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Unregulated private land logging continues near Nelson at Cottonwood Lake

Sunshine Logging of Kaslo is cutting on private land in the area of Giveout Creek Road
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This photo was taken from a few metres off Highway 6 about one kilometre north of the turnoff to Cottonwood Lake. The cut currently runs from there to just above the picnic area at the lake, although so far it is not currently visible from there. Photo: Bill Metcalfe

Logging near Cottonwood Lake conducted by Sunshine Logging of Kaslo has progressed considerably over the past month. The private land encompasses all areas that are visible on both sides of the highway from the Giveout Creek area to beyond the Apex Ski area.

It is unknown how much of this land will be cut because the company has not shared logging plans with the public and is not required to do so because the land is privately owned. Some of the timber is being purchased by the Bell Lumber and Pole Company, a U.S. company with a B.C. office in Vernon.

The Nelson Land Corporation, formed in the fall of 2017 by Mike Jenks and Bernie van Maren, bought the properties in December. Jenks is known in the Kootenays and on Vancouver Island for buying up large tracts of private land, logging it, and then selling it, using several company names.

Mike Jenks and Sunshine Logging have both declined to discuss their logging plans with the Star.

Provincial government records show that Nelson Land Corporation in the first six months of 2018 logged 29,924 cubic metres of wood in the Selkirk Natural Resource District, all on private land, amounting to about 750 truckloads of logs. The Selkirk district consists roughly of the West Kootenay Boundary area to north of Revelstoke and Golden.

Related story in the Nelson Star:

The logging plan no one wants to talk about (May 2018)



bill.metcalfe@nelsonstar.com

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Another photo taken from Highway 6. Photo: Bill Metcalfe
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Taken from about 50 metres above the access road to Cottonwood Lake Park. Photo: Bill Metcalfe


Bill Metcalfe

About the Author: Bill Metcalfe

I have lived in Nelson since 1994 and worked as a reporter at the Nelson Star since 2015.
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