Chapter 19

TIMBER &

The single most dangerous action you can take on this tour is failing to pay attention while travelling on the route. Do NOT read the following chapter while actively moving by vehicle, car, foot, bike, or boat. TIMBER and Forestry Driving Tour

To avoid possible forest fires, My thanks to Mike Gogo please DON’T SMOKE for the & Sandy Macham for their parts of this tour found west input to this chapter of Highway 19, in city parks, and/or in forests during your travel. Thank you very much. COMMON CONIFEROUS TREES

Coniferous trees bear cones and most kinds are evergreen, since they do not lose their needles in fall. The heavily watered rain forests of coastal BC have always offered enormous conifers of all kinds: cedar, fir, spruce and hemlock. Each one had its own specialized use. The lightness, water resiliency, and resistance to decay of red cedar have historically been useful in ship building, roof shingling, and finishing work. The strength, durability, and hardness of Douglas fir made it perfect for construction purposes. The fast growth in poor soil and knot-free grain of Sitka spruce made it ideal for ship masts and musical instrument manufacture. The softness of western hemlock made it the best choice for ornamental lumber or and paper production. These are likely trees you may see along this tour.

Red Cedar Douglas Fir

Sitka Spruce Western Hemlock

Differentiating appearances of bark from four trees commonly found near A BRIEF HISTORY OF LOCAL FORESTRY

Initially, the Snuneymuxw (original inhabitants) carefully used wood for building their longhouses and carving their canoes and totems. They peeled the inner bark of the western red cedar tree to make clothing and baskets. Early Spanish and British explorers took the occasional tree for a ship’s mast.

With European settlement around 1850, lumber was needed to repair their ships and build their homes. As a result, industrial forestry pre-dates coal mining on Island. However, when coal mining grew, much lumber was required to reinforce mine shafts, slopes, and tunnels. Therefore, were scattered all around and was in full force by 1860, albeit on a small scale.

Mining companies had immediate access to wood, because the forest was right next to their mines in 1860. Most collieries had their own sawmills to create the lumber needed for shoring up mine tunnels and constructing buildings. These mills were first operated by water power from the dammed creeks that supplied water to wash the coal and later by steam power to boil water by burning timber and coal.

When land was cleared for housing, the forests were further away, but still close to the water for easy transport of logs. These were arranged into booms and towed by small boats to commonly constructed sawmills, milled into lumber, and taken from there by big sailing ships to nearby and distant markets.

Logging was initially performed by hand. The Timber Act of 1884 stated that a logger “shall not use any machinery propelled other than or operated otherwise than by muscular power to carry out lumbering.”

Standing on a springboard and pounding wedges into a half-cut in order to fell the tree.

When a tree was flared at its base, notches were cut in the trunk and springboards were inserted into the notches. Two loggers climbed up and stood atop the board, but opposite to one another so that they could safely chop separately with double-bladed or team up with a double-handled long . Elevated a couple of metres above ground, less effort was required to cut through and fell the tree.

After the forests were logged beside the water, animals (horses and/or oxen) were used to haul logs from more distant logging spots to the water. These logs were dragged along minor corduroy roads constructed from waste logs laid side by side providing less friction that pulling logs through the bushes.

The 1860’s Cariboo gold rush increased timber demands for construction, cooking, and heating. As a result, logging demand increased. Building the Canadian Pacific Railway in the 1880s required even more wood for railroad ties and once completed, lumber could be shipped via train to Eastern . Logging proceeded deeper into the forest and logs were pulled across major skid roads, first by animals, then later by steam powered winches (the “” in 1897), and logging railways by the 1910s.

A two operator double-handled long saw (1949) & steam donkey powering the high lead system (1938).

Other methods of transport were innovated. Logs were floated down large rivers. When water flow in tributaries was insufficient, a splash dam would be built and then purposefully broken to flush the logs downstream in the ensuing flood. The high lead was used to lift logs over obstacles by a system of lines suspended from high points of nearby poles. Clear cutting of all trees was a normal and easy procedure.

Robert Dunsmuir, owner of the massive land grant (20% of Vancouver Island) that was necessary to build the 1886 E&N Railway from Esquimalt to Nanaimo, began to sell off his vast properties to logging companies by 1900. As coal extraction began to diminish in Nanaimo, the timber industry started to grow, and workers transitioned from the mines to the forests in the 1910s. Trucks replaced railways for hauling logs and bulldozers soon built temporary roads into almost any forested slope by the 1920s.

When European demand increased, and axes gave way to two-person saws in the 1930s and feller bunchers: machines designed to cut and stack trees with minimal risk to loggers by the 1940s. In 1950, after light metals were developed for the Second World War, became single operator. Balloons or helicopters were used to transport logs from more remote locations in some extreme cases.

By 1960, timber companies had started to plant seedlings in an effort to regenerate some forests and in response to government legislation and harvesting limits. Sustainable practices began and the forestry worker had to become more specialized than ever before. New uses for forest bi-products were explored and pulp mills sprang up in , Nanaimo (Harmac), and Crofton, for making paper.

Transport by truck (1932) or horses via wooden rails (1918) and then locomotives on iron (1937).

The environmental movements of the 1970s, meant that the timber industry had to reconsider its clear cutting practices and plant more trees to reach government sustainability goals. Groups challenged those companies (that failed to get on board) through acts of civil and criminal disobedience. A well- known blockage of logging on the west coast of Vancouver Island made international headlines in 1993. The government responded by setting the goal of preserving 12% of forests as protected parklands and brought in stringent legislation in 1995 with rigorous limits to protect stream quality and animal habitat.

Over time, the saw and pulp mills became more efficient and automated, as fewer workers were needed to convert a tree into the final product than ever before. By the 1990s, demand for specialized forest products had decreased. Timber operations were consequentially reduced. Thousands lost their jobs.

The province transitioned away from the forest industry and toward the tourism industry by the 2000s. Today, facing new factors of climate collapse and insect infestation, forest fire seasons were expanding. Devastating burns were widely publicized in the 2010s. Nanaimo saw darkened skies and smoke filled lungs as recently as 2020. Conditions have become extreme and are only expected to get worse.

THE TOUR

Map of Timber and Forestry Tour. Start in the south of Nanaimo, near the interchange of Highways 1 (Trans-Canada) and 19 (Island). Drive north on the Trans-Canada Highway 1 toward downtown Nanaimo. After passing under the railway trestle bridge, turn right at the traffic lights on Haliburton Street. Bend slowly left and then, at the middle of a long straight section of road, pause on the right side in a large open parking area. This is near the entrance to Coastland Industries (#1). Access is restricted, so please do not visit the mill.

The Coastland Wood Industries Mill.

1. Coastland Wood Industries: Established as recently as 1988, this successful Canadian company operates a mill to manufacture veneers and “roundwood” from second growth Douglas fir logs. Veneers are thin sheets of wood that are peeled from a larger log. Roundwood is the term for stakes and fences posts that are leftover cores from the veneer peeling process. This process is explained in the next section. Coastland added additional production lines in 2000 and 2013 to become the largest veneer manufacturer in . They continue to lead with new technological innovations and focus on sustainable practices to protect the environment.

VENEER PEELING PROCESS (https://coastlandwood.com/)

About 60% of logs are brought to the mill by water and stored in log booms just offshore. The rest come by truck. These logs must be straighter than most that are sent to sawmills to be cut into lumber. The reason for this needed linearity is that logs will be rotated and peeled to extract large sheets of veneer.

In the mill, each log is scanned by the latest technology to determine how best to cut it and ensure an efficient yield. Next, the log is debarked by a set of rotating knives that strip its bark away. The “bark- free” log is then cut to a precise length and moved into the conditioning chamber. Materials that don’t make the grade are converted into wood chips. In the conditioning chamber, the best quality logs are showered by hot water until they reach an internal core temperature of 49°C (120°F). This softens the wood and makes peeling much easier. Warm veneer sheets are also easier to lay flat with less splitting.

The Veneer Peeling Process

Once logs reach the correct temperature, they are moved to the lathe for peeling into veneer sheets. The log is picked up through an automated system that scans the complete circumference of the log. The log is optimally positioned to recover the greatest amount of veneer possible.

Once in the proper position, a lathe spindle is inserted into each end of the log. This spindle drives the rotation of the log and spins at speeds of up to five metres per second (1000 feet per minute). The knife blade of the lathe is pressed against the side of the log and begins peeling layers of wood into a ribbon of veneer. The ribbon travels down a conveyor to be clipped into four by eight foot sheets.

The lathe can be adjusted to peel different thicknesses of veneer based on customer demands. Final testing checks the thickness and grades the veneer based on strength and density. Once these veneer sheets have been checked, they are stacked on top of one another into a unit of veneer and shipped to a mainland drying facility. The veneer unit is then dried to customers’ standards for moisture.

The customer incorporates these raw veneer sheets into plywood, “Parallam” beams, or Laminated Veneer Lumber (LVL). LVL utilizes special adhesives and cutting techniques to form laminates that are stronger and straighter than, but less likely to warp or shrink than, traditional milled lumber.

Each log is peeled down to the smallest possible diameter that the lathe is capable of reaching. This maximizes veneer production and results in the remaining core of the log. This core is then turned into a tree stake or fence post for the agricultural industry. Coastland is the largest North American supplier of these products with an annual production capacity approaching 7 million posts. Other byproducts are bark, burned as fuel in the mill, and wood chips, sold to pulp mills for making paper.

Continue toward downtown Nanaimo following Haliburton to a T-junction (#2). Turn left on Grace.

Eureka in 1947.

2. Eureka Sawmill: All along the Nanaimo waterfront in this area were several sawmills. Other small mills dotted the harbour as far north as Departure Bay. However, the largest and best known in downtown was the Eureka Sawmill. It was once located on the other side of the railway tracks on lands leased from the port authority. When this mill finally closed in 2014, the port developed the area to include a cruise ship facility and heliport with multiple landing pads.

Eureka opened in 1956 and was in full swing from 1958 to 1968, while operated by the Mayo Lumber Company (see description in #10) with timbers coming from the Nanaimo River Valley. After the 1955 death of the Mayo Company’s founder and major shareholder, Mayo Singh, his family and partners continued the company and built this sawmill in his memory. In the early days, their workers commuted from Duncan (a one hour drive south today, longer back then).

Doman industries acquired the mill in 1980. Herb Doman was born in 1932 in the Cowichan Valley near Duncan. He went to work at the early age of 12, after his father died. Herb’s father was the cousin of Mayo Singh and a partner in the Mayo Lumber Company. As a 23 year old, Herb started a trucking company, incorporated as Doman Industries in 1955. He grew the business into hundreds of trucks with operations throughout western Canada and the . In the 1960s, he added building supply stores, lumber wholesaling, forest logging and timber milling. Doman built several sawmills around Vancouver Island in the 1970s. He sold his trucking interests in 1990 in order to concentrate on his newer forestry-related acquisitions.

Western Forest Products (WFP) was formed in 2004 from Doman Industries, Western Woods, with other timber companies, and has had head offices in Nanaimo since 2011. WFP re-opened this mill in 200_, kept it idle from 2008 to 2010 due to depressed market conditions, and then closed it in 2014. Their 60 or so employees were offered severance or new positions at their other sawmills in Port Alberni, Cowichan Bay, Ladysmith, and at Duke Point (#13) near Nanaimo. SAW MILLING

Saw mills cut timbers (logs from felled trees) into lumber (like a 2”x4” stud). Before mills, logs were cut to approximate shape and size by hand using an . With the invention of the cutting saw, lumber dimensions became more precise. A stationary log (elevated, supported or suspended for easy access) was sawn by hand, usually from above and below, since side to side was much more difficult to control. One worker stood on top of the log, while another was underneath in a saw pit or underground channel.

The mill changed the game to clamp the log in a fixed orientation and pass it across the cutting edge of a stationary saw. Initially, this saw was straight and reciprocated up and down, but with the development of circular saws, a rotating cutting edge provided better quality, fewer binding problems, and faster cuts. However, dirt could foul up a so saw filing was often necessary to keep the saw teeth sharp.

Modern sawmills have replaced their cutting with continuous band saws and chain saws. Today, sawmills tend to specialize in softwood (conifers) or hardwoods (deciduous), but not both, since re- engineering requires adding different cutting teeth and switching back and forth can be very expensive.

As power sources innovated, human power gave way to animal powered sawing. Working animals turned a large wheel at a slow speed and this turned a small wheel at a high speed. This small wheel either converted the motion to a back and forth reciprocation or kept the motion as a rotating circle. The saw blades moved slowly and occasionally bound up. Very quickly, water power was substituted and faster movements became possible. Water dropped with force from a height (perhaps piped from a dam) had sufficient pressure to turn a water wheel. The waterwheel was connected like those wheels above. Steam power soon surpassed water power. Scrap wood was burned to boil water and produce steam that was forced through a turbine and the turbine transferred power to the saws like the earlier wheel. Finally, electricity and petroleum fuels exceeded steam power by turning a motor powered saw.

Sawmill in 1947 showing head saw cutting planks. Sawmill with cross-cut saw used to trim ends.

No matter what the source of the sawing power, mills operate much the same in each case. A sawmill typically uses two saw blades: one to cut lengthwise and the other to cut widthwise. The head saw first cuts the log into unfinished planks and then again, by cutting off the raw edges, into finished boards. The cross-cut saw trims the unfinished plank or finished board ends to the desired length. Additional edging or planing (with specialized tools) can tidy up the surface of a final product ready for drying.

During the days of water power, the enormous sawdust produced by sawmills formed giant waste piles beside the mill. This decomposing sawdust leaked into water sources and sometimes caught fire. To get rid of this waste, some sawmills burned sawdust in giant conical burners that looked like rusty beehives. The smell and toxicity of emissions were a smoke nuisance and health hazard in some communities. When modern drying became part of the sawmill process, this waste sawdust was repurposed as fuel to heat the drying kilns and these ugly eye-sores disappeared from most sawmills on Vancouver Island. Today, sawdust is glued, sometimes with plastics added, to form composites like artificial wood flooring.

A 1970s Beehive Burner used to burn waste sawdust.

Portable sawmills, a variation on the industrial mill, can be moved to different locations as required. Their principle difference is that they keep the log clamped and stationary, while the saw is moved or swung within a guiding carriage that is fixed to the log. Today, this allows milling at the logging site. After turning left onto Grace, turn right on Nicol (Trans-Canada Highway 1). Follow this main road (Terminal) around the downtown and under the Bastion Street Bridge. Turn left on Comox at the traffic light. Before crossing the railway tracks, turn right on Prideaux Street. At the end, where it meets Mill, turn left into Barsby Avenue and park by the bridge. Downstream was Nanaimo’s first saw mill (#3).

Nanaimo’s first sawmill on Millstone River, circa 1890, running on steam power by then.

3. Millstone Sawmill: Nanaimo’s first sawmill opened on the Millstone River in 1854 and was the second one built by the Hudson’s Bay Company after their first in Victoria. It was located between the river and today’s Mill Street. Initially, the Millstone River was dammed upstream and piped water dropped through a waterwheel that powered the saws. Logs were fed through the mill and sawed to the required dimensions. Sawdust was burned or dropped into the water

This sawmill supplied wood to build the Bastion, shore up Nanaimo’s growing network of coal mining tunnels, and construct many other wooden structures in town. In 1874, Robertson & Company took over this mill and modernized it to run on steam power. They closed it by 1905.

Meanwhile, other water and steam powered sawmills were also built along the river here, including the steam-powered Haslam Mill. When Andrew Haslam came to Nanaimo from Ireland, via New Brunswick, Manitoba, and Texas, he saw the super abundance of forests and joined a partnership in a New Westminster planing mill. Planing mills were used to smooth the raw faces of sawn lumber. With his partners, he established the Haslam Sawmill here in 1884. After rapid success, he parted ways with his partners in 1886 and bought the existing Nanaimo Sawmills Company on the harbour that included a planing mill. He was able to sell finished wood and cedar shingles. Shingles were split from log ends and used as roofing tiles on many cabins. He added a door jam and window sash factory beside his original mill in 1885.

As a successful operator of businesses, he naturally entered politics with several terms divided between New Westminster (on the mainland) and Nanaimo, where he was twice elected mayor. He built a mansion for his family at the corner of Wallace and Comox near his original mills. Haslam Hall, as he named it, was designed by local architect, James Kelly and was constructed at a pricey sum of $6000. In 1904, his sawmill and adjacent businesses were destroyed by fire. Uninsured, he rebuilt the businesses at great cost only to have them succumb to fire once more.

Steam-powered Haslam Mill, circa 1892. Haslam Hall, remodeled in the 1940s.

Drive back to Comox and turn right as it becomes Bowen Road. Along this main road, pass Bowen Park (#4) and Beban Park (#5). Turn right into each. Explore, then return to Bowen and turn right after each.

One of several waterfalls on the Millstone River in Bowen Park.

4. Bowen Park: This forested green space is named for the Bowen brothers, George and James, who owned the Western Fuel Company: one of two major coal mining forces around the early 1900s. In 1918, they donated this land to the city with the provision that it remained a park forever. Local residents enjoyed walking and picnicking in this popular place and volunteers worked to thoughtfully develop the park facilities as early as the 1950s. Gardens were added with the Billy Lewis Centenary Rose Garden in 1963 and Hailey Rhododendron Grove in 1975. However, the most interesting feature of this park is its enormous trees. Since timber was easily obtained by the mining companies, this adjacent land was not logged like so much of the city.

Beban House, shortly after construction, in 1935.

5. Beban Park: The space is named for Frank Beban and contains a log mansion and 9 hectares (23 acres) of second growth forest that is crisscrossed by a network of exercise trails. Frank Beban was born in New Zealand and came to Canada by 1906 at the age of 24 years to seek his fortune. He started by cutting timber for the Dunsmuir coal mines near Cumberland on Vancouver Island.

By 1910, he was working with horses at the Extension coal mines, just south of Nanaimo and had married Hannah Hodgson. After Frank inherited a large sum of money, he was able to buy 70 hectares (173 acres) by 1930 and build a home for his family of four children outside of Nanaimo. With 5 bedrooms, 4 fireplaces, and 3 bathrooms, the Beban House mansion was decorated with glass cabinets and chandeliers. Due to his love of horses, he built a race track (later used for stock car racing from 1958 to 1985 and now part of the sports complex) and he bought a horse farm called Emerald Stables (located in Pleasant Valley south of the city).

Frank had enough money left over to start some businesses: a Frank Beban sawmill in Nanaimo, and a Frank Beban coal mine and another Frank Beban sawmill in Extension. To supply his saw mills with timber, he launched a Frank Beban Lumber Company and built these into a logging empire. Frank died in 1953 and Hannah sold their home property to the city for $53,000. The city developed the land into an enormous park full of facilities for people to enjoy. Frank’s son Jack and his grandson, Frank Jr. successively took over the logging company. Today, it is run by his great granddaughter Jacqui. Four generations have logged on Vancouver island.

BEFORE DEPARTING FROM HERE MAKE A DECISION ABOUT THE NEXT STOP. You have two options described below. Once you have made your decision, turn right on Bowen Road. At the end of Beban Park, turn left on Labieux Road and stay on this to merge with Jingle Pot Road and bend right and left to reach Mostar Road. Turn left on Mostar to the Nanaimo Parkway. Be ready to implement your choice.

OPTION ONE: Turn right on the Nanaimo Parkway to visit Red Gap (#6), the historical site of the Straits Lumber Company, but very little remains to be seen today. Red Gap is now a rest area on the mountain side of the freeway and to reach it, drive past, turn around on one of the side roads or at the junction of Northwest Bay Road in Nanoose Bay, and return to stop at the rest area. If you choose this option, once you have finished, then return back to Mostar and continue south on Highway 19 as described below.

OPTION TWO: Turn left on the Nanaimo Parkway and skip directly to Colliery Dams Park (#7). Take the Nanaimo Parkway (Island Highway 19) south, past the Northfield exit (by tourist information) and past the Jingle Pot exit (leading to downtown). Stay on the Nanaimo Parkway as it climbs up a noticeably steep hill. At the top of the hill, exit left on Fifth Street going downhill past the university. Turn right on Wakesiah Avenue and then right on Nanaimo Lakes Drive. Park to explore Colliery Dams on the left.

The early Straits Lumber Mill at Red Gap, circa 1920 (the pilings remain today).

6. Red Gap: Brothers Joe and Max McKercher built a small lumber mill here in 1912. In those days, timbers cut around the vast expanses of Coombs, Parksville, and Qualicum were shipped via the E&N railway to Nanaimo for milling. The McKerchers intercepted some of that lumber by offering cheaper transport costs to the logging companies. They began with promising ideas.

After faltering starts, the mill changed hands a few times until 1917, when Frank Pendleton bought it and opened the Straits Lumber Company. Lumber produced by the mill was barged across the shallow bay to ships anchored in deeper waters. These sailed the lumber around the world, but mostly to Japan, because Pendleton milled the products to Japanese dimensions. This approach was so successful that this mill became the largest in the Pacific Northwest by the 1930s. However, with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the mill lost Japan as top customer.

Unable to recover, the mill went out of business in 1941 and a series of successive fires crippled the infrastructure. A few companies attempted to resurrect the mill in the years that followed World War II, but these smaller operations were not successful. The mill finally closed for good in the 1950s. All that remains today are wood pilings jutting out of the water: remnants of mill buildings and worker housing. Since space was very limited on the water side of the railway, everything was built on elevated stilts. Today’s rest area was where the village was located with a company store, school, post office, various shops, many houses, and an assortment of hotels.

Footbridge atop the lower lake dam.

7. Collieries Dams: The lakes were dammed here to provide water for washing coal at the colliery and eventually for drinking in the community. The area around the lakes was not logged, since the Harewood Mining Company had an abundance of free timber on adjacent lands all around.

The original 1887 dams were constructed as a crib frame of logs filled with rock and soil. In 1910, these were reconstructed with reinforced concrete. By 1932, drinking water was piped in from the South Forks Dam on the Nanaimo River and this land became a park in perpetuity.

Enjoy a walk around the upper and lower lakes (see map) in a figure 8, crossing the dams at the outflows. Examine tree bark and find examples of the four described at the tour introduction.

Map of Colliery Dams Park Continue on Nanaimo Lakes Road. Pass under the Nanaimo Parkway and between the third and fourth lakes of Colliery Dams. After passing the intersection with Harewood Mines Road, Nanaimo Lakes Road goes uphill through a large patchwork area (#8). Consider how this logging has recovered over the years.

Example of patchwork logging in the headwaters of the Nanaimo River, circa 1963.

8. Patchwork: Instead of the entire hillside, patches were clearcut and unlogged areas were decidedly left as ecologically sensitive like water courses. In this manner, the impact was spread over a larger space rather than concentrated in one spot. The same amount of wood was taken, but the clearcutting restriction was avoided. Theoretically, this was meant to provide pockets of wildlife habitat allowing camouflaged movement. However, the impact was still highly noticeable and no significant differences between were found by scientific studies.

Most, if not all of this region and the local hillsides were cut by this method in the 1950s and 60s. Today, the Nanaimo Lakes are a source of drinking water for the city. Examine what you see as you drive along the roads to the next stop and decide for yourselves how well the land has recovered from this practice.

Stay on the main paved road all the way. After re-entering forest, turn left onto South Forks Road. After emerging from the forest, turn right into Gogo’s Sawmill and Christmas Tree Farm. Stop near the sign “Old Johny Gogo (1861-1949)” and view the colourfully painted forest machinery beside the pavement.

If you have time and interest, go down the single lane road to the main office. If Mike Gogo is around and not busy with operations, then he may have time to show you the historic sawmill and museum. If you want to organize a visit and make arrangements in advance, contact: gogochristmastreefarm.com.

The working sawmill, over 100 years old and originally moved here from Prince George.

9. Gogo Farm: John Gogo Sr. was born in the Austro-Hungarian Empire and went to Wyoming, in 1890, where he caught and tamed wild horses for the American Army. After 7 years, he had made enough money to travel to Nanaimo, where he had heard of the coal boom. A coal mine manager saw him in a trick roping and riding performance and offered him a job caring for the mine mules. In 1897, he bought land parcels in the Douglas District near the Nanaimo River, where he logged and bred mules (the offspring from male donkeys and female horses) and leased these to various mines. During the big miner’s strike (1912-1914), he provided food from his 260 hectare (640 acre) farm to feed the hungry families of the striking miners.

In 1910, he optioned the timber rights to his land parcels for US$100,000, but the American purchaser had not logged within the requisite 25 year period and so the rights reverted back to the Gogos in 1935. John (Harold) Jr., son of John Sr., started the Gogo Logging Company after this. He had already begun a successful tree farm during the depression that cut and sold Christmas trees to American markets from 1929. His youngest son (of 8 children), Michael, began the U-cut operation in 1980, where customers find one they like and cut it themselves.

In 1987, brothers Ronald and Michael (grandsons of John Sr. and sons of John Jr.), began a sawmill for direct sales of specialty cut fine lumber to the public market. Today, fourth and fifth generations of Gogos carry on these continuing traditions with their tree farm and sawmill.

Logging machinery: 1926 Allis-Chalmers with logging arch, Gogo’s 1920 truck, and 1928 Caterpillar Sixty.

The three machines on display are a crawler with a logging arch in tow (orange), a (black), and a bulldozer (yellow). The crawler is an Allis-Chalmers Monarch from 1926. It moved slowly through the forest towing the logging arch and dragging logs behind both. The logging arch was used to elevate one end of the log by a cable, while the other end dragged on the ground. This reduced the drag friction and stopped the leading end from catching on obstacles.

The logging truck is an International F series, Model S, with a Hall-Scott motor from the 1920s. It carried logs and logging equipment between the forest and the mill. The bulldozer is a Caterpillar Sixty from 1928. It moved quickly and turned easily to build roads and remove obstacles. Both machines with continuous tracks, instead of rubber tires on wheels, had the advantages of heightened traction and mobility, but tended to break down often. In addition, the farm still uses their 1950’s Patrick Forklift to move heavy loads through rough terrain.

Early machinery used in logging industry: bulldozer (1935) and crane (1921).

Return to South Forks road and turn right to quickly reach the Nanaimo River Road. Turn left and, at your leisure, find any safe and convenient place to park well off the road near the Nanaimo River (#10).

Clear cut logging along the edge of the Nanaimo River in 1931.

10. Nanaimo River: A hundred years ago, the forest industry wasn’t aware that clearcut logging along water courses had an unrecoverable impact on the natural environment. By removing all the useable timber cover from the land, erosion of the soils into the streams was accelerated and debris choked the rivers. Consequently, Salmon were unable to reproduce effectively and fish stocks became depleted. The Nanaimo River Valley was clearcut in the 1940s and 50s.

Nanaimo River Logging Camp near McKay Lake in 1949.

Most of the logging near the Nanaimo River and Nanaimo Lakes was conducted from camps at McKay Lake (other side of the river from here) owned by the Mayo Lumber Company. Around 1906, Mayo Singh came to Canada from Paldi in eastern Punjab and northern India. After working in the timber industry for a decade, he started his own sawmill in the Cowichan Valley (near Duncan, one hour south of Nanaimo) with friends and family at the town of Paldi (named for their hometown). The company and town were true models of multiculturalism with Japanese, Chinese, Indian, Indigenous, and European workers and residents. In time, the town grew to a population of 1500 and Mayo’s company became highly profitable. After logging the Cowichan Valley, they moved north to log both sides of the Nanaimo Valley. Timbers were transported first by truck and then by train to the Eureka sawmill (#2) in downtown Nanaimo.

The last train to haul logs from the Nanaimo Valley to MacMillan Bloedel’s Harmac pulp mill in 1969.

Logging railways ran up and down on both sides of the river between the roads and the water. In the 1960s, during the heydays of the Harmac pulp mill (#12) MacMillan Bloedel (aka MacBlo) held the forest leases in this valley. They transported timber for processing into paper pulp at Duke Point by steam trains. The last one stopped running in 1969 and “MacBlo” began barging waste wood chips in by water from its island sawmills as a new raw source for pulp production.

Stay on Nanaimo River Road to its far end with the TransCanada Highway 1. Go north on this main highway by crossing the railway tracks, and going straight through the tunnel under the highway, and then by staying right to merge into the highway, now going back toward Nanaimo again. After passing the lights at Morden, exit right onto the Island Highway 19 (east toward the BC Ferries at Duke Point).

Follow this highway until the last exit before the ferry terminal. After crossing the Nanaimo River and passing under two overpasses, exit right for the village of Cedar and the Industrial Park. Stay in the right lane for the Industrial Park (a left turn across the highway will be the continuing route after visiting the next stops). As you head along Maughan Road (paralleling the freeway), the experimental arboretum (#11) is the first right turn on Phoenix Way followed by an immediate right turn to parking. The Harmac Mill (#12) and the Duke Point Sawmill (#13) are nearby, but difficult to access without special permission.

Arboretum sign commemorating two well-known provincial forestry legends.

11. Experimental Arboretum: When Harvey MacMillan (for whom HarMac is named) was in charge of the mill here, his company experimented with new species of trees that would prove useful to pulp and paper production. In 1956, his scientists wanted to know how well these exotics would grow under local conditions. As a result, 150 species were once found in this small park maintained by volunteers. In 2013, the tree collection was restored to its former glory and several interpretive signs were added. This is a nice place to walk around and discover trees.

While the name has changed a few times, it was originally known for HR MacMillan, the famous philanthropist and forest industrialist. He donated the land that became MacMillan Provincial Park that protects groves of ancient Douglas fir located on either side of Highway 4 near Port Alberni. He started the MacMillan Export company in 1919 that amalgamated into MacMillan Bloedel by merging with Bloedel, Stewart and Welsh, and the Powell River Company in 1951. However, this park was renamed by “MacBlo” in honour of Grant Ainscough upon his 1988 retirement as their Chief , Vice President, and unofficial head of forest conservation. Today, now owned by the Regional District of Nanaimo, it carries the names of both men.

H.R. MacMillan Chief Forester, Grant L. Ainscough

The Harmac Pulp Mill in the 1950s.

12. Harmac Mill: Now employee owned, this pulp mill was one of the largest employers in Nanaimo. Since construction in 1950, it has kept our city economy alive, while the related forest industry dwindled. The mill produces kraft pulp for export from raw wood chips. Kraft refers to the best method of producing pulp with the least environmental impact as described in the next section.

Next door to Harmac was the Island Phoenix sawmill. A woodroom (the old no. 3) was built shortly after Harmac, it produced lumber for export and wood chips for pulp production at Harmac. This developed into a fully operational sawmill by 1989, but was dismantled in 2005.

PULP TO PAPER PROCESS (http://www.harmacpacific.com)

Dry wood is made of two important compounds: cellulose and lignin. Cellulose is a long chain of several thousand sugar molecules that form thin fibers into the walls of cells with a strong tensile strength (not easily bent or snapped). Lignin is a chain of several hundred alcohol molecules that fill gaps around cell walls as a hard matrix capable of resisting compression (not easily collapsed under weight). Together, cellulose fibers embedded within a lignin matrix give rigidity to the support structures of a tree such as its trunks, branches and leaf stems. This is what makes wood such good choices for building materials.

When you see and touch a rotting stump in the forest, it is either soft, spongy, and pale (made mostly of cellulose) or hard, crumbly, and dark (made mostly of lignin). The compound that survives decay in a rotting stump depends on the bacteria or fungi that selectively degrade one compound over the other.

The process of making paper from wood pulp requires that these two compounds be separated, so that cellulose can be used to make paper products. Lignin is a waste product burned to fuel the pulp mill. Aging paper that yellows or becomes brittle has lignin present that survived the manufacturing process.

Coniferous trees (softwoods, but not actually soft) are higher in cellulose (40-50%) and lignin (26-34%) compared with deciduous trees or hardwoods (38% and 23% respectively). Therefore, mills will favour available coniferous wood, rejected from sawmills, as a starting point for their pulp production process. Harmac uses softwood from Douglas fir, western hemlock, balsam, western red cedar, and other trees.

To begin, wood in the form of timber and scrap cuts from sawmills is debarked. Chemicals in the bark can interfere with certain steps of the manufacturing process or harder pieces can simply foul up the machinery. Therefore, the bark has to be painstakingly scraped off before continuing. This can be aided by machines that press a log against a series of blades that scrape off the bark as the log is turned.

Next the debarked wood is put through a chipper that chews up the wood into small chips. These chips are stored in piles around the mill for when they are needed. Additional wood chips, coming from other sources, can be added to the piles at any time. Piles are often watered to prevent overheating fires.

At this point, several methods exist for separating the lignin and cellulose from the lignin. After pre- steaming, a mechanical process grinds the wood chips down to raw fibers between two millstones. This produces an adequate quality that is worthy of newsprint or paperboard. Alternatively, chips can be cooked and crushed to mash the two compounds together in a pulp that is suitable to make cardboard.

Chemicals can be added to the latter heating processes in an effort to reduce the temperatures needed to crush and mash. If sulfites (sulfite/bisulfate salts) are the chemical used to break the bonds between cellulose and lignin, then the resulting paper will only be moderately strong, but still useful for specialty paper and fine tissues. If hydroxides (lye or caustic soda) are added to separate the compounds, then the resulting paper will be easiest to tear and be very useful in toilet paper and sanitary products.

Harmac uses the most common and environmentally sensitive method globally available today, the kraft process (German for strength). Pre-steamed wood chips are added to “white liquor” and placed in a digester. White liquor is an alkaline mixture of hot water, hydroxides, and sulfides that easily breaks the bonds between cellulose and lignin without damaging the fiber quality. The digester heats the chips and mixture to about 175°C (347°F) for several hours. Controlling temperature and duration is important, because the lignin and other composites will break down and dissolve in the liquor, while the cellulose will remain as long and useable fibers. The result is a brown-coloured puree extruded from the digester.

This “brown stock” is cellulose fibers suspended in “black liquor” and washing separates the two. The resulting cellulose fibers go on to the next step, but the black liquor (a diluted suspension of lignin, soap, and other composites from the original liquor chemicals) must be recovered to be reused. Soapy oils are scraped and skimmed from the surface of the suspension. Boiling reduces the water content and the remaining residue is lignin (in sulfated form). This residue is drained, dried, and burned for energy in the boiler. The last of the black liquor can be used to supplement the white liquor added earlier.

The separated cellulose fibers are air blown and may be further steamed. This removes leftover resins and can produce raw turpentine when large amounts of pine were uses as wood chips. Pine is not very common on Vancouver Island. Impurities are removed by passing the fibers through screens in spinning centrifuges and catching the reject material within the drum. The smaller the screens used, the higher the purity of fibers that result. Sometimes, the rejected material can be recycled back to the digester.

Finally, the resulting “pulp” is bleached. This is the last effort to remove leftover lignin. Unfortunately, bleaching can weaken some of the cellulose fibers and reduce the overall strength of the final paper. So, if the pulp is destined for making packing boxes or paper bags, then bleaching is not necessary, but if bright, white paper is desired, then bleaching is required. Alkaline chemicals (peroxides or hydroxides) are added to oxidize the colour causing compounds in the pulp. Harmac does not yet operate as a Totally Chlorine Free (TCF) mill, but does employ some chlorine dioxide in the bleaching step. However, they do not use chlorine gas, which is known to form dioxins and other cancer causing compounds.

Harmac’s kraft pulp is exported to international markets via ocean-going tanker ships. Upon receipt at a paper factory, the pulp is refined. Strengthening additives and artificial colouring are added to change the end performance and appearance of the paper. Fillers are added to make the paper less transparent and pH is adjusted by adding acid or alkaline buffers as needed. Finished pulp may be diluted, if needed.

This final pulp slurry is machined into print and writing paper. The slurry is poured over a screen. Water is removed by gravity dripping, pressure squeezing, and sometimes vacuum extraction or atmospheric evaporation. The resulting wet paper is dried by external heating and then cut to the desired size and shape for sale. Today, machines do everything that a past individual would have done by hand.

A big advantage to the kraft process is that much of the added liquor reactants can be recaptured and recovered to be reused again and again. However, some effluents from the factory can be toxic and must be carefully dealt with. Harmac has reduced its effluent toxicity, especially dioxins, furans, and adsorbable (adhesion of) organic halides, to well within the required provincial environmental limits.

The malodour of a pulp mill has greatly improved over the years. The smell is due to the presence of sulfides and other sulfur-based compounds coming from chemical reactions involving lignin removal. Since the emissions are burned along with black liquor in the recovery boiler, these smells are only overwhelming after prolonged mill shutdowns due to routine maintenance or power failures.

The sludge that is generated as effluent is passed through primary and secondary clarifiers, biological reactors, and ionization treatments. The resulting waste products, with moisture reduced to the point of combustion, are incinerated in the power boiler. This resource reduces the mill’s demand for natural gas and other fuels. A surplus of energy produced by burning wood wastes is sold back to the electrical power grid. Attaining specific goals is scheduled to halve emissions and water consumption by 2030.

Satellite image of Duke Point Sawmill beside the ferry terminal.

13. Duke Point Sawmill: With timberlands all across Vancouver Island, and administrative offices in Nanaimo, Western Forest Products (WFP) Incorporated, brings timber to one of four sawmills in Port Alberni, Cowichan Bay, Ladysmith, and here at Duke Point.

The mill originally began operating here in 1980 and was built by Doman Industries, based in Duncan at the time. It was acquired by WFP in 2004, when several companies merged. When WFP closed their downtown Nanaimo mill, this sawmill and planing mill were modernized in 2015, with the addition of automatic wood grading technology that sped up productivity.

CAUTION: The final stop at Wildwood is open only during selective hours; to arrange a naturalist tour by donation, please contact Kathryn Code at call 250-418-5313 well in advance of your intended arrival.

Leave the arboretum parking with a left turn onto Phoenix Way, followed by an immediate left turn on Maughan Road. Bend right and cross the overpass above the freeway. Turn left on Gordon Road, but avoid entering the freeway via the ramp. Instead, stay right (toward Cedar), and then turn left on MacMillan Road to parallel the freeway. Next, turn left to cross the freeway again via another overpass.

Continue on MacMillan Road as it bends right to a T-junction with Cedar Road. Turn left on Cedar Road and go through the centre of the village. Finally, turn left onto Yellow Point Road and follow this past Quennell Lake to turn right onto Crane Road and reach the Wildwood Ecoforest (#14) at its very end.

Wildwood Ecoforest and the Ecoforestry Institute Society (https://www.ecoforestry.ca).

14. Wildwood Ecoforest: This forest successfully demonstrates that selective timber harvesting can take place without damaging the environment and so the forest here is logged every few years by ecologically sound and sustainable practices. The basic philosophy behind ecoforestry is to avoid lasting damage and support the ecological integrity and natural functions of the forest.

Principles include logging only at times when fire danger is low, soil is not saturated, winds are calm, and birds or other animals are not nesting. Trees are felled by hand using modern, but simple practices and logs are moved to a loading area by animal or low impact tractor. The trees chosen for cutting are those at risk of causing problems (windfall, infection, etc.) or those that are selected from specific criteria: light availability, growth density, and soil compaction.

A healthy and diverse forest protects plant and animal habitats, filters and distributes water, decays nutrients to nourish itself, seeds its own future of natural regeneration, sequesters and secures carbon in a safe form, and provides purified air for us to breathe.

Trees convert carbon dioxide to carbohydrates through photosynthesis. Water and oxygen are released into the atmosphere. Water evaporates, thereby allowing the tree to draw nutrients to the leaves at the top of each tree. Evaporated water is carried great distances to fall as rain in faraway places. Oxygen is consumed by animals to make energy from their food and release carbon dioxide. The carbon dioxide continues a balanced cycle of life by fueling photosynthesis.

Logging too many trees interrupts this balanced cycle and reduces the rain that falls elsewhere, thus causing distant drought, prevents the creation of much needed oxygen, and builds the presence of carbon dioxide, a known greenhouse gas, thus contributing to climate change. By sustaining the forest, the overall health and resilience of people and the planet is ensured.

On behalf of the people of , the Ecoforestry Institute Society (EIS) is the trustee of Wildwood Ecoforest. The EIS was founded in the 1990s by academics from the University of Victoria and they acquired Wildwood in 2016. The EIS is governed by a board of directors and Wildwood is operated by community volunteers. However, it all began with Merv Wilkinson.

In 1938, Merv bought Wildwood’s 31 hectares (77 acres) as potential farmland, but after an agricultural education at the University of British Columbia, he considered farming the forest following a Scandinavian model of logging. He started after returning from the Second World War and refined his practices over the next few decades to maintain a healthy forest. He received a number of awards for his precedent setting work including the Order of Canada.

A truck carries timbers across the Nanaimo River on a bridge made from lumber and logs in 1949.