CV watershed virtual forum to explore climate change, landscape restoration

by Guest Writer | Oct 13, 2020

View from Comox Lake out to the Strait of Georgia | Submitted photo

CV watershed virtual forum to explore climate change, landscape restoration

The Comox Valley Land Trust, Cumberland Community Forest Society and Connected by Water are presenting a free 3-part event highlighting exciting projects and initiatives that are reconnecting ecology and hydrology in the built and natural environments of the Comox Valley.

This virtual seminar will take place October 21-23 and offers attendees from across sectors a unique opportunity to learn about the power of collaboration to mobilize and respond effectively to the impacts of climate change on the local landscape.

Wednesday October 21st at 7 pm – FREE Online Public Event: Stitching Together Altered Landscapes: Conservation, Community and Resilience.

Over the past 150 years, the Comox Valley landscape has been transformed by logging, coal mining, agriculture, road building, industry, and development. These altered landscapes are where the local impacts of climate change – flooding, erosion, and loss of biodiversity – first become evident. But these altered landscapes also hold the greatest potential for building resiliency. Kus-Kus-Sum, The Courtenay Estuary, Morrison Headwaters, Perseverance Watershed, Comox Lake – these places are at the heart of our local climate story.

Join archeologist Jesse Morin, Comox Valley Land Trust ED Tim Ennis, Cumberland Community Forest Society ED Meaghan Cursons, and Project Watershed staff biologist Jennifer Sutherst for a visual exploration of local land use history and current day conservation in action from mountain top to ocean floor. Together, in partnership with local government, indigenous leadership, industry, and community, we are stitching together altered landscapes of the Comox Valley.

Thursday October 22 9-10:20 am: Water, Place and Reconciliation

What is the starting place for our work in water sustainability, landscape restoration, and facing the impacts of a changing climate? It starts with an understanding of the culture, land, water, and stories of the places where we do our work. Join us for this welcome to the territory of the K’ómoks First Nation and an introduction to the exciting projects underway that demonstrate our shared commitments.

Thursday October 22, 10:30-12 noon: Regional Collaboration toward Natural Asset Management

The Comox Valley has never witnessed the scale of cross sector and cross jurisdictional work toward watershed sustainability than we have in the past 5 years. At the forefront of these collaborations are the Watershed Advisory Group, the Comox Lake Municipal Natural Assets Initiatives and recent land protection actions in the Comox Lake Watershed. This session will explore the complexities and opportunities of this regional collaboration at work.

Friday October 23rd, 9-10:20 am: Engaging Community in Climate Strategies – Projects and Tactics

Local government leadership is making it clear that meaningful community engagement and climate change awareness are critical to all levels of community planning. What tactics make a real impact? How do we deepen interest and engagement to achieve success? From official community plan processes to sea rise response strategies – community engagement in climate adaptation is at the top of the agenda.

Friday October 23rd, 10:30-12: Connected by Water- Building a Legacy of Watershed Protection

Connected by Water is a program of the Comox Valley Regional District to build capacity, connection, and community in support of watershed protection. This project connects schools, parks, sporting events, campgrounds and the public to stories and actions that help support the health of our watershed. Learn more about the approaches, messages, and successes of this project and how it can be applied to our collective efforts to support a climate-resilient watershed in the Comox Valley.

Registration is now open for the 3 sessions taking place Wednesday evening, October 21st, and Thursday and Friday mornings, October 2nd and 23rd. Attendees are invited to attend individual sessions or all 3 days. Visit www.cvlandtrust.ca/2020-symposium/ for panelist bios and registration links.

Decafnation encourages comments and a free exchange of ideas about our articles. Please limit your comments to fewer than 200 words.

ABOUT THE FORUM SPONSORS

About Comox Valley Conservation Partnership (CVCP)
The CVCP was formed in 2008, after concern was raised that there was no regional plan in the Comox Valley to prioritize and protect sensitive ecosystems on private land. The CVCP brings together local community-based groups and other stakeholders to support their projects and provide a voice for the value of conservation in our natural areas.

About Cumberland Community Forest Society (CCFS)
CCFS is a grassroots community based charitable not-for-profit dedicated to land protection, restoration and biodiversity in the Cumberland Forest that borders the Village of Cumberland on Vancouver Island, BC, Canada. This forest is part of a significant habitat and recreation corridor that connects the mountains of the Beaufort Range to the Salish Sea.

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Gwyn Sproule is focused on village’s economic diversity

by George Le Masurier | Oct 4, 2018

Over five terms on Cumberland Council, Gwyn Sproule has shifted her agenda from saving trees to growing the village’s commercial base with light, green industries along Bevan Road. And she wants to see the wastewater treatment project to completion

What does an immigrant from England with a degree in Greek and Latin who became a hippie tree planter in British Columbia 42 years ago do for an encore after nearly two decades on the Cumberland Village Council?

For Gwyn Sproule, her agenda for a sixth term on council is quite a bit more pragmatic than it used to be.

“I was all about saving trees in the early days,” she told Decafnation. “My goal now is all about diversifying the village’s tax base, mainly attracting light industry and creating jobs.”

The village budget relies heavily on residential property taxes, so a recent building boom in the Coal Valley Estates subdivision has helped village finances. But Sproule says commercial development is needed for long-term balanced growth.

She hopes to promote light, green industries for some lands along Bevan Road that are already properly zoned. Hancock Timber Resource Group owns the properties.

And Sproule recently learned that funds are available for infrastructure and technology projects from the BC Commission of Innovation. She hopes the village can use those funds to help attract high-tech companies.

“It’s galling to me that young people have to go away to get jobs,” she said. “Vancouver Island is well placed to develop its own economy in green industries. We could create real jobs, with living wages.”

FURTHER READING: For more interviews with candidates, go to our Elections 2018 page

Cumberland also holds the first option on methane gas from the nearby landfill, which Fortis would capture and refine. The village could then use the gas as a power source for some of that light industry, or sell it as fuel for buses and trucks.

The village already has two small industrial areas closer to its downtown and next to residential areas.

One of those, along Royston Road, is home to the Muchalat Group that builds modular homes. They are currently building 30 self-contained housing units and five shelter spaces for the City of Port Alberni at an estimated cost to the province of $7.4 million.

Sproule was the driving force and co-founder of the Cumberland Community Forest Society. She lives along the forest lands and would invite the new forester to tea every time the property changed hands — Dunsmuir then Weldwood then Hancock — which is how she got the inside information about their logging plans.

“I was a troublemaker in my early days. I really believed I could take on everything,” she said.

She recalls the first fundraiser for the society was a plant sale and dance at the Elks Club.

Sproule also served on the original board of the Comox Valley Lands Trust.

But the candidate also has other objectives for her next term that include continuing to develop the village’s safe walk-bike network. She’s happy to have the water treatment project completed and hopes to see the wastewater project through to a similarly successful conclusion.

And she continues to work on her most personal project: keeping alive the memories of Cumberland’s industrial days, its coal mines.

She has recorded hours of interviews on audio tape with the village’s oldtimers and miners before they passed on.

“We need to keep our history alive. It’s the reason why Cumberland exists,” she said.

She regularly speaks to groups and teaches classes on the history of the mines and Chinatown. She does walking tours of the mine sites, and advocates for the preservation of the last remaining concrete structures marking the mine entrances.

Sproule taught primary school in England before moving to Canada in 1976 to live in an old gold mine shack and plant trees in the Cariboo where she met the camp cook, her future husband. She moved to Cumberland two years later.

Her first visit to Cumberland was to attend the Renaissance Faire in 1978.

Sproule’s history of settling on Vancouver Island in the 1970s is one of the stories in the new anthology Dancing in Gumboots, just released by Caitlin Press Inc.