Crofton, British Columbia

Crofton Mill is a pulp mill and paper mill located in the Vancouver Island town of Crofton, British Columbia. The mill has 3 paper machines (only 2 are operational) and 2 pulp machines, which produce 349,000 tonnes of newsprint and directory paper, and 355,000 tonnes of northern bleached softwood kraft. Two operational recovery boilers (#3&4) are supported by one full time hog boiler (#4 power boiler) and one standby natural gas and oil fueled boiler (#5 power boiler). The plant also has a state of the art waste treatment facility and oxygen plant, the oxygen plant supplies oxygen for the waste treatment facility and bleach plants as well as medical and non medical oxygen to praxair. The mill has 578 employees as of 2014.British Columbia Forest Products (BCFP) established the mill in 1957, originally operating only a single-line kraft pulp mill. A newsprint line was installed in 1964. Fletcher Challenge bought BCFP (including the mill) in 1987 through its Canadian operations division Crown Forest Industries, and merged to form Fletcher Challenge Canada. Norske Skog bought the latter in 2000, to operate within its Canadian division, which became Catalyst Paper in 2005. Paper Excellence Canada completed its acquisition of Catalyst Paper in 2019.

Maple Mountain is a mountain on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada. The mountain is located on the northern side of Maple Bay in North Cowichan, just NE of the city of Duncan.There is a marked hiking trail that goes up Maple Mountain and affords great views of the water, Salt Spring Island and the distant snowy peaks of the mainland. To get to the trailhead, follow Osborne Bay Road north toward Crofton and turn right on Chilco Road. Follow Chilco to the very end and park there. Walk past the yellow gate. Blue flagging tape marks the trail, which is well maintained.

Quamichan Lake (Raven Field) Airport (TC LID: CML2) is located 2.7 nautical miles (5.0 km; 3.1 mi) north northeast of Duncan, adjacent to Quamichan Lake, British Columbia, Canada. The airfield is owned and operated by John Howroyd, who also owns Quamichan Lake (Raven Field) Water Aerodrome. The airfield uses runway 16 for departures, and runway 34 for landings.

Westholme is a community located in the Chemainus River Valley alongside the Island Highway, between Chemainus and Duncan in British Columbia, Canada. It is part of the Chemainus Land District in the District Municipality of North Cowichan. Westholme is one of the original settlements on Vancouver Island. Once a thriving mining and farming community, it is now filled with hobby farms and upscale private estates on large acreages, many of which are owned to this day by the descendants of original settlers to this area. Westholme is divided by the Island Highway. It is bordered by the Somenos Land District to the south, Mount Sicker to the west, the Chemainus River to the north, the Halalt First Nation Reserve to the northeast, and Crofton to the east. It is a peaceful private community nestled in the shadow of Mount Sicker which is on the western edge of this community. The ending to the movie Five Easy Pieces starring Jack Nicholson was filmed in Westholme.The area is served by the coast-spanning Island Highway and the Island Rail Corridor.

Quamichan Lake (Raven Field) Water Aerodrome (TC LID: CRF6) is located on Quamichan Lake, 2.9 nautical miles (5.4 km; 3.3 mi) north northeast of Duncan, British Columbia, Canada. The airfield is owned and operated by John F Howroyd, who also owns Quamichan Lake (Raven Field) Airport.

Quamichan Lake is a lake in the Cowichan Valley region of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada, located three kilometres to the northeast of the City of Duncan.Quamichan Lake and its sister Somenos Lake were created 11,000 years ago by receding glaciers. Both lakes contribute to Cowichan River. Quamichan Lake's outflow is Quamichan Creek which joins with Somenos Creek, the outflow from Somenos Lake, which flows to Cowichan River.The Cowichan Watershed Board identifies a common set of conditions for both shallow lakes: excessive nutrient loading from the farms and homes which surround the lakes insufficient "flushing" in summer due to reduced inflows and truncated outflows increased plant growth ("algae-blooms"), and eutrophication (reduced oxygen as the vegetation decomposes) intensified warmingIn autumn 2016, the lake's algae received public attention after news coverage of its killing at least four dogs.

Maple Bay is a seaside community located in the Cowichan Valley of southern Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. A narrow inlet and surrounded by smooth, pebbled beaches, Maple Bay is home to marine activity all year round. Maple Bay is a small town with a population of 2,640. The sheltered haven of Maple Bay is situated halfway up Sansum Narrows, which separates Vancouver Island from Saltspring Island, the largest and nearest of the southern Gulf Islands. Maple Bay is serviced by floatplane, Salt Spring Air and Harbour Air Seaplanes that fly regular scheduled flights several times a day from Maple Bay Marina, to Ganges (Ganges Water Aerodrome) on Saltspring Island and then on to Vancouver (Vancouver International Water Airport/Vancouver International Airport and Vancouver Harbour Flight Centre).There are three commercial marinas, a public dock, as well as the Maple Bay Yacht Club and the Maple Bay Rowing Club. Maple Bay Marina is replacing many older boat sheds with new style, fire resistant yacht enclosures, creating one of the safest and most environmentally responsible marinas in British Columbia. Maple Bay Marina has also been recognised with an Eco-Rating of 5 anchors for their Environmental Best Practices by the Georgia Strait Alliance Clean Marine program.

St. Clare's Monastery is a monastery of the Order of St. Clare in Duncan, British Columbia, Canada. The nuns of the order also go by the name "Poor Clares". They are a contemplative community of women who live the charism of Saint Clare of Assisi and form the Second Order in the movement started by Saint Francis of Assisi.

Vesuvius, also known as Vesuvius Bay, is an unincorporated settlement and ferry terminal on the northwest coast of Saltspring Island in the Gulf Islands of British Columbia, Canada. It is the eastern terminus of a ferry which connects Saltspring Island to Vancouver Island across Sansum Narrows to Crofton, which is just north of the city of Duncan. Throughout the 1800s, Vesuvius was predominantly composed of African-American settlers and their descendants. Racial tensions arose between August 1867 and December 1868, when three Black men were murdered in the community of Vesuvius Bay. The murderers were largely blamed on the local coastal Indigenous community. This resulted in racial tensions in the area, which led to a dwindling number of Black residents on Salt Spring Island. Much of the youth moved away to Victoria, Vancouver, and on occasion to the United States.It is named for HMS Vesuvius (1839), a ship of the Royal Navy assigned to the Pacific Station at Esquimalt in the 19th Century, and indirectly after Mount Vesuvius in Italy.: 284 

North Cowichan (Canada 2021 Census population 31,990) is a district municipality established in 1873 on Vancouver Island, in British Columbia, Canada. The municipality is part of the Cowichan Valley Regional District. North Cowichan is noted for a landscape including forests, beaches, rivers, and lakes. The municipality encompasses the communities of Chemainus; Westholme; Crofton; Maple Bay; and "the South End". The latter is an informal name for a built-up area which is essentially a suburb of the City of Duncan, a separate municipality.

Somenos Lake is a small shallow water body located in the Municipality of North Cowichan on Southeast Vancouver Island. Somenos Lake has a maximum area of approximately 247 ac, 100 ha at 15.3 feet (4.7 m) above geodetic datum. The Lake is relatively shallow with a maximum depth of 22.2 feet (6.8 m). Somenos Lake is fed by three major tributary streams: Richards Creek from the North and Northeast, Averill Creek from the Northwest and Bings Creek from the West. The lake is drained near its southern extremity by Somenos Creek which flows southeast approximately 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) to the Cowichan River. Somenos Lake and its tributary streams support resident populations of Rainbow Trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) and Cutthroat Trout (O. clarkii). Anadromous populations of Coho Salmon (O. kisutch) and Chum Salmon (O. keta) spawn in the tributary streams. The Lake also contains populations of native Brown Bullhead (Ameiurus nebulosus), Three-Spined Stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus), and Peamouth Chub (Mylocheilus caurinus). The Invasive species Pumpkinseed (Lepomis gibbosus) has been in the lake since the 1970s. and is now the most abundant fish species.In addition to these fish species, Somenos Lake and associated marsh habitats are an important winter refuge for numerous species of ducks, geese and swans. Of particular interest to conservation is the large number of Trumpeter Swans (Cygnus buccinator) that arrive at Somenos Lake in October and remain until early April.During the past two decades Somenos Lake has been subject to persistent cyanobacteria blooms during the summers. These blooms render the lake unsuitable for human uses like swimming, canoeing and birding. The decay of the highly productive cyanobacteria also generates anoxic conditions in the water column which severely limits habitat for trout and salmon. These blooms are the result of excessive phosphorus in the lake due to deforestation and excessive use of phosphate fertilizers in surrounding agricultural and urban lands.

Mount Tzouhalem is a mountain on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada, 4 kilometres east-northeast of Duncan in the municipality of North Cowichan. It is situated between Quamichan Lake, Maple Bay and Cowichan Bay. The mountain is part of the municipal forest lands. Part of the mountain is an 18-hectare ecological reserve. It is popular with hikers and mountain bikers. It gives views towards Saltspring Island, the Coastal Mountains of the Lower Mainland and, on a clear day, Mount Baker in Washington state. There was a large Christian cross on one cliffside. The original wooden cross, placed by local Catholic churches in the 1970s, was replaced by the Knights of Columbus with a welded version in the late 1980s. In the night from July 16th to July 17th 2021, unknown individuals removed the cross for unknown reasons.