News & Updates

February/March 2024 Update

Spring tree planting and silviculture work will get under way in the community forest around mid-March. Block GH1 that was harvested as a firebreak in the Gorge Harbour/Anvil Lake Area during spring of 2023 will be planted, along with some fill planting in blocks GM1 & VON1. All of the seedlings that have been planted to date will also be tended.

Prior to planting block GH1 the road will be decommissioned and the leftover coarse woody debris along the road will be spread out and cleaned up. The rock from the road surface will be recycled further up the main road.

A second leg of road building in the area is planned for early 2024 continuing on from the first leg that was completed in the fall of 2022. This second leg of road is the next step in the plan to build road access and implement a wildfire mitigation treatment for the area as indicated a priority in the 2020 Community Wildfire Protection plan. The second leg of road that will be built in early 2024 is shown in grey on the following map:

GH Mainline Road Construction Map 20220907

This second leg of road will end just north of the wetland and will include a turnaround suitable for fire trucks and is the only activity planned in the area for the next couple of years. The community forest has orders from local mill for sawlogs this spring and all the higher quality logs from the road building will go to supply those order, while the lower grade logs will go into firewood for a spring community firewood day.

In the longer term, the draft plan is to eventually plant Alder at the western end of the wetland in an area infected with mistletoe Hemlock in order to create a second firebreak. The basic idea is to take advantage of the opening created by the wetland, and plant a deciduous Alder patch that will together act as a natural firebreak.

That project is only in the conceptual phase at this point, and would take place at some point a few years in the future. No date has been set for that project and there will be time for further community input. See the map below for details of the area under consideration, shown as block GH2:

GH1_GH2 Overview 20221206

Five Year Plan Next Steps:

The CFGP is planning to host three public tours in areas currently under consideration for harvest operations in the upcoming five year plan. In order of priority, the Larsens Meadow Project will be first as there is a directive from the province to let in more light to the areas harvested in 2015 in order for the seedlings to reach free to grow status. This project will likely take place in early 2025, with the potential for some road work in the fall of this year.

After Larsens Meadow, the next harvest priority will likely be in the Carrington Coulter Bay Area given that the area is a priority for wildfire mitigation treatment in the Community Wildfire Protection Plan, and the harvest will tie in with the proposed treatment.

The third tour will be be in the Green Mountain Area as it a new area under consideration for operations, although the harvest in that area will likely be a bit later in the next five year cycle.

Saturday March 23 at 10am @Larsens Meadow – meet on Larsens Meadow Road
Saturday March 30 at 10am @ Coulter Bay – meet at the entrance to the new community forest road in Coulter Bay.
Saturday April 20 at 10am @ Green Mountain – meet at Green Mountain Road

The map below shows these and the other two areas under consideration for harvesting in the next five year cycle:
THLB Overview map DRAFT 2024 – 2028

Once these initial public tours are completed, the CFGP will host a public meeting to discuss ongoing planning, operations, and next steps, likely in May.

Regarding the five year plan, the operations planning map above is the primary 5 year plan going forward. More details will be incorporated following input from the upcoming public tours, and detailed engineering will be completed for each area as the time comes to work on each project. The GFGP does not expect that the detailed engineering will be significantly different than the areas shown in the projection, given that the planning is focused on staying away from sensitive areas and designed to allow for selective harvesting systems.

2024 Wildfire Planning Update

The CFGP is continuing work on implementing the recommendations from the 2020 Community Wildfire Protection Plan specific to areas within the Community Forest Landbase. See the map below for details:

Those recommendations include building road access to specific areas crossing the community forest, along with thinning along the western boundary in the Carringto/Coulter Bay Area and in the overgrown 3rd growth blocks in the Squirrel Cove Area of the Community Forest. The prescriptions for these are available here:

CarrHi_Boundary
CARRINGTON FMP Prescription 2021_DRAFT__AUG25_2021
SQ_HI
SQUIRREL COVE FMP Prescription 2021_DRAFT__AUG25_2021

A thinning project in the area surrounding the area surrounding the recylcing center was completed in March 2022. The map of the area is available here:

RecyHi_Boundary
RECYCLING FMP Prescription 2021_DRAFT

The plan also calls for a fire break in the Gorge Harbour/Anvil Lake area, which was partially completed in 2022 & 2023 by building initial road access in the area, and harvesting the small fire break called block GH1.

Futher road building in the area is planned for early 2024 in order to gain access, and eventually plant Alder at the western end of the wetland to the south of block GH1 in an area infected with mistletoe Hemlock. That project would take place sometime in the future and the area is shown on the maps below as block GH2.
The first map shows the next length of road to be built in early 2024, and the second map shows block GH1 which was harvested in 2023 and block GH2 which is under consideration to be planted in Alder at some as of yet undetermined time in the future.

GH Mainline Road Construction Map 20220907

GH1_GH2 Overview 20221206

Some of the wildfire risk reduction treatment work in the Carrington Bay/Carrington and Squirrel Cove Areas may be completed concurrently with harvesting in those areas as per the five year plan, depending on funding availability,

MTN Retrospective Report on Harvesting in the Community Forest

In the fall of 2022 a team from the Mother Tree Network completed a field study of each of the harvests to date in the Cortes Community Forest. Led by Dr. Suzanne Simard, forest ecology professor at the University of British Columbia, the Mother Tree Project brings together academia, government, forestry companies, research forests, community forests and First Nations to identify and design successful forest renewal practices.

The study objective was to examine how recent harvesting systems as well as older clearcutting and planting have affected tree carbon stocks, forest structure, regeneration, understory plant communities, and the forest floor. The draft report on the study is available here:

Cortes_report_june2_2023

The community forest is continuing to work with the Mother Tree Network on the harvest plans for the upcoming five year plan. Stay tuned for opportunities to hear about this ongoing collaboration, likely later on in the fall of 2023.

Five Year Plan Update

The CFGP will host a public meeting on Thursday May 11, 2023 at 6:30 pm at the Klahoose Multipurpose Hall to launch the public consultation process for updating the five year.

There will be an overview of the activities in the community forest over the past five years, followed by a presentation and discussion of the plans under consideration for the upcoming five years.

A preliminary map showing the areas under consideration for operations over the next five years is available here:

THLB Overview map DRAFT 2024 – 2028

This map is not a final plan and areas may be added or removed based on ongoing discussion with the board and the public. The purple areas are the areas under consideration and the blue area is the a back up location in the event that other areas don’t work out. The map does not contain detailed engineering as it intended to simply show areas under consideration. In addition, more detailed conversations will be held with neighbours in each of the areas under consideration prior to more detailed planning.

Free Use Firewood Permits April & May 2023

Work on the firebreak in the Gorge Harbour Area of the Community Forest is now completed and the area remains open for people to go out and collect free firewood for personal in the block. The location is up the new logging road across and just down from the highway shed on Gorge Harbour Road.

The firewood is free and people are allowed two average size pickup loads per household.

Please do not buck up any downed trees along the road and only take wood that is at roadside in the block.

There is a small about of wood already bucked into rounds that would be available for people without a chainsaw, but the majority of the wood is full length at roadside and needs to be bucked.

If you don’t have a chainsaw or pickup you can organize with someone else to go and collect a load or two.

Provincial regulations require that people download and fill out a free use permit and simply keep it in the truck that is hauling your wood. Free use permits are available here:

FreeUsePermit April & May 2023 GH1

NOTE: Older drafts of the free use permits may be old, if you’ve already downloaded one but just cross out the date and write in the new one.

Five Year Planning Update

As part of the process to revise the five year plan for the community forest, the CFGP has been working to update some of the community forest maps, which are available below.

These new maps show all of the latest ministry data which will be used by CFGP staff to plan the next five years of operations in the community forest. The CFGP is open to feedback from the public at any time during the five year plan review, with early feedback welcomed as it can help inform the planning process going forward.

Cortes CF Overview Map:

THLB Overview map DRAFT 20230303

The community forest overview map shows the contributing and non-contributing areas of the community forest landbase in green and brown. Green (contributing) means that there are no legal constraints to harvesting or for the purpose of calculating AAC, and the brown (non-contributing) represents sensitive areas that are excluded for the purpose of calculating AAC, and would typically not see any harvesting.

This revised Overview Map also shows the following new data layers:

– priority old growth deferral and big tree old growth recruitment areas (red and yellow cross hatch),
– legal old growth management areas (OGMA) (pink),
– new roads & CFGP harvested blocks 2015-current (yellow)
– original projected area for VON2 (brown)

The OGMAs reflect old growth areas that are permanently protected. The priority old growth deferral areas are temporary deferrals and not yet legally binding.

Cortes CFA with SEI overlay:

Cortes ComFor SEI Map 20230303 small

The sensitive ecosystem inventory (SEI) overlay map shows the 2011 Ministry of Environment data overlaid with the community forest area, along with the same new data layers:

– priority old growth deferral and recruitment areas (red and yellow cross hatch),
– legal OGMAs (pink),
– new roads & CFGP harvested blocks 2015-current (yellow)
– original projected area for VON2 (brown)

The SEI map data is based on air photo interpretation and is not always accurate on the ground, therefore it is for information purposes only.

There is also a new map that shows potential age-class related Marbled Murrelet and Northern Goshawk habitat on the island along the same new data layers:

THLB Overview map with birds 20230303

Operations Update March 3

The crews working on block GH1 along the new community forest road across from the highway shed are making good progress and the project is nearly completed. Log hauling is expected to take place around mid-march, after which there will be an opportunity for people to collect firewood for personal use with free use permits.

Stand tending in the Squirrel Cove and Larsens Meadow areas of the community forest is set to get under way as soon as the snow melts. The crew will be checking on each of the planted seedlings to make sure they are growing well and straight. The deer love to rub on the stems of the new seedlings and push over the protective cones, and because of the small size of the blocks and density of leave trees, many of the seedlings are growing relatively slowly need to be protected from completing vegetation.

Call for Silviculture and Brushing Work

The community forest is looking for people interested in silviculture (stand tending) work in the community forest starting in late February & March.

The silviculture work will consist of tending to the seedlings planted in various areas of the community forest over the past several years, and will include cone tending and removal, clearing bracken, etc.

The community forest is also looking for a contractor to complete a brushing project that will involve bucking fallen logs and removing small saplings along existing logging roads that require maintenance. The brushing project will also get under way in late February or early March.

Interested parties can contact Mark Lombard via email at misterlombard@gmail.com

GH1 Falling Underway

The new faller training at block GH1 in the community forest is under way. There are three Cortes Island residents and one member of the Tla’amin First Nation participating in the training, which is expected to wrap up around the end of February or early March

The new faller training and harvest at block GH1 is part of a wider set of wildfire mitigation plans for the community forest contained in the 2020 Community Wildfire Protection Plan.

Once the falling is completed the logs will be yarded to roadside. As soon as the merchantable timber logs are hauled there will be an opportunity for people to come out and collect firewood with free use permits.

Before replanting the block, the road will be removed and coarse woody debris will be be placed parallel to the the contour lines to hold moisture in the soil. The gravel removed from the running surface will be reused further up the main road once it is constructed.

As part of the current project, approximately 75 meters of additional right of way for the main road will be felled so the logs can go out at the same time as the rest of the project, and the recycled gravel will have a place to go when the time comes.

GH1 Startup Feb 1, 2023

Startup for the project at block GH1 in the Gorge Harbour Area of the community forest is set for Feb 1, 2023. The project will provide a new faller training opportunity for three Cortes Island residents, and is part of a wider wildfire mitigation strategy for the area. See previous posting for more details.

The site is 1.3 hectares, approximately 90 percent Hemlock and 10 percent Fir, along with the occasional Red Cedar. The plan is to leave some of the better quality Douglas Fir most likely to survive, spaced every 20 – 30 meters, and harvest the Hemlock and lower grade Fir.

Once the project is completed the road will be decommissioned and pulled up, and the area will be replanted.

There will be an opportunity for people to come out and collect firewood for personal use once the project is completed, likely later in March. This page will be updated regularly as the project progresses.

A map of the area is available here: GH1 Site Plan Map 20230124

For more information on safety and communications, the CFGP Safe Work Policies and Procedures document is available here: Safe Work Policy for Public Notification Jan 2023