Bruce Harrison receives Jo Anne Green Environmental Award

Max Thaysen/ Cortes Currents - This January, at the Friends of Cortes Island Annual General Meeting, Bruce Harrison was awarded the Jo Anne Green Environmental Award. The Jo Anne Green award is an honour for leadership in community-based environmental awareness, protection and restoration. Jo Anne Green was a founder of the Friends of Cortes Island and an inspiration for many on Cortes to care for this place and imagine a reciprocal relationship with our ecosystems.

The letter that nominates Harrison reads as follows:

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Bruce has been a resident of Cortes Island for about 30 years. He has always exemplified what it means to have a small footprint in terms of his own lifestyle (he is often seen commuting on his bike between Whaletown and Manson's) and over the past few years he has made significant contributions through the work he has done constructing and maintaining access trails which are now widely used by the community. His work on the trails at the Ester Rd. beach access, the Whaletown Commons, and the adjacent Crown land have all been a great benefit to the wider community and in fact have helped to secure the Crown land as protected park land. The trail access in the Whaletown Commons area has made Whaletown into a very walkable neighbourhood which has significantly decreased the need for motorized vehicles.