Environmentalist logger was awarded Order of Canada for his tireless work

Local environmental groups are mourning the death of legendary Wildwood Forest steward Merv Wilkinson, who passed away earlier this week at 97.

His family is not releasing any details surrounding his death, not even the day he died, until an obituary is published in local newspapers, said his daughter Lisa. Details of a service for Wilkinson will be announced then.

He earned international acclaim in the early 1990s when environmentalists from across the globe pointed to his Wildwood Forest operation as an example of sustainable forestry.

For decades, Wilkinson earned a living doing sustainable logging on the 55-hectare piece of property he called Wildwood.

His work received such acclaim that in 2009 the Nanaimo-born forester received both the Order of B.C. and Order of Canada.

Wilkinson, in a conversation with the Daily News in 2010, said old-time forestry workers knew how to manage a forest. He recalled a former employer telling him" "Merv don't you take out any trees that are less than 16 inches at the stump."

"The old-fashioned logging was way ahead of what we have now. It wasn't self-destructive. It was sustainable and more people were employed in the industry back then," Wilkinson said.

It was a University of British Columbia professor who recognized Wilkinson's natural forestry abilities.

"He told me to get my formal forestry education in Europe as there was nothing good in North America," Wilkinson told the Daily News.

Gail Adrienne, executive director of the Nanaimo Area Land Trust, said she was "heartbroken" to hear of Wilkinson's death.

"He truly was an environmental hero, not just for the Nanaimo area, but for the entire world," she said.

Adrienne met Wilkinson in the early 1990s and said: "I remember thinking that this man is not going to get the recognition that he deserves in his lifetime.

"And then I was proved wrong as he was awarded the Order of Canada for his efforts," she said.

However, Wilkinson's passion for protecting forests often brought him public ridicule and even a ride or two in a police cruiser.

He was one of 12,000 people who converged on Clayoquot Sound to protest MacMillan Bloedel's planned logging of the area in the 1993 in what became knowns as the "war in the woods." To this day the Clayoquot protest stands as the largest act of peaceful civil disobedience in Canadian history.

"I don't have any regrets about that  none at all," Wilkinson said shortly after receiving an honorary doctorate of law from the University of Victoria.

Annette Tanner of the Western Canada Wilderness Committe remembers Wilkinson's passion for B.C.'s forests.

"Merv was among those at the forefront of supporting efforts to preserve Cathedral Grove. With his passing, we lost an irreplaceable person with irreplaceable knowledge," said Tanner.

"I guess we shouldn't be surprised because we all knew he was getting up there (in age) but it's still such a loss that I'm shocked," she said. "This is devestating news."