07/30/2026
Recognize this logo?
Its clean red lines outlining two trees on twin mountains bring back memories of a different time.
It’s MacMillan Bloedel, sometimes affectionately called MacBlo or M+B - a Canadian forestry corporation that logged the BC coast from 1951 to 1999. M+B’s refusal to halt logging in Clayoquot Sound led to the Clayoquot protests starting in 1984 and culminating in the War in the Woods in the mid-90s. They operated at a time when streams, rivers, and wildlife had little to no protection.
For some, M+B evokes nostalgia. Entire families were raised in logging camps and company towns, where generations built their lives around the forestry industry. Truck boats, trains, and even everyday life bore the M+B name. And for others, it may evoke anger. Many of our team members are the grandchildren, nieces, and nephews of M+B loggers—grandparents who ran tugboats, felled trees, and worked in mills or camp kitchens. It’s hard to find someone from this coast who wasn’t connected to the company in some way.
M+B had ‘Divisions’ up and down the coast, holding significant areas under tree farm licenses. We consider ourselves their unofficial “Restoration Division” since we, along with many other non-profits and First Nations, have been working to clean up the mess the industry left behind.
In some strange way, we are still connected to this company, for better or worse. There is nostalgia for what once was...but there is also an opportunity to acknowledge the changing times, to learn from our mistakes, and shoulder the responsibility to repair, rebuild and restore the woods that would have been.
So, buy a hat and give a nod to the Restoration Division.
