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Snapshot #5

Cortes Forest Lands Flipping Hands Like Hot Potatoes

As you have watches Cortes private forest lands pass through corporate hands like hot potatoes, have you stopped and asked yourself, .How did we get here?. or .How might we create a more community-oriented solution?. Their 5th set of hands in 6 years. How does that sit with you?

Potato #1 - McMillan Bloedel

MacMillan Bloedel (MB) bought almost all of their Cortes holdings during the 50s and 60s for very modest prices and were minimally taxed as Managed Forest Lands since. In the 90s, the Cortes community positively influence MB's harvesting practises through a blockade and subsequent negotiations. Their managed forest lands were rezoned to .Forest 1., virtually eliminating any subdivision opportunities. Shortly thereafter, the Klahoose First Nation and CES were negotiating with MB to acquire all their Cortes timberlands to add to the proposed Community Forest. MB halted further logging during these negotiations. But this proud BC-born $4 billion timber company with lands across North America and Europe, was about to disappear altogether. As their final move, they hired a new American CEO who prepared MB for a Weyerhaeuser (Weyco) takeover.

Potato #2 - Weyerhaeuser

In early 1999, Weyco, the world's largest producer of softwood lumber, announced their intent to buy the entire MB corporation. Cortes negotiations were shelved while the BC Government held public hearings around the province considering whether or not to approve this sale. After a compelling Cortes presentation, the government placed a condition on this sale; Weyerhaeuser must continue to .negotiate in good faith. with Klahoose and CES. MB then disappeared. Whatever benevolent company attitudes or progressive forestry initiatives they practised ended when they sold to a different company, based in a different country, with a different agenda.

Weyco continued negotiating with Klahoose & CES in 2000, and collectively presented to the BC Cabinet the .Cortes Initiative. proposing that their land, along with Cortes Crown land, become a Community Forest. That's where Weyco's good faith ran out. They asked far too much in compensation from government in return for their Cortes assets and the deal fell apart.

There is still a belief by some people that MB was driven off Cortes. The likelihood that we could force a corporation of this size to do something they did not wish to do requires a real stretch of imagination. MB's Cortes lands comprised less than 0.5% of their private coastal holdings. MB and Weyco willingly negotiated to include their private lands in the Cortes Community Forest. They were allies in our vision! But Weyco's purchase of Willamette Forest Products in Oregon for US$ 8 Billion left them with a heavy debt. Pressure to pay this down shifted their emphasis from forestry to real estate. Here on Cortes, they sold off most for their non-contiguous Cortes lands.>

Potato #3 - Brascan

After a few years of aggressive timber liquidation and land sales, Weyerhaeuser sold their entire BC Coastal Division to a worldwide US$40 billion conglomerate - Brookfield Asset Management. One of Brookfield's many arms is Brascan. By this time, the BC Liberal Government had cancelled the public review process and and failed to consult and accommodate First nations about massive public land transfers.

Potato #4 - Island Timberlands

Island Timberlands (I.T.) is but one investment fund in the worldwide Timberlands Asset Management portfolio that is part of the Speciality Funds Management division of Brookfield Asset Management! Phew!

Brookfield.s stated goal: 20% annual return with a focus on "liquidity". Selling forestlands with waterfront and in rapidly appreciating land areas gives shareholders these big returns. Forests that grow at 2% hasn't...and won't. These high shareholder returns come at a great cost to BC communities. One tenth of Cortes is still in the hands of I.T. to be put on the market again at their private discretion. Is long-term stewardship of forest lands an antiquated notion?

Potato #5 . Chopping Up The Farm (Riesterer, Lippman, etc.)

I.T.'s first Cortes move was to sell the Bartholomew lands. With one sale, access to Hanks Beach was lost. Another, is going to 2 local families. The remainder was sold to Mike Riesterer and his logger/developer HardCore. Headed by Dick Atchison, HardCore has been falling about 7 logging truck loads per day since mid January. Their plan is to rezone much of this forestland, subdivide and sell lots at top market prices.

A couple locals have been hired for a few months, bucking and driving truck. The jobs are always appreciated. Is there not a better, long-term, local way to employ our skilled forest workers in ways other than converting forests to subdivisions?

Dismayed to see this good douglas fir leaving Cortes and our future value-added economy go with it? Dick Atchison and other timber liquidators have their eyes fixed on Cortes' remaining I.T. properties. Is this the kind of logging/development operation that you want to see set up a long-term base here? Or is there a more appropriate home-grown solution possible for our remaining private forest lands?

We want to hear from you! Approach a board member: Kristen, Bob, Bruce, David, Jody, Fred or Ann, or the CES office in Manson's Hall, Tue-Fri, 935-6888, www.cortesecoforestry.org.

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