The Gorge Waterway - an environmental success story

I am going to start doing some Vlogging as well as posting on this blog.   Here is my first short piece

Susan Brice is requesting Saanich Council support a resolution for the right to a healthy environment.

Interestingly this has been brought forward by Susan Brice.  It should be a good reminder to people that the environment is not a left or right issue.  

It is the exact same motion the City of Victoria council passed on December 18th.   In Victoria because it was brought forward by Jeremy Loveday, Lisa Helps and Ben Isitt it has been attacked from being a Pollyannaish move that will hinder development.  It has hard to attack Susan Brice for being anti-business.

Here is the text of the motion Saanich will be dealing with tonight:

WHEREAS the David Suzuki Foundation Blue Dot Tour has inspired many Canadians to request that the right to a healthy environment be enshrined in the Charter of Rights and Freedom through support of the following motion;
AND WHEREAS the District of Saanich understands that people are part of the environment, and that a healthy environment is inextricably linked to the well-being of our community;
AND WHEREAS the Saanich Official Community Plan provides a strong policy foundation to pursue actions and initiatives that contribute toward a healthy environment;
AND WHERESAS Saanich has the opportunity to endorse the Declaration of the Right to a Healthy
Environment, joining other Canadian cities in re -affirming our commitment to social, environmental and economic sustainability;

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT The District of Saanich endorses the following declaration in principle and forwards it to the next Committee of the Whole to allow for public in-put.

"All people have the right to live in a healthy environment, including:

• The right to breathe clean air;
• The right to drink clean water;
• The right to consume safe food;
• The right to access nature;
• The right to know about pollutants and contaminants released into the local environment;
• The right to participate in decision-making that will affect the environment.

The District of Saanich has the responsibility, within its jurisdiction, to respect, protect, fulfill and promote these rights.

The district of Saanich will apply the precautionary principle: where threats of serious or irreversible damage to human health or the environment exist, Saanich will take cost effective measures to prevent the degradation of the environment and protect the health of its citizens. Lack of full scientific certainty shall not be viewed as sufficient reason for Saanich to postpone such measures.

Saanich shall apply full cost accounting; when evaluating reasonably foreseeable costs of proposed actions and alternatives, Saanich will consider costs to human health and the environment.

By December 31, 2015, Saanich will consider objectives, targets, time lines and actions within its jurisdiction to fulfill residents' rights to a healthy environment, including options to:

• Ensure equitable distribution of environmental benefits and burdens within the municipality;
• Ensure infrastructure and development projects protect the environment, including air quality;
• Address Climate Change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions and implementing adaptation measures;
• Responsibly increase density;
• Prioritize walking, cycling and public transit as preferred modes of transportation;
• Ensure adequate infrastructure for the provision of safe and accessible drinking water;
• Promote the availability of safe foods;
• Reduce solid waste and promote recycling and composting;
• Establish and maintain accessible green spaces in all residential neighbourhoods;

The District of Saanich shall review these objectives, targets, timelines and actions every five years, and evaluate progress towards fulfilling this declaration.

The District of Saanich will consult residents as part of this process."

AND BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED THAT Council forward this resolution to the Annual Meeting of the Association of Vancouver Island and Coastal Communities, the Union of British Columbia Municipalities, and the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, requesting favourable consideration by delegates at the 2015 annual meetings of these Associations.

VictoriaVision Video: The Stink Over Sewage

ALR in Saanich

There are some "interesting" chunks of agricultural land reserve in Saanich.    A fair amount of it is parks, two schools are on ALR land and six golf courses.   Golf courses have not been an allowed use for ALR for over 22 years now.

Parks with some or all of the land in ALR

• Cuthbert Holmes Park 5 hectares on the western end of the park
• Cedar Hill Golf Course and Park - 48 hectares - this is not all of the park but 5 hectares on the eastern edge of the park is not in ALR
• Beckwith park 8.2 ha is in the ALR, and 0.75 ha is not
• Christmas Hill 0.33 ha is in the ALR next to Rogers elementary
• Swan Lake 32 ha is in, 
• Mount Doug 1.5 ha on the south flank
• Elk Lake 24 ha at north west end - 60 ha on the east shore, 6.8 ha west side of Beaver Lake
• Small park at the end of Story Land 1.2 ha
• Lochside park 4.5 ha
• Colquitz Park near north end 0.33 ha
• Blekinsop Lake Park 3.2 ha
• Quick's Bottom Park 18 ha, but a small amount is out on the north end
• Prospect lake park 2.4 ha next to Prospect Elementary
• Brodrick Park 0.5 ha 
• Layeritz 20 ha in the ALR and 7.8 ha is out
• Rithet's Bog 41 ha  small bits are outside of it
• Bear Hill Regional Park 10.5 ha is in the ALR, most is out



Cuthbert Holmes - the ALR land is the faint brown diagonal lines

• TOTAL 287.5 ha in parks

Schools in the ALR

• 3.4 ha of Rogers Elementary is on ALR
• Prospect Lake Elementary 3 ha
• TOTAL in ALR 6.4 ha

Rogers Elementary - all ALR

Golf Courses within the ALR

• 49 hectares in Cordova Bay Golf Course, part of the course is outside of the ALR
• 16.8 ha of the Mount Doug Golf Course, which is all of it
• 7.6 ha Victoria Golf Academy on Blenkinsop, which is all of it
• 8.8 ha of the Royal Oak Golf Course
• 4 ha of the Prospect Lake Golf Course
• Cedar Hill Golf Course 40 ha
• TOTAL in ALR 126.2 ha

Overall total 380.1 ha which is about 18% of the ALR in Saanich.

There should be a move to get all of this ALR land back into a form so that it could be used for farming again.  The easiest ones would be the parks.    If the public does not want the park lands to be farmed, the land should be removed from the ALR.

If not McLoughlin Point, where could one point a sewage treatment plant?

The whole sewage treatment thing is such a mess now that Esquimalt has not approved the rezoning of the McLoughlin Point site.  The CRD will be asking the province to intervene and overrule Esquimalt council.   I think this is preferred route all the local politicians would like to take so that none of them have to own the decision.  I think all of them are holding their breath in hopes the province will force the rezoning.  I am not so sure this government will do that.

So what if the province does not agree for force the situation?  

Here are the options for a way forward:

CRD could make Esquimalt a better offer
The CRD and Esquimalt could come to some agreement on the use of McLoughlin point if there was more on the table.   I am 100% certain there is a number that Esquimalt would accept as compensation for having the sewage treatment plant.  The CRD could offer to cover 100% of the Esquimalt budget for a couple of decades and I suspect Esquimalt would accept.  

Yes, that sounds extreme, but it is just an illustration that all the options have not been considered.   You could argue that this would be an unreasonable extreme, but the negotiation was flawed from the start from the CRD side.  

The reality of the negotiation between the CRD and Esquimalt is that it never came from the approach of not using McLoughlin Point as an option in the negotiation.   It was clear the CRD was unwilling to negotiate in good faith and accept that the site was not set.    If there was a lack of good faith in the negotiations they are with the CRD and not Esquimalt.

The whole situation we are in at the moment is because the CRD seems to have gone ahead with the plans without first getting all their ducks in a row.   Why choose McLoughlin Point and issue RFPs for the work if you do not have the site secured?   Is this because the CRD assumed Esquimalt would kowtow to the CRD or is it because the CRD assumed the province would step in and force the rezoning?

The CRD could try an offer of a large annual sum of money and see how that works.  Using a location elsewhere in the CRD will likely have some significant increased costs.  If it were to add $400,000,000 to the cost, it would save a lot to offer Esquimalt $10,000,000 a year for 20 years.  

The CRD could seek a new location
Yes, the CRD did go through a process to find the best location but there were other sites on the list.   By not securing McLoughlin Point the CRD should be looking at the other locations on the list.   It may cost a lot more money but there are alternative locations outside of Esquimalt that could be used.  

• Clover Point - yes, it would likely mean Dallas road would have to be closed there and some houses would have to purchased and bulldozed
• Off of coast of Uplands - this option would have one major upside, very few people would see any impact since the population density of the Uplands is so low.   
• Thetis Cove - since what is coming out is treated there is no need to have it go far out into the ocean.  The Thetis Cove area is either in View Royal or on reserve
• Off of Finnerty Cove - the advantage of this is that it is in Saanich and the Saanich council seems to be very strongly in favour of the current model of a large single plant and therefore would likely approve the rezoning

There are likely others.

Try with a new sewage treatment plan
The Federal and Provincial governments are not unreasonable.   If the CRD were to try again with a much better plan I suspect that the other levels of government would be willing to allow some deferral.

Core to getting the Feds and province to agree to a new plan is to show there is support for the new plan.

There are options for the way forward but the CRD seems to have locked themselves into one set model

A Visit to Elkington Forest in South Shawnigan

The view from what will be the Ridgeview Hamlet looking towards
Shawnigan Lake - yesterday was overcast so the photo did not turn out 

I was invited by Doug Makaroff to come visit the Elkington Forest site in South Shawnigan and I took him up on that offer yesterday.   I was impressed with what I saw, this is the real deal.  Doug and his partners are really trying to do something different.

Their vision could be offering realistic and viable alternative to how we offer people the places they want to live in while at the same time providing a focus on the ecological needs of the land.   They are creating something between a development and an intentional community.  All developers use words like sustainable and community but none of them ever seem like building a community really matters to them, other than Elkington.

Barry Gates and Doug Makaroff at the look out 

I wrote about the project three years ago and I was not that impressed with what I saw on the website at the time.  My doubts at the time were there because it seems every developer these days talks about eco-something and uses all manner of buzz words related to sustainability and such - green wash.   Going up to visit the site allowed me to put it all into context.

The website does not do a good job of putting the property, especially the forest, in context with the whole area around it.  From the website it was not clear to me the relationship of the houses to the rest of the property.  The houses are slated to be on the land with the lowest productivity forest and located for the most part on a ridge at the southern part of the property.  Frankly, the views from the Ridgeview Hamlet will be stunning.

The South Shawnigan area has been heavily harvested for timber over the last ten years.   It had been almost all previously been cut down in the 1920s so this is the second cut.

Elkington stands out because it still has forest cover

I had a chance to talk with Barry Gates about the forestry aspect of the project.  They have a realistic long term plan for forestry.   An important point for the forestry aspect is a large enough volume to make timber harvesting economic.  

The forest as it stands now is not anywhere close to ready for harvesting but there are trees that could come out now in a thinning process including some of the timber that will be used for the houses being built as part of the project.    The land that is the working forest is the flatest best part of the whole property.

Much the area around Elkington was harvested in the last decade which I find astonishing because the trees would not have had much value to them.  The trees would only have been about 70 to 80 years old and hardly the high value timber they would have been in several decades.  Much of the harvested land will not not return to forest because it is being sold off as building lots.   There clearly is no serious coordinated plans on the south Shawnigan lands in relation to forest management.

One thing that I understand much better now is that this development has the creation of a community as a very important value.  This is not an intentional community but the hope is that it will have many of the aspects of an intentional community.   The hope is that people who buy here will share similar values with respect to the land and that the design of the development will lead to people getting to know their neighbours.

The current master plan for the developed part of Elkington

Yes, Elkington will be a car dependent community but a much better designed and laid out one that most of the rest of the South Shawnigan area.   The Goldstream Heights stuff is a nightmare, the land was all completely clear cut before subdivision.   The very thin soils are gone so you are working with little more than bare rock.   A bare five to ten acre lot in Goldstream Heights will take a lot of work and time to look like anything more than a piece of bare land.,

Current work in the Trailhead Hamlet

I have looked at their drawings of the Trailhead Hamlet numerous times, but it was only by going on site that I understood how of small a space we are talking about.   Even though the bare land strata lots are in the range of 1/3 of an acre and up, the way the Trailhead Hamlet is laid out is very intimate.   While walking around it I was consistently surprised at how quickly I moved on the map.  This is because the roadway is narrow, the properties are only 20-23 meters wide, and all the development and construction has to take place in a small part of each property near the street.  The core of the Trailhead Hamlet takes up around 3 acres which is smaller than the smallest of the acreages being sold as part of Goldstream Heights next door.

This is about the same area that a cul de sac with 15 houses in Gordon Head will take up.  The big difference is that in Gordon Head a lot more of the land is taken up by the street.

A typical roadway in the suburbs is 8 meters wide.   The use of 4 meter roadways at Elkington Forest will reduce the paved area by 50%, which over all the roadways they intend to build on the site works out to about 1.5 hectares less paving, which is enough space to build 15 more houses.

As to the commercial, I got a better understanding of what they have in mind.   They have set aside 7 lots for light industrial/commercial in part of the development not near any of the housing.  The idea for these lots is to allow for businesses related to the forest activities or the farms plots to exist in the area.   The other potential is for home businesses that out grow the home could continue not far away.

I had thought the idea of a local coffee shop in the Trailhead Hamlet was not a viable option and they agree that it is not going to be a traditional coffee shop.   The coffee shop will likely serve as a seasonal location for  the people using the Trans Canada Trail.  In any case, it will be part of the community centre which is what the building is really about.

For me, the website is what lets the vision for this development down.  I will admit I am jaded because every developer website tends to say community, sustainable, green, eco, buzz word, buzz word etc....  Every developer has beautiful drawings to make us fall in love with the project.   I think Elkington suffers from looking and feeling like green wash when they are not.   The problem is that development is not like other developments.

Doug Makaroff is really trying to do something different in Elkington.  It means this development is not like other developments and therefore hard to categorize.  This is a developer who is trying to build a functioning viable community that respects the environment.  I know of no other people trying to do anything quite like this in BC.  Success here will prove a new model that could be replicated in many locations in BC.

They need to do a better job of telling their story.   This may be a for profit development but at the heart of it it is about a group of people working hard for a decade to protect a 1000 acres of land.

An Idea for More Effective Residential Waste Management

In Saanich the next garbage pick up will be with the new standard bins that they delivered to households in early January.   With this shift to standard sized bins that will be lifted by machine to dump into the trucks there are a few additions that could be done to make waste management cheaper and more efficient.

One the goals in this region is to reduce the amount of landfill waste and the most effective way to get people to reduce their waste is give them a financial incentive.  Up until now there has been no easy and cost effective way to ensure that the people who produce the most waste are charged for that waste.

In the CRD water pricing has been very effective as a way to reduce water use.   With a price for water and not a flat fee per property, there is an incentive to reduce how much water people use.   This same financial incentive could now be done with garbage because of inexpensive technology.  All it would take is the addition of an RFID chip along with a large address label on every bin and a sensor on the truck that can weigh the bin.   I assume the trucks already have GPS on board.  

The RFID chip on the garbage bin would allow the sensor on the lifting mechanism to recognize which bin was being lifted, the weight of the garbage and compost would then logged by residence.   On each municipal utility bill it would now clearly show how much garbage and compost is being produced by the household.  It would now be possible to charge garbage collection based on how much is thrown out.

Charging based on volume is only part of the cost, the very act of having to stop and pick up the bins is a cost as well.   It would only make sense to charge residences based on the number of bins picked up per year.

It is most efficient for the system to only collect bins when they are full but at the moment you get a pick up every two weeks if you need it or not.   The RFID chip would also allow the municipality to charge in part based on how often garbage is picked up and thereby giving people an incentive to only bring out their bins when they are full.   If my bin is not full and it does not need to be picked up, the RFID chip would then record this and my bill would show the weeks when pick ups were not required.

The per pick up charge is one that could be put on the compost bin.   It takes much longer for them to fill up and therefore need fewer pick ups.   By having some charge to the compost pick up those that compost at home would be rewarded.

Reducing the number of partial bins would speed up waste collection and that would save the municipality money.  This alone should be enough to quickly amortize the costs of setting up the program.

Collecting the data would allow the municipality to know what areas produce more waste than the average and therefore where further waste education is most needed.   It should also be possible for the municipality to work out what each garbage route costs to operate.  If denser neighbourhoods have ongoing lower costs to collect waste, those residents should be rewarded with cheaper costs.

The data would collected give us more and detailed information on the waste production habits of the public.  Combining this with census data for neighbourhoods would make it possible to do a detailed analysis of what socio-economic factors impact waste production.

Since this change directly charges back the full costs of waste collection, there is no reason why a household should not be allowed to have as many bins as they would like.

The reason for the large address label on the bin is to ensure no one swaps bins with a neighbour and thereby has them pay for their garbage. 

   

What TLC owes to government

The Land Conservancy is in a creditor protection process and one of the set of creditors are governments.   Governments are not by a long shot the major creditors, but they are the one set that do have an impact on the wider public.   The total owed to the creditors is $6,732,904.96 of which $261,146.31 is owed to government of one sort or another.

 Here is the list of what is owed by TLC to various governments (only amounts over $1,000 are included on the creditor list)

Government	Money owed by TLC
District of Sooke	$79,894.79
District of Saanich	$74,772.86
District of Highlands	$44,895.06
City of Vancouver	$15,482.33
Minister of Environment	$10,000.00
Tsawout First Nation	$9,002.00
CRD - Gonzales & Water Dep't.	$5,837.67
Receiver General of Canada - HST/GST	$4,607.85
City of Burnaby	$3,085.23
District of Tofino	$2,907.83
Ministry of Finance	$2,434.47
District of Squamish	$1,772.75
RD of Okanagan-Similkameen	$1,650.00
Okanagan Falls Irrigation District	$1,326.11
District of West Vancouver	$1,249.72
District of North Cowichan	$1,158.47
City of Victoria	$1,069.17
TOTAL	$261,146.31

Colquitz Creek fish fence November 21st 2013

I wrote a bit about the record run on the Colquitz, this morning I went down to check out the fish fence.   Today there was only one spawned out salmon, nothing like the record 446 of a few weeks ago.

Here is a little bit of video I recorded while down there today.

Good News for the Day - Record Coho run on the Colquitz

Colquitz Fish Fence - all photos courtesy of the GCTA

One of the Colquitz Coho

The run is not yet done and much larger numbers of fish have migrated up the Colquitz than any previous year I am aware of.   Last year there was a total of 210 fish, this year we are over 1000 already.  In the 13 or 14 years there has been active count on the Colquitz, there have been between 200 and 300 Coho, nothing like this year.  I am told the record was something like 525 a decade ago.

On November 2nd of this year they counted 446 fish, a new record that is much higher than the past recorded record of 162 in one day.

In an inner city suburb it is good when nature is not far off

The fish are counted at the fish fence, which is that bridge like structure just behind Montana's at Tillicum Mall.  It is easy enough to find if you want to go see what is going on.  I have been told the best time to come and watch the action is at around 10 am which on most days is when the count is done.  I will go check it out on Thursday morning.

The recovery of the Gorge waterway and the Colquitz are examples of what can be done when people put their mind to making positive change.   It is a great example that doom and gloom is not the only path, we can make changes to improve the world.   There was a time when the Gorge was filled with raw sewage as well as pollution from the Inner Harbour.   The Colquitz was effectively nothing more than a fetid drainage ditch.   Now we have a strong return of the fish, we see otters and seals in the Gorge, we can swim again in the waters.   In about half a generation we recovered the waterway heart of this region.

These fish remarkably have swum past two bridge construction projects.  They also all swum through the Inner Harbour with all the floatplanes, yachts and the Coho ferry.  

There are reports of spawning salmon on the Colquitz as far as Mann Ave, in the Copley Park area and Swan Creek upstream from Violet ave. The most common place for the Coho to spawn is on a small gravel bed near the fish fence.

I have not heard for certain, but I hear other creeks in the region are having decent salmon runs.

A view of the fish fence in operation

I think it is important for us as people to have functioning parts of the natural world close to where we live.   It is too easy for modern urban humans to become disconnected from the natural world but each time we recover something like the Colquitz we become a bit closer to how we humans managed to exist for hundreds of generations.

The work to recover the Colquitz to what it can be has been done by hundreds of volunteers.  People have done this not because they are being paid to do it, but they have done it because it is the right thing to do.   Humans by nature are cooperative and have a deep need to make the world a better place.  

This recovery of the river is because of the work of many people and organizations
Colquitz Salmonid Stewardship and Education Society
Gorge Tillicum Community Association
Julian Anderson and his friends of Cuthbert Holmes
The District of Saanich
Gorge Waterway Initiative
and others that I have missed.

Chris Bos of the Colquitz Salmonid Stewardship and Education Society at work

Up to 300 MW of wind turbine power proposed by TimberWest for near Sooke

TimberWest and EDP Renewables Canada announced today that they are partnering to develop about 300 MW capacity of wind energy near Sooke.   It is a relatively large development which is great news because it will significantly increase green power production in BC.

At the moment we do not produce enough power on Vancouver Island to meet our local needs.  This project would be an important step to seeing the island produce enough power locally.

The details:

• The expected cost to build these wind projects is about $600,000,000 to $750,000,000.   
• This scale of installed wind capacity is likely to produce 600 to 1,200 GWh per year or about 1% to 2% of the electrical power used in BC at the moment.
• Realistically it will require between 50 and 100 wind turbines.
• The location is on to be on TimberWest lands near Sooke
• It is close to the existing BC Hydro transmission grid 

TimberWest and EDP Renewables have signed any agreement with the T'Souke First Nation, which I am impressed by.  It is very important to include First Nations very early in any natural resource development project.

So where would the wind turbines be located?   The area I have circled in black are the most likely locations for the turbines.  It is on TimberWest land, it is the first ridge coming off of the Strait of Juan de Fuca and it is reasonably close to the BC Hydro transmission line that starts in Jordan River.  Being close to the existing transmission grid makes all new power projects much more affordable.

Here is a panorama of the eastern most extent of the ridge - the picture is from Google Streetview.   

If I find a better picture of the ridge I will post it on here

One final important consideration.  Wind power really fluctuates making it hard to have consistent power.   Ideally you need a way to store some of the power to even out the load.   The reservoirs at Jordan River have been analysed by BC Hydro for pumped storage and there is some potential for this.   The orginal memo only considered hydro and not any potential for using pumped storage for wind power.

I am curious the role the CRD will have in any approvals of this project, I worry they might interfere with it and slow down or stop the development of more green power in BC.

All in all I think this is a great project and I hope it gets off of the ground very quickly.

Nature in the inner city - a sharp-shinned Hawk at my home

For the last week a raptor has been hanging around my backyard.  I am not a bird person which means I can not even really describe the features enough to have some else identify a bird.   The best I could get to was that I thought it might be a Kestrel.

 I tried a couple of times to take some pictures when it was perched on my fence but It flew off each time.  Yesterday I managed a short video on my phone.    I asked a couple to look at the video and tell me what they thought it was.   Dick Cannings gave me the answer - a sharp-shinned Hawk or Accipiter striatus striatus


This hawk is the smallest of the family and a one that is not endangered.   They are a migratory bird in most of Canada but can be resident in these parts.   It will be interesting to see if this one decides to make its home here.   It seems to be living in the large garry oak on the northwest corner of the property.

I like it when the natural world manages to find a way to exist within the human city.   One of the things I liked the most about living in Lillooet is that the natural world was still significantly dominant in the world around us.  Bears in my yard were common.   The weather would often defined our lives.  Forest fires could still threaten the town.   In Victoria I have to take what nature I can get in the inner city.

One of the things I like about volunteering at the Dragon Boat Festival each August is that our recycling station over looks the fish cleaning station behind the Flying Otter Grill and several times a day you get to watch seals go after the fish guts being thrown away.

Protests against the proposed tennis courts in Cedar Hill Park

There is a group calling itself Save Cedar Hill Park that is opposed to the proposed addition of clay court tennis courts in the park by the Cedar Hill Clay Court Tennis Society.   I do not know if this is a group or just one person that put the website together, based what I can find out there it seems to be a vocal minority and not much more than that.

 Honestly I find the opposition odd after reviewing the proposal and seeing that Saanich has to contribute very little for the construction of the facility.  This is within in park that is mainly a golf course which is not free to the public.

Many of the outdoor municipal tennis courts in Victoria are not well maintained so to have a facility built that would have someone else look after them and a revenue stream to cover the costs makes a lot of sense.  Tennis is a popular sport be really does require better quality facilities and a municipal park is a reasonable location for them

I am do not think the tennis courts are much of a threat to the park because the space they are going into is not used much at all.  My kids lived with their mother in the immediate area for several years and never did I see any significant use of the ball diamonds.  At the moment is an unnatural environment that is mowed by large mowers which drip oil and other fluids onto the field which then gets into the ground.   I note this because one of the more absurd objections to the clay courts is that there might be some run off issues for the Bowker Creek tributary in the park.

When it comes to the Bowker Creek tributary, I can not see how the clay courts could have a measurable impact on the creek when compared to the impact of the golf course.   Whatever is going on with Bowker Creek tributary at the clay court site, the primary impact is from the golf course.   Nothing has been done to alter the unnatural environment of the golf course to improve the drainage.

Another complaint is that this would be a private facility.   Not for profit societies operate various different facilities within parks so this is not anything new or different than is done elsewhere.  We have baseball diamonds and soccer fields all over the place that are looked after by not for profits.   We have not for profit groups that have buildings on park land.  This is not something new or different.

I find the concern about the loss of the open space for public use weird given that there will remain a larger and nicer open space to the north and east of the proposed clay courts.  The total area of the courts will be something on the order of 1 hectare in a park that is 54 hectares and has close to 1 hectare of land covered by buildings.

This park, because of the golf course, is not one that can offer a natural environment.   Lawns are un-natural, just because people like the look of them does not make them a natural eco-system.   If there is a desire of have a natural eco-system in the park, the first thing that needs to happen is the golf course has to come out.  The natural eco-system based park role is served by Mount Tolmie and Swan Lake in this area.

The proposal is a good one and should happen.

A beautiful swimming hole on the Gordon River

We were out here on Sunday and I am impressed with the swimming area under the bridge.   The water is deep and an amazing jade green in colour.   There is a rope swing under the bridge to jump into the water with from a small cliff edge over the water.   There seem to be some good spots to camp on some sandbars of the Gordon River.

Here are some pics

This is the bridge over the Gordon River

I am amazed the colour of the water when the sun hits it

You can see the rope swing in this picture

The whole scene

You can see the small cliff you can swing off of under the bridge

Looking down from the bridge

The bridge is only 1.6 km from the access to the Avatar Grove by road or about 700 meters on the river trail

San Juan Sitka Spruce

The San Juan Sitka Spruce near Port Renfrew is Canada's largest Sitka Spruce.   On Sunday we checked it out.  

It is very easy to find being right at a forest service recreation site on the San Juan River.  For a map and directions, click on this link.

Yes, that is another tree growing out of the San Juan Sitka

The tree is hard to really get a sense of because of all the other trees around it.

The top of the tree has broken off at some point

a gnarly old maple not far away

Stephen climbing the old maple

a view of the campground area - the place is free to use and has nice access to the San Juan river

Swimming in the Gorge on May 7th 2013?!?!

The Gorge warms up very quickly because the tides move a lot of water in and out twice a day. It means that even two to three days of hot weather bring the temperature up ot 22 to 23 degrees.   With the water this warm we have been in the water twice this week already.

I have been very happy to see more swimming in the Gorge over the last few years.   It is good to see the people in this city rediscover on of the jewels of the region.     Here is a short video of Stephen and Max on the Tillicum Dock and Stephen going into the water.

 

While it is wonderful to have the water warm enough to swim in so early, we should be concerned.   We had temperatures of over 28 degrees on Sunday in Victoria.   A one off high temperature is weather, a pattern of warmer weather in successive years is a change in climate.    We set records all over southwest BC on Sunday, we had 100 year record high temperatures.   The trend seems clearer and clearer to me that we are altering the climate.

While it is wonderful to have mid summer weather at the start of May, the danger in our region is that we are not set up to deal with four months of warm or hot weather.   Our soils on the south end of Vancouver Island do not tend to run deep and consistent long hot summers with droughts will kill off many of our trees among other things.   Forest fires to the west of the city will be coming.

We are lucky in many respects in Victoria because climate change is likely to make life a bit more pleasant in the summers but we are not in isolation in the world.   In BC we are in the middle of an election and climate change is not an issue.   Other than the Greens no other party considers the issue one that matters to us.

This Sunday 4th Annual Gorge-Tillicum Urban Farmers Seedy Sunday

Seed sharing is a way to get a few interesting varieties of seeds for plants that come from people locally.   Getting your seeds locally should mean a plant better suited to our local growing conditions.

Date: Mon, Jan 14, 2013 at 11:07 AM
Subject: [GTUF] 4th Annual GTUF Seedy Sunday Jan 20th!
To: Gorge-Tillicum-Urban-Farmers


Hello and Happy New Years GTUFers,

Our fourth annual Seedy Sunday Sharing Event is next Sunday January 20th  at our usual location of Saanich Neighbourhood Place in Pearkes Recreation Centre. Turn left as you walk into Pearkes, and then go to the end of the corridor. Schedule:

2:30 - 2:45pm – People with seeds to share come 15 minutes early to help set up tables and put their seeds out.

2:45 - 3:30pm – Seed Sharing  

3:30 - 4:00pm – Growers answer questions about their seeds (varieties, planting suggestions, etc.)

4:00 - 4:15pm – Break - Potluck of snacks

4:15 - 5:00pm – Discuss what to do now for your food garden at home – Facilitator: Kate Rubin

PRACTICAL DETAILS FOR THE SEED SHARING PORTION OF THE MEETING:

For any of you who have attended the Seedy Saturday Event at the Conference Centre in years past - this event is different in that you are NOT required to bring seeds before you can take seeds (we want this open to new gardeners and seed-savers) - but please take only what you will likely need for your own household purposes.

If you are bringing seeds - you can bring them in bulk, or if you have time, packaged.  

In either case please make sure the seed is labeled - either on the packet or on something like an index card in front of the seeds you are sharing - with the following 4 points:

- Your name (so people can ask you their questions about the seed)

- The type of seed and variety if known 

- Date of harvest of seed if known (or date written on the package for expiry date)

- Any outstanding characteristics which you think could be useful to mention

Remember to check your old packets from commercial growers to see if you have excess to share.  Small bedding plants which you might be prepared to share are also welcome.

If you are not bringing seed, if possible we ask that you please bring your own containers or bags. Thanks!
We also ask that everyone takes home anything that is not taken.

 And as is the case at every meeting:

Feel free to bring seedlings or plants that you'd like to give away Please remember to take home with you any items others don't want. 
If you're willing to do so, please come a few minutes earlier to help us set up the space and stay a few minutes after to return the room to its original state and to clean up.
We invite anyone to contribute a snack item for us to eat during our break -- preferably a finger food.  If your item requires it, please also bring napkins or cups.  As per SNP policy, food and drink is to be consumed only at the tables.
We'll also ask for a donation (suggested $5) for SNP to cover our use of their space. We also will have a donation box for our Seed Bank costs.
Notes will be taken during the meeting if someone volunteers to do it. You are welcome to invite people who are not GTUF members to our meetings.
If you think you might buy a GTUF signs for display in your garden / on your home please bring a few dollars with you – either this time or another time.
Thanks to Tom’s efforts, we have a GTUF library that he brings to our meetings.  Feel free to borrow a book – or donate or lend a book to the library.
 We look forward to seeing you there!

 Kate, Brenda, and Julie (Seedy Sunday organizers)

Some weather data for my neighbourhood

I now have seven and a half years of weather data for my neighbourhood from the UVic Weather Network. This is still not enough for clear long term trends, but it does give me some reasonable data for the growing season.

Frost is any temperature below 0, a hard frost is -2.0 or lower.

               First Frost of the Fall          First Hard Frost                   Coldest Frost
2012  November 9th   has not happened yet   -0.9 November 9th
2011  November 1st   November 15th  -4.4 November 20th
2010  November 12th  November 21st  -8.7 November 23rd
2009  October 12th   December 7th   -7.7 December 10th
2008  November 26th  December 13th  -9.2 December 16th
2007  November 2nd   December 31st  -2.8 December 31st
2006  October 30th   October 30th   -6.6 November 29th
2005  November 26th  December 16th  -2.4 December 17th

From this data I think I can comfortably count on October stilling being a growing month especially for the hardier plants.  
   
     Last Frost of the Spring      Last Hard Frost
2012  April 7th   March 7th
2011  April 8th   February 26th
2010  March 18th  March 8th
2009  March 29th  March 21st
2008  April 9th   January 28th
2007  April 2nd   March 1st
2006  March 19th  February 24th

The last frost in the spring is fairly consistently within a three week period from March 18th to April 9th with four times the last frost being in the first 9 days of April.   I think that April 15th is a reasonable day to assume we are safe from frost in the garden.

Length of the frost free period
2012  216 days
2011  207 days
2010  239 days
2009  197 days
2008  231 days
2007  214 days
2006  225 days
avg   218 days

Over the last seven and half years, there have only been 15 days when the daytime temperature did not rise above 0 degrees.   The temperatures have only dropped to -5 degrees or lower on 16 nights in that same time period.

Fish Counts in Colquitz River for 2012

I got this from the Gorge Tillicum Community Association about the 2012 salmon run on the Colquitz river

Total Fish counts in for the year at the Colquitz River Fish Fence: (Behind Tillicum Centre)
71 Male Coho
91 Female Coho
44 Jacks
2 Cutthroat trout
2 Smolts.
TOTAL= 210 fish.
Not nearly as big return numbers as in years previous...those oil spills have taken their toll...

I asked about past data and here is what I got from Scott Karpes:

Last year, (2011) they had to take the counting fence out on about Nov. 25th (due to the oil spill, they wanted to let the fish get up stream quickly, to avoid the contamination.) Up to Nov. 25th, the numbers were:
62-Male coho
119-Female coho
104-Jacks
1-Cutthroat
TOTAL= 286 fish 
'All the other years are in single daily sheets that would take a very long time to add up the totals.'

'From what I can remember we have had a low of about 52 to a high of about 650 or more.' This information comes from Barrie Goodwin (Stream Steward/Volunteer.)

Public Orchards for Fernwood and Vic West

Among the food security movement there has been a lot of people talking about planting vegetables instead of flowers in parks and such but I never thought those were such great ideas because they take so much work.   I have for a long time thought that public fruit trees were a much better idea because they require a lot less ongoing maintenance      If you look around the region you can often find old apple trees abandoned years ago.   I know of some in Cuthbert Holmes Park and some in East Sooke Park.   The apples are still good and the trees have been ignored for decades.

There is now a proposal to create two community orchards in Victoria.   One in Vic West at Banfield Park and the other in Fernwood at the Fernwood Community Centre.   There will be a meeting this evening at the Vic West YMCA to discuss the one for Banfield Park.

I really like the idea of public orchards.   There are so many people these days that have never eaten fruit from a tree and therefore have no idea what it should taste like.  It is quite possible for us to produce a lot more food locally and have us a community connect again with the fruit we eat.  I love apricots but the ones I can buy in the stores are a waste of money, only those straight from the tree are worth eating.   I rarely can find apples in the stores that match the ones picked freshly from the tree.  

A community orchard is not a short term idea, it will take time for the trees to reach maturity.  It is for that reason I think it is important that both community associations consider tree fruits that require very little maintenance.

It is important to also only consider trees that thrive in our climate.   This rules out peaches and apricots, they are very borderline in the CRD.   Cherries may grow well here but birds clean out trees very fast and we have too much danger of rain just as they are ripening as well would see western cherry fruit fly infestations.  I think it is also important that most stone fruits not be considered because such soft fruits tend to have the whole tree ripen at once and require the fruit to be picked and processed during a narrow window.  

Best would be to stick to apples, pears and various nuts.   Apples have long proven they can grow here without any help of us humans.   Within a small community orchard it is possible to plant numerous different varieties of apples to ensure there is a constant harvest of fruit from the end of July to early November.

I would ideally like to see apple trees planted at every school in the CRD, enough to ensure that for the first two months of each school year there are abundant apples for everyone in the school.   Each youth should be able to grow up eating apples straight from the tree everyday in the fall.  It is important from an early age to connect kids to where food comes from.  If these community orchards work well, I hope the idea spreads.