Loggers Memorial Bowl hosts sporting event in qathet region

Fourth generation lumberjack Bob Marquis lives and breathes forestry on the Sunshine Coast and has traveled the world competing in logging sports games for more than 40 years. He is a former world champion logger and the current President of the Powell River Logger Sports Board.

“I started [competing] for my brother’s memorial show,” Marquis said in an interview with The Peak. “He died in a logging accident.”

Marquis and his brother were both lumberjack athletes when the event was held at Lang Bay in the 1970s. Marquis believes the local event is “Canada’s first truly competitive global sport here in Powell River.”

In 1971, British Columbia Premier WAC Bennett declared the sport of logging an official British Columbia industry sport. This year’s event, which will be held July 14-16 at the Loggers Memorial Bowl (Willingdon Beach), will feature British Columbia’s current Minister for Sports and Culture, Lana Popham, at the opening ceremony (11am, July 15). be to announce July 15th as Loggers Sports Day in BC.

“I’ve competed all over the world: in Europe, the United States, New Zealand, Australia and Canadian competitions,” said Marquis. “I don’t compete anymore, it’s a sport for young men.”

He believes that the logging sport competition is the best way for the general public to get close to the forest sector.

“There’s rarely an industry where a sport has been created,” Marquis said. “In the 1910s to 1920s, the ‘wood tree boys’ would throw an ax after dinner or see who could saw wood the fastest or climb a tree the fastest.”

Many of the traditional sports associated with logging history are still practiced today, such as axe throwing, diving boards and pole climbing. Added a few more modern challenges, such as the one-foot chainsaw races.

Marquis is positive and hopeful about the future and the current timber industry in BC, particularly in the Qathet region.

“The industry is going through tough times across the province of BC,” admitted Marquis. “The forest sector is still a big part of the economic dynamics in British Columbia and particularly in the communities that depend on it.”

He acknowledged that “it was also a difficult time, the loss of the 110-year-old Catalyst Paper Tis’kwat mill and the jobs associated with it.”

Marquis understands that there are naysayers [about the industry] and public concern for the preservation of old growth. However, he also believes that the general public needs more awareness of the industry and how local life depends in one way or another on forestry.

“The industry has changed and we now have more control over our forests,” added Marquis. “We have one of the best managed forest communities in the province and the Powell River Community Forest (PRCF) is a role model for every other forest community out there.”

PRCF administers the Community Forest Agreement (CFA), a forest tenure issued by the British Columbia Department of Forestry, which allows for the harvesting of tracts of forest in the province. The idea is to create a sustainable local industry with money going directly back to the community and allow communities more control over their local forests.

“If only everyone understood how much forestry reflects an individual’s life,” Marquis said. “What you use every day, the house you live in, the paper and pencil you use, there are all sorts of products that use wood fiber, including ice cream cones.”

Marquis believes that British Columbia has some of the strictest and most stringent forestry codes and laws in the world, but most people are unaware of this reality in the forestry sector.

In a Powell River Logger Sports media release, Marquis said, “The work being done by Tla’amin Nation and the Powell River Community Forest along with many other outstanding local industry leaders is a beacon of hope for the future here.” Part of the forest under local control and has been logged with local values.”

He added that Powell River Logger Sports is excited to showcase the heritage and contemporary skills and that the industry that has prospered this region for so long will continue to do so for generations to come.

Admission to Powell River Logger Sports is free, but organizers ask participants to bring non-perishable food or cash to donate to the Powell River Action Center Food Bank to fill a gravel truck with donations each day.