World Environment Day – A Time for Nature

Today is World Environment Day – the United Nations’ day for encouraging worldwide awareness and action to protect our environment. This year, the UN is encouraging people to reflect on the theme “A Time for Nature” – and how during these unprecedented times of COVID-19, it is clear that to take care of ourselves, we must also care for nature.

This theme resonates with the values Mosaic manages for on our land base, and how we have responded to the impacts of COVID-19.  We have long managed for the full range of sustainable forest management values – working to achieve environmental, economic, cultural and social goals. We work hard to grow and steward healthy forests and ecosystems, and conduct our business in a way that protects ecological values. At the same time, as a private land owner, we take extensive, voluntary steps to provide safe access to our lands for the public, providing recreation opportunities and access to nature that are in high demand.

In response to the pandemic, the teams at Mosaic really came through for Vancouver Islanders in need of safe recreation opportunities for themselves and their families. With national and provincial parks closed, the pressure on Mosaic’s lands for public access grew, and through the efforts of our employees, we were able to provide strong guidance on social distancing, appropriate oversight and continued safe access to our lands.  This took significant effort from people across the organization, and leveraged the resources we had in place  – including our comprehensive online access portal and social media channels -- to provide information and direction to visitors.

Through this team effort, Mosaic was able to provide a valuable benefit to our communities and neighbours as they faced severely limited recreation opportunities. Now, as restrictions are easing, we are maintaining our expanded weekend access program, re-opening our 12 campsites and welcoming visitors back to these special places.

While forestry is our business, we work as hard and achieves as much as Mosaic in providing access to nature for the public.  World Environment Day provides an excellent opportunity to reflect on our commitment as an organization to running a sustainable business – including protecting and supporting access to nature for our neighbours.