Western Canada Wilderness Committee

Parks Day of Action -- Cultus Lake

As a part of the Parks Day of Action, myself, Andy Miller and Gil Aguilar (an uber volunteer) went out to Cultus Lake to talk to residents and folks on the beach about how they felt about parks and parking meters, privatization and the underlying cuts that have necessitated the various changes that have been seen in parks in BC. It was great to get out there and hear what people had to say, and to feel the 'pulse in the park'.

I had lived in that area years ago, and I was excited to go back and see if much had changed. I was pleased to see that it was much as it was, the community that lives there largely unchanged. We had a photographer from the Chilliwack Progress follow us around while we talked to people about the issues and got folks to sign our petition. We were on the side of the lake that had the nearly extirpated salmon run, and there was quite the concern raised about that.

We spoke to one woman that was very upset about the parks issue, and was already quite well versed in the details of the current events surrounding the various privatization initiatives in our park system. She was one of those folks who nearly tear the petition out of your hands to sign it; she knew quite a few people who have lost their jobs to privatization in parks. It was good to commiserate, at least to see a human face on the tragedy that is happening. It is not just that our parks are being slowly privatized, and managed for economics and not ecology, but also that there is a real cost to real people with the loss of jobs.

It felt good to be in the sunshine, talking about such an important issue here in BC. Most people were really open to talking to us, even with the photographer trailing us around. Because it was a 'Day of Action', we had people in 13 different parks raising awareness about the issues. It is great to feel part of a group, using our freedom of speech to have a dialogue, or rather a 'multi-logue' about what is going on. Quite inspiring.

So we end up having a great day out there, and as we were packing up to go we got a call that CKNW wanted to have a 'Point-Counterpoint' segment between Barry Penner, the Minister of Environment, and the Wilderness Committee at 5:10 that evening. Great! Part of why we wanted to make sure and go to Cultus Lake was to have a presence in Barry Penners' riding, which is Chilliwack. So Andy Miller was elected to take on the interview, and we were off.

We got to near the 264th exit at the appointed time, and pulled over... strangely, we pulled up to the County Line Elementary School, where I went to grade 1. I don't think I had been back since, so it was a bit of a flashback to be there. Anyhow, Andy prepared for the radio spot, and then we were on. Unfortunately, Andy had planned for two minutes, but there was only two minutes between Andy and the Minister, so he felt a bit cut off. He sounded great to me, though, and even more importantly, we saw evidence that the government is listening to the concerns of British Columbians.

Well, we will see, I suppose. The fact that the Ministry of Environment put out a press release that day means that the decision-makers are listening. I hope this trend continues... We have land to steward for future generations.

Parks Day of Action -- Shannon Falls

Two weeks ago the Wilderness Committee celebrated our first annual "Day of
Action" in British Columbia's provincial parks. On August 18th we joined
forces with four other environmental organizations and headed into 13 parks
across BC to educate visitors about how privatization and staff and budget
cuts are hurting BC's parks.

In the lower mainland Andy (WCWC's bird guy) and Tammy (the web mistress)
and Gil (volunteer extraordinaire) headed out to Cultus Lake Park in the
riding of our new environment Minister Barry Penner. While Louise
(campaigner), Geoff (map guy) and a retired professor from the University
of British Columbia, Marianne, and myself went to Shannon Falls Park.

The day was glorious: sun, a slight wind and the temperature hovering
around 25 Celsius all in all a perfect day to collect signatures and hand
out our educational newsletters.

Shannon Falls Park is renowned for its spectacular waterfall. The falls,
made up of a series of massive granite cliffs that tower 300 meters above
Highway 99, are the third highest falls in BC. Even in the dog days of
summer when the water has subsided from spring runoff the waterfall is
still spectacular: cascading down the rock cliffs and then winding slowly
through the giant cedars and Douglas firs at the bottom of the cliffs.

Shannon Falls is an ideal place to collect signatures because tens of
thousands of people stop by to visit the falls, which are just a ten minute
walk from the parking lot, on their way to Squamish and Whistler.

Shannon Falls is also perfect because it has the deeply hated parking
meters. In 2003 the BC Liberal government, with no public consultation,
introduced parking meters into 41 popular provincial parks. The public was
outraged and expressed their discontent is various ways: local people
stopped visiting parks with meters; people that did go largely refused to
pay the $3 and $5 dollar day-use fees and the government ended up missing
their revenue targets by over 75%. Although people were deeply concerned
about the 30% cut to the staff and budget of BC Parks, the weakening of the
BC Park Act and the fact the BC Liberal government gave permission to allow
commercial logging within park boundaries, nothing inflamed the public more
than the parking meters.

With our "Save BC Parks" petition firmly in hand we strategically located
at the parking meter ticket dispenser and at the trailhead just 50 meters
from the falls. From 10:00am to 2:30pm we collected over 400
signatures! Only one person that we approached refused to sign the
petition. Everyone else not only signed the petition they expressed
gratitude that we were out in the park collecting signatures.

We plan on presenting the signatures this fall to Minister Penner, who back
in the day was a park ranger himself. It will be interesting to see if
Minister Penner listens to the people of BC and removes the parking meters,
restores proper funding and staff to our beleaguered park system, and keeps
our parks public and protected for our children and grandchildren. Our park
system has taken almost a hundred years of blood, sweat and tears to build;
we need to make sure it is not dismantled in the next four.