Noba Anderson, Director
Cortes–
– Electoral Area ‘B’
Cortes
Tel: 250-935-0320 E-mail: director@cortesisland.com
Darshan Sihota
President – Island Timberlands
Bill Waugh
Delivered in person during our meeting at your office,
January 23, 2012.
CORTES COMMUNITY REQUESTS OF ISLAND TIMBERLANDS
As the elected representative to local government for Cortes Island, I can attest
to the solid and quite unified voice that I am hearing from my constituents
regarding their sentiments towards Island Timberland’s proposed logging
activity. There is never unanimity on any issue, but this one has galvanized a very
clear majority will expressed in the following requests generated from a
community meeting at Manson’s Hall, January 17th, 2012 with about 70 people. I
share the following on behalf of my community.
1) Open communication and transparency on all IT activities
Those present wanted:
• to see all road building and cutting plans, well in advance. (60 days notice was
offered by Mac Blo);
• IT to meet with a knowledgeable Cortes group of individuals regarding ongoing, local monitoring and accountability;
• consult with Klahoose First Nation and honour their sovereignty;
• hold off operations such that a good working relationship can be built with
the Cortes Community Forest;
• and recognize, respect, and continue the 25-year old Cortes history of
conversation with logging companies.
The views expressed in this letter are those of the director and do not necessarily reflect those of the corporation or the full board of directors.
Page 2
2) Operational Commitments
• There was overwhelming support for values consistent with the new
community forest values:
- the practices of sustainable ecosystem-based forestry, as defined in the
Herb Hammond model;
- longer rotations for real long-term forest management: 150-250 years;
- ground-truthing& documenting the locations of old-growth and wetlands
boundaries with knowledgeable Cortes Islanders;
- IT being accountable to Cortes for their harvest plans;
- no clear-cutting; the use of single tree selection instead;
- no pesticides; no herbicides.
• Maintain landscape level connectivity and wildlife corridors.
• Desire for forest certification (FSC equivalent) and a variety of better forest
management models. This could open new, high-value markets, ie. Europe.
• Old growth (200-240 years as per Ministry of Forests standards)
- No logging of old growth.
- Old growth groves and individual trees need to be identified by the
community, documented with photos & GPS, and added to the SEI
mapping. This has begun with Ancient Forest Alliance (Ken Wu, Jan.13).
- Leave a healthy buffer around old growth to protect from blow-down and
loss of soil.
- Designate old-growth recruitment areas.
- Identification and protection for trees with Agaricon mushroom.
• Wetlands
- Stay out of all wetlands including road-building and harvesting.
- Wetland areas need to be identified by the community
- Provide realistic protection for salmon streams – Basil Brook, James
Creek, etc.
- Ensure adequate riparian zone extension beyond minimum of 2 mature
tree lengths.
- Quality and quantity of drinking water must be guaranteed.
• Consider the economic return of carbon offsets, standing forest valuation,
and ecosystem biodiversity.
The views expressed in this letter are those of the director and do not necessarily reflect those of the corporation or the full board of directors.
Page 3
3) Acquisition / Land Purchase
• Whaletown Commons
Sell the Whaletown Commons to the Strathcona Regional District at
appraised value. IT is perceived to have acted in ‘bad faith’ in rejecting the
SRD’s purchase offer and countering with double. The ‘bad faith’ cuts deeper
given the huge support and fund-raising from Cortes and the regional district.
• Children’s Forest Trust
Give the Children’s Forest Trust an agreement on the option to purchase, a
time frame, and determination of price criteria. To date, there are 75 youth
and 50 adults who have been involved in several projects promoting the
Children’s Forest Trust. $9000 in pledges have been received. A reasonable
price commitment is needed to continue their fund raising efforts.
• Purchase price for all Cortes IT holdings
Determine a purchase price for all IT’s Cortes lands at appraised value, with a
possible purchase by a local group to ad to the community forest land base.
(A comparable situation on Saltspring Island allowed for community
purchase of private-managed forest lands).
4) Exerted Pressure
• The online petition received over 6000 signatures including many Cortes
Islanders, yet indicated a widespread geographical leverage.
• A large media campaign has been launched with over 20 articles & interviews
in newspaper & radio.
• There has been an educational and organizational campaign to prepare for
direct action on Cortes.
Resistance will be diverted if Island Timberlands communicates openly,
and practise REAL ecosystem-based forestry.
5. General
• The Cortes community is asking Island Timberlands to:
i) manage your lands for the long-term well being of the forest;
ii) take a leadership role in the forest sector on your Cortes land holdings,
iii) use this Cortes opportunity to exemplify an alternative model of
forestry, community relations and land sale negotiations.
The views expressed in this letter are those of the director and do not necessarily reflect those of the corporation or the full board of directors.
Page 4
• Cortes is willing to work with you, to create local jobs by going slower, and to
ensure a ‘value added’ forest economy. The Cortes lands that you now own
have been long sought as part of the island-wide community forest.
• If IT regard any of their holdings as potential residential land, they will have
to get this approved by the community before anything happens. This is
highly unlikely after logging.
• Cortes Islanders will need to retain public access to IT lands for traditional
community purposes such as salmon enhancement and recreation.
• Perform logging with aesthetics in mind for tourism – that our roads, trails,
parks, and coastline are protected visually.
• The aquaculture industry needs to be protected from negative impacts,
including chemical use on the forest lands above the Gorge Harbour and
water quality from use of the log dump.
• How many person hours will IT provide with their current logging plans? Do
you plan on logging for the next 5, 10, 15 years, cutting at about 3% of your
volume annually?
Thank-you for your attention to this matter which is of huge importance to
Cortes Island and many of our regional and international allies.
Sincerely,
Noba Anderson, Regional Director
The views expressed in this letter are those of the director and do not necessarily reflect those of the corporation or the full board of directors.