Land Purchase
we need your help!
An exciting opportunity has been brought forward that will ensure that Blue Lake Camp can continue to provide amazing outdoor experiences and learning for many more generations to come. Many thousands of youth from the Columbia Basin have been able to visit camp over the decades learning outdoor recreation skills, environmental science, leadership and met some amazing people and we want this to carry on for thousands more.
We need help developing a fundraising strategy, implement fundraising activities and promote the benefits of camp. If you believe in what Blue Lake offers youth, have some time and expertise to share, please contact us to get involved and make this a reality. Check out our history and how we got here below.
Blue Lake Beginnings
In 1974 the Chief Forester of Crestbrook Forest Industries and provincial Chair of the Canadian Forestry Association of BC, John Murray and three other local gentlemen, Harry Mason, Ralph Johnston and Henry Nelson identified a small lake on Crestbrook land that could provide a site for the development of the Kootenay Region Junior Forest Warden camp to provide summer camp programs and support regional school outdoor programs for youth in the Columbia Basin. Their vision and passion for youth and the outdoors were instrumental in the construction of Blue Lake.
Crestbrook provided a $1.00 per year lease for Blue Lake and construction began in the Spring of 1975 with the completion of a road into Blue Lake, land was cleared, and the provincial government donated the old fire suppression cabins from the Cranbrook Forest District. A group of youth from Cranbrook spent two weeks at Blue Lake helping construct the new camp and learning about forest ecology, canoeing and forest-related careers.
On August 10th, 1977, VIP’s and guests officially opened Blue Lake’s doors and offered its first official summer camp program for youth, attracting campers from throughout the East and West Kootenays and the Columbia Basin.
In the mid 1990’s the Blue Lake Forest Education Society was formed to purchase the camp operations from the original owners the BC Forestry Association. The new organization restructured the camp and set out on their own to grow and expand the education programming and outdoor opportunities to even more youth in the South East BC region and South Western Alberta. New construction expanded capacity, new leadership and environmental science programs were taken on by a local group of volunteers.
In the early 2000’s Tembec purchased Crestbrook and took over the Kootenay operations. Tembec carried on the lease of the Blue Lake land to allow Blue Lake to continue to provide outdoor and resource education to thousands of youth from the Basin. In 2008 the Whitetail Lake Land Corporation purchased the private lands around Whitetail and Blue Lake. As part of that purcahse agreement, 60 Ha of land surrounding Blue Lake was removed from the property and remained with Tembec. Tembec continued to support the Blue Lake operations. In the near 50 years of operations Blue Lake continued to develop the camp, infrastructure and programs.
In 2017 Rayonier Advanced Materials Inc. (RYAM) purchased Tembec and it’s assets including the Blue Lake property. RYAM continued to support Blue Lake operations with a shorter term lease agreement. In 2025, RYAM approached Blue Lake and proposed that Blue Lake purchase the land (not the buildings etc.) as they no longer had any other property in Western Canada. Since then we have completed a market assessment on the property and initiated discussions with RYAM on finalizing a purchase price.
We need help from one or more volunteers to help us put together a fundraising strategy, identify fundraising activities and help promote the land purchase. Currently we are collaborating with 2 major organizations that may be able to help us, but we will need approximately $500,000 to complete the purchase. We currently have some funds available to help with the strategy and some of the implementation. If you have an interest in helping us ensure that camp remains for all our future campers, please reach out to our Executive Director and set up a time that we can discuss how you can help! toddhebert@columbiaoutdoorschool.com