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May 2005
Newsletter #18
Brascan Corp. on the Islands

Contents

Hanks Beach Not for Sale

For two years, Weyerhaeuser has been poised to sell Hanks Beach along with their three other Bartholomew lots. We just received confirmation that they will not be going up for sale. Charles Smith of Weyerhaeuser wrote, “I can confirm that they [the 4 Bartholomew lots] will not be listed by Weyerhaeuser.”
As you may know from our recent Brascan Snapshot, Weyerhaeuser is about to complete the sale of their entire Coastal operations, including 10% of Cortes, to Brascan Corporation. Given this pending sale, CES requested of Weyerhaeuser that they not sell their Bartholomew properties. This request depended on Brascan’s approval. So, last month, a CES-led Cortes delegation met with Brascan in Vancouver. Thank-you Joel, Laurel and Tzeporah for your valued presence!
Prior to that meeting, Brascan received 90 emails from YOU! You wrote to them expressing your commitment to this island. You let them know that Cortes has dedicated a decade to community forest planning, including these lands. You told them these lands lie at the heart of our southern community and provide extensive trails for both our 2 and 4-footed friends. We told them that CES still considers all of their Cortes private lands to be key in our island- wide community forest proposal and want to work with them to that end. Reid Carter of Brascan stated that “Brascan has developed no strategy and made no plans to put anything on the market within the year. While business minded, we are willing to work with islanders, First Nations and the community towards a solution.” They agreed not to sell Hanks Beach and the surrounds this year. “I think we have time,” stated Carter. The
next move belongs to Cortes.

Noba Anderson
CES Executive Director

Go Haida Gwaii, Go!

Haida Gwaii was my home for thirteen years. In fact, my first teaching assignment was in the town of Port Clements where most of Weyerhaeuser’s logging operations on the Island originate. Working and living in this small resource based town taught me many things about
forestry, environmentalism, and the business of logging. Even though, I consider Cortes Island to be my home, now, I stay in touch with the people and issues on these misty isles.
When news of the Haida Gwaii people standing together to protect their forest resource came through, I wanted to share their story of perseverance and success with Cortesians. There are so many similarities between these two beautiful islands and the issues, too, are poignantly close to all of our hearts. It’s hard to say what the sale of Weyerhaeuser’s private coastal land holdings to Brascan will produce, but one thing is for sure, communities like Haida Gwaii are holding the provincial government accountable for the practices of powerful corporations like Weyerhaeuser and Brascan.

Submitted, with permission, by Suzan Denis

Whaletown Commons Project Forms Society

The Whaletown Commons Society was officially incorporated on May 2, 2005. The purposes of the society
are to:
•Facilitate the process of acquiring land for an ecologically friendly village square and community park;
•Coordinate the development and maintenance of trails and educational signage throughout the park;
•Liaise with community stakeholders throughout the process of developing the village square and community park; and
•Ensure the ecological integrity of the land is maintained through sustainable development practices and covenanting.

The first step in the process is to acquire the land. The directors of the Society are conducting research into all
the aspects that go into preparing a business plan for this unique and multi-faceted piece of land.

For further information, contact:
Oliver Kellhammer 935-6664, oliverk@oberon.ark.com Hubert Havelaar 935-6947
Helen Radosavic 935-6406, helron@island.net Suzan Denis 935-0092, emirah7@yahoo.com

A Rare & Rowdy Concert for Earth Lovers June 4th, Mansons<

Join us for a unique, high-energy and comedic performance by two well-known political, environmental folksingers. On Saturday, June 4th, John Seed and Dana Lyons will be gracing the stage of Manson’s Hall for a fundraising concert for the Cortes Ecoforestry Society and the "Rescue the Katkari" project in India. Dana Lyons’ biggest radio hit, “Cows With Guns,” receives crossover radio play on country, rock, alternative, community, college and oldies radio stations worldwide. His latest release is “Circle the World: Songs & Stories” with Dr. Jane Goodall. Have a listen at www.cowswithguns.com He has performed at grange halls, schools, community centers, colleges, and nuclear dump sites in virtually all 50 states in the last 15 years. His international touring has included tours in Canada, Australia & New Zealand, Siberia, Kazakhstan, and New Jersey. His policy of “I’ll play anywhere once” is now bringing him to Cortes!
Dana's music brings together a mix of comedy, ballads and love songs, his sharp wit and beautiful voice. Two of Dana’s songs have been made into award-winning illustrated books: Cows With Guns, published by Penguin and The Tree, published by Illumination Arts. The Tree was endorsed by Dr. Jane Goodall, has forwards by Pete Seeger and Julia Butterfly Hill and has won numerous awards.
John Seed is best known, in our parts, for the Council of All Beings, which he cocreated with Joanna Macy. As well as being an accomplished bard and songwriter, John Seed is founder and director of the Rainforest Information Centre (rainforestinfo.org.au) in Australia, and also one of the initiators of the US Rainforest Action Network. He has been involved in direct actions since 1979 resulting in the protection of the Australian rainforests. He has created numerous projects protecting rainforests in South America, Asia and the Pacific.
He has written and lectured extensively on deep ecology and has been conducting Councils of All Beings the world over for 15 years. John’s primary reason for visiting Cortes is a 5-day deep ecology workshop he is giving at Hollyhock beginning June 5th.

Coreen Boucher
CES Office Manager

Welcome Coreen!

In November, we welcomed Coreen Boucher as our new Office Manager, replacing Suzan Denis, who is now our Board secretary. Raised in Campbell River, Coreen returned to the area after fifteen years of living in various locations around Canada working with non-profits, such as Friends of Clayoquot Sound and The Sound Magazine, and environmentally-focussed small businesses. She has a B.Sc. from UVic where she studied resource management, environmental restoration and creative writing.

BC Community Forest Association Conference & AGM in Creston

In April, Noba Anderson and I attended the 2nd annual conference on community forestry in Creston. People came to the conference from throughout the province, mostly rural BC, and all were dedicated to enabling communities to have more control over local forest resources. The BC Community Forest Association is a province-wide organization whose mission is to promote and support the practice and expansion of sustainable community forest management in BC.
Before the conference, we toured community forest operations and their associated wood processing facilities in Harrop-Proctor (near Nelson) and Creston. Foresters from each community spoke about their alternative forest harvesting practices and the rationale behind methods rarely implemented in industrial forestry. Participants ranged from alternative forest practitioners, to industrial foresters, from municipal politicians to native and non-native community leaders, and from Ministry of Forests staff to academics. The conference itself set out the following main objectives:

•showcase active community forest operations in BC;
•facilitate in-depth discussions regarding the barriers and lessons-learned in the development of viable community forests;
•network community forest practitioners and communities interested in the CF opportunity;
•and to learn about the community forest platform from key political parties.

During the conference there were many smaller forums on many topics related to Community Forests including non-timber forest products, the current stumpage system and how to prepare a community forest application.
Since August of last year, 24 BC communities were invited to apply for community forests. Ministry of Forests staff at the conference made it clear that the Community Forest program is here to stay. However, it was very evident from those in attendance, that this round of CF invitations by the government has had very strong politically motivations. Many of these communities have little or no understanding about community forestry, let alone the magnitude of the application process.
This conference was an opportunity for them to learn abut the process, challenges and benefits and to become better connected. The Community Forest association will be instrumental in steering the provincial direction and integrity of this new form of community land control. Through Noba, who was re-elected to the BCCFA board, our maintained participation in this provincial process will enable us to have an impact on how the Community Forest Tenure System evolves. Individually, community forests are tiny. But together, we have a stronger voice to which government is paying attention. For more information about the BCCFA or to view conference proceedings, please visit www.bccfa.ca.

Mary Clare Preston
CES Board Member

Island Spirit Rising – Haida Gwaii

Excerpts from an article by John Broadhead
of the Gowgaia Institute

The people on the Queen Charlotte Islands off the west coast of Canada have been up to something extraordinary if not dramatic, audacious if not downright spunky, something almost unprecedented. It’s extraordinary because a $1.2 billion sale of timber and real estate assets from Weyerhaeuser to Brascan is in the lurch, and the locals seem to have all the angel
cards. Two public roads are blockaded, denying access to Weyerhaeuser and the BC Forest
Service. Most extraordinary of all, neither the provincial government nor two of the planet’s more powerful corporations have gone to court for an injunction against the action.
It’s dramatic because a few thousand souls on a remote archipelago accuse the provincial government of abandoning a constitutional duty and legal obligation and defying the highest court in the land. It’s audacious because a bunch of islanders have established two strategic
“checkpoints” to deny Weyerhaeuser access to its logging operations. Fishing boats watch the mouth of Masset Inlet while Weyerhaeuser’s log barge sits in Prince Rupert, 80 kilometres east on the BC mainland. It’s spunky because thousands of logs worth millions of dollars have been seized by the Council of the Haida Nation for breach of contract because Weyerhaeuser has refused to abide by a written agreement to curtail the use of job-killing
mechanical harvesters and to safeguard cedar for Haida cultural uses. Proceeds from the eventual sale of the logs have been promised by Haida and other community leaders to local health care, schools and recreation facilities. The BC government emphatically denies
it, but it has in fact abandoned some fundamental public responsibilities. While the Haida case was wending through the courts, the government was changing its forestry legislation to
divest the Crown of its legal authority to review changes in ownership of major forest licenses. Under new provincial legislation, nobody is responsible for the logging industry’s collateral damage to the people and forests of Haida Gwaii, or anywhere else in the province. Several decades of public control and oversight of the forest industry have come to an end. No Crown minister, no public agency, and no forest licensee can be held legally accountable
for the economic and environmental losses being sustained. And so Haida Gwaiians have taken up what the province has put down, and people aren’t so much asking the government and industry for anything as telling them that the gig is up and things will be done differently from now on.

Excerpts from an article by Jeff King of
the Queen Charlotte Islands Observer

The Spirit Rising blockade is in remission now following four days of negotiations between the Haida and other islanders and the provincial government. “There is a commitment that practically all the things for purposes other than logging will be removed from the logging plans”, said Haida Nation president Guujaaw and there will now be consultation with
islanders on the agreement with the province.
"Over the next few weeks, we are going to let the people decide if what we have obtained is
acceptable," Guujaaw said. Concerning the sale of TFL 39 from Weyerhaeuser to Brascan, one of the major issues that started the protest action a month ago, Guujaaw said he thought court action might still be necessary. He said there was still "a reckoning" to be done with Weyerhaeuser. He also said there is the possibility that the Haida could work with Brascan, although he said he'd prefer it if that company doesn't get involved with logging on the islands.

CES Wish List

Renewal Land Company – Spring 2005 Update

Renewal Land Company continues to work through our Forest Land Stewardship (FLS) conservation development initiative on the south end. In March 2005, we received preliminary subdivision approval from the Ministry of Transportation, allowing us to proceed with building the strata access road and finalizing work on our FLS-zoned property.

FLS is a new zoning on Cortes. It’s similar to the existing Community Land Stewardship (CLS) zoning in many ways, with a key difference being that FLS uses a strata model whereas CLS draws on a co-op model of ownership. FLS zoning requires that at least 60% of a property be used for conservation or sustainable forestry. The Official Community Plan (OCP) policies for FLS prohibit clearcutting, requiring innovative and sustainable forestry practices that preserve biodiversity and forest ecosystems. FLS zoning also requires that a conservation covenant be placed on the property. To see the complete FLS zoning and associated OCP policies check out Renewal Land Company’s website.

Covenants, currently being finalized, will protect a 32 acre Public Park along Cemetery Road. Highlights of the covenants include strict limits on timber harvesting as well as restrictions against future subdivision and the use of pesticides or herbicides.

A key component of this development will be the establishment of a network of public trails (for non-motorized use). Permanent public access to these trails will be guaranteed through a statutory right-of-way held by the Comox-Strathcona Regional District. The RD will also hold liability insurance for the trails, and will be responsible for maintenance. Please note that during this phase of the development we will be temporarily closing some of the trails on the property for safety reasons.

Please contact me at laurel@220cambie.com or 604-669-6447 or visit our website at www.cortesisland.com/renewal if you have any questions or suggestions, or want to learn more about buying land. Currently we can provide more details on both the sales process and the development itself. We intend to have financing available on a limited portion of the lots.

Laurel Brewster
Project Manager - Renewal Land Company

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