Ancient timber makes mighty gift for College carpentry program

Okanagan College Media Release

Recycled timber originating from 250-year-old B.C. forests will soon add an authentic note of heritage to Okanagan College thanks to a hefty in-kind donation to the College’s carpentry program through the Okanagan College Foundation.

Kim and Doug Cotter, owners of Cotter’s Bin and Demolition Services Ltd. in Penticton, salvaged the Douglas fir timbers from the historic Naramata packinghouse and offered to donate the lumber - worth approximately $22,266 - to the College.

“It makes you feel good to have something done of value from this salvaged wood,” said Doug Cotter, who spent time working in B.C.’s logging industry.

The Naramata Packinghouse was built in the 1930s from 250-year-old timber stands on Vancouver Island, explained Cotter. The Okanagan Tree Fruit Cooperative operated the packinghouse for decades, but closed the building a few years ago. When a water pipe burst last spring, the Cooperative determined the cost to restore the building was too great and hired the Cotters to demolish it.

Alf Leimert, who chairs the Construction Trades Department at Okanagan College, got wind of the demolition and approached the Cotters about making a donation. Earlier this year the towering posts and beams were delivered to the College’s Kelowna campus where the wood will be used in the carpentry program. Nails and massive fasteners had to be removed from the posts and beams to prepare them for stacking in the College’s shed.

Leimert said the wood gives his students a rare appreciation for the products that came out of the province’s forest industry more than 70 years ago.

“These were the original growth trees. They had closer grain, they were slow growth, and the trees were larger. You just don’t see that any more,” he said.

This coming spring, carpentry classes will begin using the wood to construct a large-scale heritage project for the Penticton campus. A decorative archway is expected to be complete by summer.

“There’s nothing greener than recycling,” Leimert said, pleased the end product will add some local heritage to the campus. “In-kind donations like this make a real practical difference to our students and help them create something we would otherwise never see.”

The Cotters have worked in the Penticton area for 24 years, operating Cotter’s Tree and Bin Service, and more recently Cotter’s Bin and Demolition Service Ltd., which provides roll-off waste bins, demolition and mobile container services throughout the region.