This is Carrie Saxifrage with some reflections on the community forest. Thanks so much to those who attended the Cortes Community Forest Cooperative (CCFC) AGM and to all the forest folk who keep this place deep green.

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - The Mother Tree Project began in one Lower Mainland and nine Interior forests. They recently expanded their research on the coast, where Dr Suzanne Simard says the forests are richest in terms of biodiversity. A team came to Cortes Island at the invitation of the Cortes Community Forest Cooperative, and students from the Cortes Island Academy will be taking part in a research propject later this year. Dr Simard described the Mother Tree Project’s work on Cortes, and responded to questions, at the Community Forest’s 2023 AGM.

This is an abridged transcript taken from the ZOOM audio.

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - Last week, Sadhu Johnston, President of the Cortes Island Fire Fighters Association met with David Leitch, Chief Administrative Officer of the Strathcona Regional District (SRD) and two of his staff.

“There was a lot of smoke and not a lot of fire in there. We ended up having a very productive conversation and we'll be entering into contract negotiations for another five year contract for firefighting on Cortes. It was very productive and they got really just willing to work with us and address the unique needs of Cortes and find ways to address concerns in working together,” said Johnston.

There has been tension between the SRD and Cortes Island Fire Department recently. The fire department’s five year contract was not renewed, when it came up earlier this year. Instead Cortes was put on a monthly contract. There was talk of establishing a centralized service with a Fire Chief in Campbell River.

However when the SRD finally unveiled the plan they were working on, at their April 26 Board meeting, it was for a service that would actually support volunteer fire departments like Cortes. The SRD feasibility study found that communities are interested in a ‘shopping list’ approach, where local fire departments can pick the items they wish to subscribe to. 

Johnston explained, “As you know, I've worked on shared services before and the track that they're on makes a lot of sense. There are things that they would have regionally available to different fire departments to be able to opt into, like shared resources around training, maintaining trucks and equipment, they'll have some expertise on staff that we can go to get direct support and we'll help them with their oversight of the various firefighting functions across the region.”

“I think there's a real value add there to take some of the burden off of the board here, as well as our own firefighting staff, Chief and others. I think that will evolve over time, but will offer us some things that will benefit us.”

CC: Do you think it'll save us money?

SJ: “There’s definitely potential. When you do everything on your own, you are on your own. Versus if you can hire someone to come in and do some training and they could train a number of fire departments at once. There's economies of scale that you can get there. Depending on how it evolves, there's some opportunities for some savings and ultimately just better performance.”

CC: Are there any reasons to be concerned right now?

SJ: “I don't think so. We're eager to get going with the new contract because we're on a month to month contract right now and we want to hire a permanent chief and we need a five year contract to do that but they were ready to proceed. We just need to get into the nitty gritty of what changes we might need in a new contract, but, I didn't see , anything really to be concerned about.”

“Great to see the level of support from Cortes residents for the firefighting function on Cortes. We had a lot of people on Zoom, a lot of people in the room, a lot of emails of support and that's amazing. That manifests itself as people stepping up to be volunteers and to helping out with the department, both on the board and, in the fire trucks and in the trainings. It's just really encouraging to see the level of support that there is on Cortes for what we're doing through the fire department.”

De Clarke/ Cortes Currents - The Cortes Community Health Association held its annual AGM at 1pm on Sunday May 7th, in the main room at Mansons Hall. The meeting was lightly attended and no controversial topics were on the agenda.

After opening the meeting, Board President Ed Safarik welcomed guest speaker Yasmina Cartland who made a brief presentation about “Compassionate Communities.” The rest of the meeting was devoted to the usual business of an AGM, concluding with selection of Board members for the coming year

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - The Cortes Community Economic Development Association (CCEDA) recently hired Kate Maddigan as its new Economic Development Officer (EDO). 

Colin Funk, the President of CCEDA, explained, “I have known Kate pretty much the entire time I've been on Cortes, I think I'm coming up to my 10th summer here. I've been on a few boards with her when I was active with Friends of Cortes Island (FOCI). We live pretty close together in the south end of the island. So like many, we bump into each other at the store or on the trails and such.”

Cortes Currents asked Maddigan about some of the work she has done in the community.

“I'm working for the ambulance station, but that will be my daytime job.”

“I did work for DFO for quite a few years up in the Yukon, and through that I came to understand government culture better than anywhere. So when I'm writing a grant or something, I understand the brain of a bureaucrat. It really helps because you need to be able to speak their language and not everybody can do that.”

“I have written a lot of grants, and then it turns into a project management position because I know the project so well”.

“The Cortes Community Forest Cooperative approached me to write a grant with their value added project, and then I became the project manager when the grant was successful. I've also done some work for the partnership with the skills training of forestry workers a year and a half ago, I wrote the grant, the grant was successful and I became the project manager.”

“I did some work writing grants for the Streamkeepers and help them with their fundraising strategy.”

“I've done a lot of work for FOCI just being on the board of directors for 10 years, and felt that my time there was done, and CCEDA was looking for a grant writer. So I jumped in and I've done some project management for CCEDA along with all the grant writing.”

CF: “She's got a deep sense of Cortes, having been a resident for many years. She's been in the nonprofit/ social profit sector for a huge amount of time and, I think more than anybody on Cortes, has a really good understanding of the groups - whether it's groups that are dealing with the environment, economic or social education. That's really important because many of us sometimes just have a singular focus and she's very much pan-Island, so that's super important.”

“The other thing too is she just has some remarkable skills in terms of being a real strategic thinker, and a visionary and then the ability to get things done. That's unique because most of us are either big thinkers, dreamers, but we couldn't tie our shoes effectively. Others can get lots of things done, but aren't necessarily working on the right thing or the appropriate context. She's got this whole brain approach. Kate can go from big picture and then very quickly understand what's needed to put that forward.”

“She's got a wonderful personality and is really responsive to listening to people and following up on, helping us achieve our aspirations, our dreams. When you're working in the type of work we do in the nonprofit sector and volunteer sector, it's all about relationship. We're doing stuff that sometimes is a surprise, or unexpected, or a challenge and quite often with limited resources. So the relationship side of things is really, really important. LIke many others, I just so enjoy being around her.”

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - Green Party leader Elizabeth May flew in from Ottawa on Saturday, May 6. She was the feature speaker at the North Island - Powell River Electoral District Association (EDA) AGM at the Maritime Heritage Centre in Campbell River. Around 60 people from Campbell River, Comox, Powell River, Port McNeil, Quadra Island and Cortes Island were in attendance.

This is an edited transcript of her speech, and a couple of excerpts from the subsequent remarks made by local Green Party candidate Jessica Wegg.

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - As the weather turns warmer, some recreational vessels seek moorage at Cortes Island docks for periods of between one and six months. This is called long-term-moorage. On Wednesday, May 3, the Harbour Authority of Cortes Island (HACI) issued a press release stating that their docks in Whaletown and Cortes Bay are now full for long-term-moorage this summer.

“When we're talking about long-term recreational moorage, we're just talking about individuals who are looking to moor a boat and not live on it,” explained Harbourmaster Jenny Hartwick

“At this point in time, both the Squirrel Cove and Mansons docks still have some long-term recreational moorage placements available and those are available on a first come, first serve basis until they are full.”

CC: So this does not apply to boats coming in for the afternoon, or a few days.

“For a community user that wants to come in for the afternoon, from their boat-access-only property, or a commercial user who's using the dock for work on a regular basis, absolutely. We are only talking about recreational long-term moorage.”

“We have had to do this because we have received such a huge request for individuals looking for one month, three month or six month long-term moorage for their recreational vessels. We've had to look at the actual physical capacity of our docks, and what they can handle.”

“I'd also like to remind the community that rafting is a requirement on all of our docks.”

“This means that vessels are already being rafted two deep and this policy was put in place to prevent what we saw as potential safety issues of vessels coming into our more popular docks and in some cases rafting four, even five vessels deep down the entire length of the dock.”

“I think the first thing to reiterate is that the government docks on Cortes are all docks that are owned under the Small Craft Harbours program of the federal government. Under this program, the Harbour Authority of Cortes Island operates these docks through an arm’s length lease agreement, but we are required to meet Small Craft Harbour's mandate as part of this lease agreement. Small Craft Harbour's primary mandate is to support the commercial fishing industry in BC and to support the infrastructure associated with the commercial fishing industry.”

“We recognize that we are an island and we have all sorts of short-term moorage needs. People with boat access only properties, and there are a huge variety of other community uses for our docks.”

“This policy of limiting long-term recreational moorage is to help us manage the increased requests for moorage that we've experienced over the past couple of years, while still ensuring that we have space available for those mandated commercial uses, but also the community island needs.”

Image credit: Boater by Larry Wentzel via Flickr (CC BY SA, 2.0 License)

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - The Old Schoolhouse Art Gallery is looking forward to what may be their best season in years.

“There's a post COVID enthusiasm which was first evidenced by the submissions that we had that have resulted in seven shows. There's no hesitation about Covid rules, or what we should or shouldn't do. We've been a nonprofit for a year and a bit, and the new manager has had a year behind her. Things feel more settled, and more focused on the magic of the shows than the behind the scenes business that the boards have to handle in any organization in a big time of change,” explained Oriane Lee Johnston (OLJ).

“One thing that Islanders can look forward to is a full season starting from the 9th of July.”

“There will be a grand opening with 'Between Heaven and Earth' with the Thursday afternoon Arts Collective. Seven artists have been meeting pre-pandemic in Lisa Gibbons studio every Thursday afternoon and have a body of work that we are all now going to see.”

“The last show closes on the 10th of September with the Annual Members Show. That will be a grand finale where every Cortesian who fancies themselves an artist, or who is an artist, may submit a piece or two pieces for exhibition in the gallery.”

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - The Cortes Island Academy appears to have its full quota of 20 students for 2023/24.

Manda Aufochs Gillespie, the Academy’s principle Board member, explained, “We've let the first 20 students know that they have a spot if they want it, and then we'll start taking students off our wait list. This time last year, we were still like, 'oh no, we don't know if anybody will sign up for this crazy new program we have.’ This year, not only is it an established program that's going to keep continuing into the future, but we had so many applicants that we had to have a wait list.”

“We took that hard job of figuring out who to let in and gave it to a jury of community members, who listened to the students videos that they had to create as part of their application, read the reference letters, looked at their application, and helped take into consideration our matrix of priorities such as making sure we make additional concessions for local students, etc. Some of them said it was one of the hardest things they've ever had to adjudicate or give their thoughts on. It wasn't easy, but it was a beautiful process of young and old Cortesians, people who lived on the island and have moved off, representatives from the school district and from the Outer Islands.

“The second really exciting thing that we're doing this year, is that the Cortes Island Academy has officially created partnerships with other rural remote Outer Island communities within School District 72 to treat their students as much as possible as locals. That means that we can prioritize their applicants and applications into the Cortes Island Academy.”

“We've had to figure out a rental situation where those Outer Islands families can come and share in the responsibilities of hosting these kids on our island. They can be part of this innovative, awesome, educational experience, so that they can have a real option.”

CC: Which Outer Islands?

“We have offered places to students from of course Quadra, Sonora, Read, and an island called Bibs, which I've never even heard of.

“Those are what we're calling the Outer Islands. There's other ones too , Maurelle and other places out there. Some of these have families and students who get to school by boat or have almost no option at all even compared to Cortes. They're even more remote.”

“We just want to stress that our rural and remote students are suffering in Canada, that they're underperforming in all academic majors. They're dropping out of high school at almost double the rates of their rural counterparts and they're entering the workforce with the largest education gap of any developed country.”

“My dream is that every student in Canada has an option to something like a Cortes Island Academy, but in the meantime we're starting in our own backyards and helping make this a true option for local people. So thank you again to our community and those many neighbors who took the time to be part of this heart-wrenching process of figuring out who we are going to prioritize for letting in.”

“The Cortes Island Academy has done something that's pretty hard to do, which is figure it out a way to leverage government and education money for something that is really out of the box.”

“This program still costs about $200,000 a year in hard costs, and that has been up to the Cortes Island Academy Society and the Cortes Island Community Foundation to fill that gap. We were able to fill that gap last year through individual donors and through a grant from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans.”

“We are still trying to fill that gap this year. Of this year's $200,000 hard costs, we have raised more than a quarter already.”

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - The 2023 Gorge Hall Mother's Day Plant sale will be from 11 AM to 2 PM on Sunday May 14. This has been a Whaletown Community Club (WCC) tradition for more than 30 years.

“It's a community event. The pleasure of people seeing each other, talking to one another outside of the absolute necessity of needing something from a neighbour. This is an opportunity to see the gardening health of Cortes and the vibrancy of it by seeing what's on the table. The vigor of the gardening culture has always been an integral part of Cortes,” explained Gabriel Dinim, President of the Whaletown Community Club.

“We don't always go in other people's gardens, but if you put a bunch of plants on the table you can even put your name by it - then everybody can see what a gardener you are! If you don't put your name by it, it just provides more plants to sell for the WCC. We can always use a fundraiser.”

“Before Covid it was the crowds milling around looking at the plants. people come early before the sale opens up, bringing their plants. Carloads of shrubs and small trees, perennials and annuals. that activity is lovely.”

“I remember seeing 50, 60 people coming up and three or four tables loaded with plants and trees from nurseries. Rosemary Woodridge used to be very involved in it, and she's a fearless woman who would get on the telephone called the nurseries and ask them to donate, and they would. Somebody would go to town, pick up a bunch of things that we did not grow on the island.”

“Then watching people just go from table to table deciding what they're going to pick, discussing it with their friend or neighbor or parent. What about this? What about that? The activity is very pleasant. And if it's a sunny day on top of that, then it's the icing on the cake.”

CC: Is this the first Mother's Day plant sale since Covid?

GD: “There was one last year, but it did not have quite the oomph as the pre covid sales had. I think that we still had a touch of PTSD around that issue. Fear of the crowd, which we are learning to overcome again.”

“if you wish to volunteer to put plants on the table, to get the tables out of the hall, have a good time and laugh, please come around 9:00 in the morning when we expect the donations to start. If you have extra, please bring it to the Gorge and we look forward to seeing you. It will be a lovely event.”

Image credit: Rhododendron Photo by Jim the Photographer via Flickr (CC BY SA, 2.0 LIcense)