Welcome
A Living Forest Community is a community of individuals and families committed to saving large parcels of forested land from the ecological degradation that occurs with industrial logging. This is achieved by placing conservation and ecoforestry covenants on up to 85% of the land. These conservation covenants, in step with ecosystem-based forestry, protect the ecological health of watersheds, maintain long-term access to timber for milling and value-added production, and prevent climate change impacts inherent in conventional industrial (clearcut) logging.The planning basis for the residential community is to maintain and enhance the ecological integrity of the land. The community, therefore, sits on the least sensitive 15% of the land from an ecological point of view. The houses are clustered in hamlets designed to encourage face-to-face interaction and human scale proportions. Low-impact infrastructure, narrow roads and light on the land housing limit the ecological footprint of the development.
A Living Forest Community offers the opportunity for other compatible uses such as agro-forestry, organic gardening, small secondary manufacturing, live/work enterprises, non-timber resource enterprises, eco-tourism, environmental education and outdoor recreation. With appropriate ecological monitoring by a respected land trust organization, the single stem harvesting, re-planting and management of the forest will provide on-going jobs and incomes, and forests that over time acquire the characteristics of an old growth forest. The nature of the hamlet creates smaller than conventional lots for smaller houses, which contributes to housing attainability and a mix of age and income. We believe that this unique model is one of the best means of saving forest ecosystems in perpetuity because the community committed to its conservation lives embedded within it. The deforestation that has taken place in British Columbia and especially the South Shawnigan Lake area over the last decade is remarkable. For a comparison of forest cover in the South Shawnigan Lake are between the years of 1999 and 2007, please follow this link.