Western Canada Wilderness Committee

A Goldstream at the end of the Rainbow

So there was quite a bit of running around with my arrival on Vancouver Island. It was raining crazily and I ended up heading to Goldstream park for the weekend. I love this island...

One of the best parts about Victoria is that the papers actually cover nature stories. One article that got me going was about a black bear being shot at the Kaslo jazz festival. An RCMP officer shot the bear while it was eating cherries nearby and with a gaping hole in it's leg, it went over a barrier to the festival and drag itself into the lake where it drown right in front of a horrified crowd. Over 800 black bears were killed in BC last year. And now the Liberals have reduced the number of conservation officers in the province by 15%, meaning more RCMP, who are untrained in bear management, will be dealing with bear-person conflicts, likely meaning more bears will be shot.

On a similar topic, WCWC has printed up a new "Stop the grizzly hunt" card. If you find trophy hunting of a species whose population is in question offensive and can help gather signatures or distribute the cards, please do contact the WCWC office.

Oh, right, Goldstream. Let's see... The parking lot there is awesome, in that they built it with the trees in mind. There are numerous red cedars in the lot that are around 450 years old. Very pretty. And during the fall, spawning salmon pass through here, mate and then die. However, as far as getting signatures on a petition, the long, segmented parking lot setup limits the amount of foot traffic passing by the booth. So, while fun and relaxing, it was a bit of a slow weekend. And the weather was somewhat more 'iffy' than 'go getter'.

On monday, I went canvassing with the crew form the Victoria office. They're a fun bunch. I met a woman while canvassing who told me how the Liberals spending cuts have affected her. She's a nurse and took an 11% pay cut due to cuts to healthcare workers salaries. The school that her daughter attends also had its funding cut and, to make ends meet, the school dropped 2 weeks off of the education schedule. That means she has to pay for 2 more weeks of day care with less income. She told me that since they still have to eat and the mortgage still has to be paid, what it boils down to is just less money for her kids. They're the ones who will suffer. And when it comes to environmental policy, there are now more fees with less services... well, I guess you already now a little something about that. Despite all her own monetery problems, she renewed her membership with us. I promised that I'd try to make sure it wasn't a wasted effort.

My next stop is China Beach in the Juan de Fuca stretch. I'm very excited. Stay tuned and I let you know how it goes in the next entry.