A new research conservancy proposal aims to save an enormous section of Quadra Island’s emerald heart and multiple pristine lakes from logging now and into the future. Open Bay Society, a non-profit wilderness conservancy and research centrebased on Quadra, is negotiating with Mosaic Forest Management to buy timber harvesting rights for 7,000 acres of forest at the centre of the island to protect biodiversity and enhance research, said the society’s co-founder, Aaron O’Connor. The aim of the Quadra Island Research Conservancy is to develop research and restoration in the area while respecting the We Wai Kai Nation’s social, cultural and ceremonial uses of the land falling within their traditional territory, O’Connor said. The initiative would also safeguard non-motorized recreational use of the land… he said.