Vancouver Island group raises money to buy beloved forest lands from logging company

Fifteen years ago, the Cumberland Community Forest Society bought its first private timber lot, from a logging company, so it could conserve it as a forest. Now, it’s back for more. (Cumberland Community Forest Society/Facebook) A group of Vancouver Islanders are not letting the COVID-19 pandemic interfere with plans to expand their strategy of preserving the forestry lands surrounding their village. The Cumberland Community Forests Society, formed in 2000, has been purchasing the private timber lots surrounding their village and conserving them as protected forest lands. Meaghan Cursons, the group’s executive director, said it was able to purchase its first lot in 2005, over 72 hectares of forest for $1.2 million, and another adjacent 40 hectares in 2016. Cursons credits the group’s persistence for their success. "We’re not the first community organization that has said to a timber company ‘please don’t log our favourite place,’"she told host Kathryn Marlow on CBC’s All Points West . "But we took a different approach here and went, ‘okay, here’s the economic reality we’re working in. This is privately owned land and has been for 150 years’ … [but] it’s a unique opportunity because of a willing seller." Meaghan Cursons is the executive […]

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