This past fall, local Bruce Ellingsen was recognized for his decades of community work sustaining healthy forests, primarily on Cortes Island. Friends of Cortes Island announced on Nov. 25, 2022 that Ellingsen was this year’s recipient of the annual Jo Ann Green Environmental Award.

In 1979, Ellingsen walked through a freshly-logged area on the Southpoint Development of Cortes Island and he had an epiphany.

“I just had that gut reaction: this can't be sustainable. This is just happening way too far, too fast, that's the starting point of my real curiosity… if I don't think that's sustainable, then what is?” 

The former oyster and land farmer has engaged in conversations and action since the 1970s, resulting in several victories for environmental conservation, community economic development, and sustainable forestry. Ellingsen served on the Advisory Planning Commission for 38 years, and was regional director from 1984-85. He went on to help set up the BC Community Forest Association at a conference at University of Victoria in 1998. And he also helped co-found the Cortes Community Forestry Coop in 2013. 

Ellingsen comes from a resourceful lineage of settlers to Canada, including a logger that arrived on Cortes in 1888.

“My great-grandfather, Mike Manson, he was a elected to the BC legislature three times…So it runs in the blood, to be engaged in local community” 

The environmentalist looks to the land and its diverse inhabitants for guidance in truly sustainable consumption rates, using an example of leaf cutter ants only taking about 15 per cent of the vegetative growth around their colony. Ellingsen hopes to continue the conversation about what is sustainable, currently focusing on nutrient drawdown.

To hear more about the work that earned Bruce Ellingsen the Jo Ann Green Environmental Award, listen to the CKTZ News Update below: