is managed in accordance with our Cortes ecosystem-based plan. These Weyerhaeuser lands are key to our island’s forest connectivity.

Lands Soon for Sale

•The 4 Bartholomew Rd parcels, zoned Forest Land Reserve (F-1), totalling approx. 423 acres, are expected to list for sale this winter.
•The northern tract of lands stretching from Squirrel Cove to Carrington, also F-1, totalling just over 2,000 acres are expected to sell a year later. (These calculations do not include the three parcels to the north and east of Squirrel Cove.)

Our Community Choice

Weyerhaeuser is expected to favor, where reasonable, conservation and island friendly offers. Land prices have reflected standing timber value plus real estate value. Apart from pure philanthropic investment, the purchaser will therefore be required to either heavily log or apply for rezoning and increase housing.

As an alternative to off-island industrial logging buyers, CES is exploring how we may support the ecoforestry aspect of various creative purchase options on these lands. We, as a community, will need to decide if some housing in these areas would be tolerable, and if so, how much. In exchange, upwards of 80% of the land could remain in the active forest land-base. Our collective commitment to real solutions provides strong support for CES’ position that Cortes is uniquely suited to meet the challenges of operating a community forest.

Noba Anderson, Executive Director

Non-Timber Forest Products Guide

The Centre for Non-Timber Resources at Royal Roads University is compiling a directory of BC businesses that derive products or services from the forest or other wild areas. It is free to list in the directory and 20,000 copies will be made available to the public for free. This project is intended to help connect BC businesses to their target customers.

See www.royalroads.ca/cntr, or contact Geoff Gosson, at ‘Buy BCwild’ (250) 381-4766

Whaletown Community Commons;
Simply Common Sense

Last year, Weyerhaeuser's 73-acre Whaletown Creek property came up for sale. It is located right in the centre of the Whaletown community, next to the fire hall. This property is the only sizable, undeveloped, centrally located area left in Whaletown, connecting the neighbour-hoods of Jocelyn, Carrington Bay, Olmstead and Whaletown roads. Trails through the land provide some of the area's only off-road hiking opportunities. This parcel contains one of our island's most beautiful, salmon-bearing creeks. Surrounding the creek are several partially clear cut areas, which are accessible by good logging roads - perfect, secure locations for the public facilities that our growing community will soon need.

For the past year, a group of dedicated volunteers has been working with the community, the Regional District, and Renewal Land Company to find a way to acquire this property for the public. George Sirk, our Regional Director, has been and continues to be an avid advocate for gaining community control of this parcel.

Many islanders showed their enthusiasm for this idea at a community meeting, held on June 2nd. There was broad agreement that we should find a way to put this land in public hands, thereby preserving the beautiful, environmentally sensitive creek, securing sites for public facilities that provide ample off-road parking, and developing an emergency access road to Olmstead and Jocelyn Roads.

The question is: how do we pay for this unique opportunity, without having to liquidate large portions of the remaining forest?

In the next month, there will be another community meeting to discuss and seek support for the financial plan currently being researched by the Regional District. Here is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to stand behind a vision for "community lands in community hands." Your involvement is needed now to secure this land which will provide opportunities and benefits for future generations.

Look for posters and ads about an upcoming community meeting. We need to know there is support in the community. Please call, email or write with your expressions of support, your ideas and any questions you might have. Talk to neighbours and friends to get them involved too. Now is the time to plan a positive and sustainable future for Whaletown. Together we will make this dream come true!

Write to Box 254, Whaletown or call Oliver Kellhammer 935-6664 or Hubert Havelaar 935-6947 for more info.

A Collaborative article by Suzan Denis, Oliver Kellhammer, Hubert Havelaar, George Sirk, and Joel Solomon.

The Stamets Mycoforestry
Research Project

Traditional foresters prescribe burning the debris on a clear cut. Generally, I oppose burning as a management policy for reforestation and propose a new, combined strategy. Our land will become the experimental theatre for testing these hypotheses. This multi-lifetime long experiment will compare the effects of introducing mycorrhizae and the effects of a top-dressing of wood chips as a source of delayed release nutrients and to help retain moisture.

Approximately 35,000 Douglas Fir and Cedar seedlings were planted in November of 2003. Half of the trees were root-dipped in a mycorrhizal spore-slurry containing spores from two species of natively occurring puffballs. The root balls of half the cedars were exposed to approximately half a million spores of the endomycorrhizal Glomus intradices while half the Douglas Firs were exposed to a similar quantity of the ectomycorrhizal Rhizopogon parksii. In the summer of 2004, we placed a gallon of wood chips around half of the spore-treated and non-spored treated trees to test if decomposing wood chips further benefited tree growth.

An immediate, potential benefit of top dressing is that the woodchips caused a localized drop in soil temperature to the newly planted seedlings. As native fungi decompose the top dressing of wood chips, a slow stream of nutrients will be released to the root zones. Mushroom mycelium is the grand de-molecularizer of plant fibres (lignin and cellulose), creating soil as an end-consequence. My goal is to increase soil depth so that the soil has a greater carrying capacity for the tree successions that spring from it. We engaged Tor Ellingsen and his crew to mulch about 50% of the brush remaining from clearcutting. Mulching reduces fuel load in forests and increases moisture retention. I see wood chips as valuable ecological currency that should be re-invested into forests’ ecosphere to enhance sustainability.

A labour of love, we are grateful for the support of many volunteers, who helped spread woodchips in June through August during some of the hottest days of the year. In September of 2004, we tagged and measured the height and girth of approximately 700 trees. The data showed a net 9-10% increase in height and girth, which we believe is significant given that the trees had been in the ground for only 10 months. We plan to return yearly to continue measurements, and expand the data base to include thousands of trees throughout the years to come.

Logging companies could chip wood debris, leave it in the cut forestland, and disperse these nutrient-fragments over the ground to help refuel the carbon cycle. This added expense does not thrill most investment loggers who wish to maximize returns and minimize costs. The incentive is for those who take a long-term view of the forest, and its ecological health. Communities seeking long-term sustainable practices may want to incentivize land owners to make an investment whose returns will benefit generations to come.

Paul Stamets, Fungi Perfecti

A Cortes Forest Vision

There is a strong and growing community forest movement in British Columbia, and Cortes Island is at its leading edge.

What is community forestry?

People and communities in BC, and the world over, are demanding more local control over decisions that affect their lives. One of the best ways of ensuring community decisions is to secure land control. The central question for many rural communities and First Nations is who controls our land, and how is this control exercised? Control is power; the power to make decisions about our land, our lives, our future.

Simply put, community forestry is local citizens, making local land-use decisions, for the long-term benefit of local forests and people.

Why is Cortes at the leading edge?

The more I traveled BC, learning from various community forest efforts, the more I realised how well Cortes is suited for our own community forest. Community forests succeed because of the passion and commitment of people.

There already exist a handful of community forests around the province, the legal policy is in place, and there is governmental commitment to award more. Provincially, the groundwork has been laid.

Over the past 14 years, the Cortes community has also laid our local groundwork. We have the key elements for a successful community forest here on Cortes.

•Cortes has an unwavering dedication to local land stewardship. Upwards of 80% of Cortesians support CES’ work.
•We have one of BC’s few ecosystem-based plans including high quality maps. This plan focuses on what to leave, not on what to take.
•We have huge collective spirit, volunteerism and dedication. We pull off truly amazing efforts!
•The Crown, or public, lands on Cortes are currently unallocated, making them available for a community forest licence.
•We have the collective financial means and willingness to support this vision.
•We love this island. This is key!

Why is CES so important?

•A community forest needs a community organisation.
•CES provides a unified and reliable community voice in negotiations with Government, Weyerhaeuser and other bodies. This consistency is pivotal.
•Because of CES’ consistent community forest pursuits, the government has come to realise that there is no other viable alternative for this island.
•CES has been an active partner in the very positive, historical working relationship between the native and non-native Cortes communities. We remain open and committed to this relationship.
•We have an amazing Board of world class environmentalists, thinkers and social activists. We can make it happen. We're working for you!

The Cortes Community Forest is a powerful model, and our world needs more creative, solutions-oriented models. We need your help. Be part of the solution. Support CES!

Noba Anderson, Executive Director

Our 4th Annual Garden Soiree & Auction Fundraiser

Picture a beautifully warm summer evening in Raven Farm’s lavish flower garden. Over 200 guests, dressed in festive attire are awash in musical serenades. Cooks have been busy for days, and a swarm of chatter envelopes the food tables. The work of 40 local craftspeople is on display. With smiling bellies and lubricated spirits, we move into the barn and, seated on hay bales, are stirred into an auction frenzy by our very own George Sirk.
Close to $10,000 was raised for CES, and an additional $3,000 was paid to auction contributors. Over 90 people contributed time, food, auction pieces and energy!!! A huge thank you to our host Nancy, the artists, woodworkers, guests and many volunteers who all made our Garden Soiree and Auction Fundraiser such a success! Thank-you all!

CES at FOCI’s 3rd Annual Sustainability Home Show
Saturday, October 23rd, 2004
Manson’s Hall

Noba Anderson gave the opening presentation entitled “Growing a Community Forest Economy; Cortes in the Provincial Context”. At noon the “ValueAdded Wood Products” booth opened. Many people stopped by to admire beautifully crafted products by Alden Sherwood, Garvin Morris, Amy Robertson, Jim Kearney, Ron Bazar, Walter Grundman, Bruce Ellingsen, Amie Hertzig, Ian le Cheminent, King Karl, and Leo. Even some student projects from the Cortes School were there. Thanks to all of you for making the booth a success! Cortes Island is indeed rich in woodworking talent and skills.

Welcome New Board

Thank you to the former Board of Directors for your dedication and hard work over the past year(s).

I am thrilled to be working with our dynamic new board! This board, committed to CES’ traditional goals, brings bright new energy to the organisation.

•Kristen Schofield-Sweet, President, is an artist, drum-maker, art educator, and offers board experience & policy development skills.
•Since coming to BC in 1973, Bob Tracy, Vice-Chair, has worked in the forest industry in production, forestry engineering, booming, log grading and scaling.
•Christopher Hatch, Secretary, served as the E. D. for the Rainforest Action Network, becoming the architect of the “Home Depot” campaign, which succeeded in redirecting the wood products industry by leveraging the power of retailers and customers.
•Julia Watson, Treasurer, has a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and many years experience working in the banking industry.
•John Anderson has an MBA degree in sustainable development. He is interested in demonstrating that Cortes has the ability to manage the Crown land sustainably and profitably, and is dedicated to bringing the community together to inform this process.
•Bruce Ellingsen comes from the first European family to settle on Cortes. He offers extensive experience in wood product industries including three years of logging/ booming, three years of sawmill operation and fourteen years of house construction.
•Tom Gregg grew up on Cortes Island and is now raising his family where he has always enjoyed a supportive community. He is a carpenter and home builder on the island.
•Having been a founding member of The Trust for Sustainable Forestry and the Somerset Foundation, Ann Mortifee is now the CEO of ECO Initiatives Inc.
•Living and working in the forests on Cortes inspired Mary Clare Preston to get formal training in forestry, and in 2002, she earned her diploma in forestry technology.

Kirsten Schofield-Sweet, President

Staff Changes

Thanks to Suzan Denis and Carrie Saxifrage for their contributions as Office Manager and Executive Director, respectively.

Suzan has recently chosen to resign from the CES team in favour of other ongoing employment. We will miss her enthusiasm, clarity and organizational skills. We are currently in the hiring process for another office manager.

Carrie has long been a guide and inspiration for our Society; she was our first Executive Director and we are pleased that she is staying on as an advisor to CES.

In June, we welcomed Noba Anderson as our second Executive Director. Raised on Cortes and inspired by the island's community forest efforts, Noba traveled throughout BC while working with the Dogwood Initiative to learn from many community forest ventures. As a result, she published a leading report "Connecting Lands and People: Community Forests in British Columbia'.

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