GATEWAY: BAD NEWS for BURNS BOG

Burns Bog (Maqwum) - also known as the "Lungs of the Lower Mainland" - is a huge (40 sq.km.) peat bog occupying about a quarter of Delta, BC, the largest domed peat bog on the west coast of North America. Maqwum is its indigenous name.

Burns Bog is globally unique on the basis of its chemistry, form, flora and size. Despite significant disturbances to the ecosystem - including development, extensive peat mining and fire - Burns Bog remains an important contributor to the region's ecology and sustains a wide variety of flora and fauna, including many rare species.  Its nickname 'the Lungs of the Lower Mainland' refers to the bog's role as a climate regulator, as well as its function as an effective carbon sink (absorbing carbon from the atmosphere and lowering C02 levels).  Numerous zoning codes have been enacted to protect the bog from development and retain its original state, in hopes of preservation for future generations.

According to Environment Canada and other groups, the bog ecosystem is under threat from the proposed South Fraser Perimeter Road, a new 4-lane expressway that is part of the BC Ministry of Transportation's Gateway Program currently under construction (expected to be completed by 2013).

One of the main objectives of the Gateway Program is to reduce congestion-related idling by freeing up the traffic movement south of the Fraser River.  Although the Province's environmental assessment projects that SFPR will reduce congestion-related pollution, overall pollution as well as truck traffic will be significantly increased. This is a deep concern for many citizens and local environmentalists pushing for a decrease in our greenhouse gas emissions.

While the SFPR does not go through the Burns Bog Ecological Conservancy Area, there is concern that it will adversely affect the Conservancy area and surrounding hydrology.  In response to the mitigation measures proposed by the SFPR Project, the Environmental Stewardship Branch of Environment Canada wrote that "... the changes are not sufficient to alleviate its concerns related to the impacts of the Project on Pacific Water Shrew (PWS), hydrology, aerial deposition, and ecological integrity of Burns Bog.".*

Burns Bog has been listed as threatened by the International Mire Conservation Group because of the impacts of the SFPR.

Burns Bog Conversation Society is working to protect this globally unique ecological wonder in Delta, BC

SIGN THIS PETITION:  Burns Bog UNESCO World Heritage Site designation - HERE:
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/burnsbogunesco)

PUBLIC COMMENTS:Here's my signature:
Name: Sarah Chesterman on May 22, 2011
Comment: This precious ecosystem must be protected! Its importance as a carbon sink and the "lungs of the Lower Mainland" have already been recognized and established, and the detrimental effects of paving it over would be catastrophical - not only for the health of all Lower Mainland residents, but for the wildlife species at risk that rely on its riches. Restoring this bog ecosystem and preserving its integrity - keeping in line with the tenets outlined in www.smartgrowth.bc.ca - are the only actions that serve the public's best interests, along with addressing and shouldering our global responsibilities. Ignoring opportunities to respect the land that feeds us and become sustainable would be BC's greatest downfall of all... "We cannot change the past but we can shape the future by our actions."
 .
LINKS:
* Info from http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/
Burns Bog Conservation Society:  http://www.burnsbog.org/bog//
The Corporation of Delta's Burns Bog site:  http://www.burnsbog.ca/

[Pics from Flemming's Churchill Fellowship blog, http://flemmingulf.wordpress.com/]

[This article first posted same day 2011]

Oppose SITE C DAM-age to BC {Part II}

Part I here:  Oppose SITE C DAM-age to BC {Part I}

As an addendum to my (April 5th) post on this crucial BC matter - to which all BCers would be unequivocably opposed if properly informed of Site C dam's repercussions, i.e. its resulting degradation of BC's air/ land/ water quality (eg. our precious natural resources, without which we have a 3rd-world future) - via the letter template found @ StopSiteC.org hsent to relevant government officials...

I am extremely concerned about Site C's effects on the following:

- Hundreds of productive working farms in this fertile region would literally be washed away by flooding, along with their invaluable, sustainable food-security benefits & services! To even contemplate such irreversible destruction of BCers' livelihoods & future self-sufficiency - which could not be mitigated - is a terrifying testament to BC's inept (if not willfully corrupt) business/government/utility leaders re. environmental/ resource mgmt. protection issues impacting this province.  NONE OF THESE ENTITIES have the constitutional right to green-light such misuse of our province's human/natural resources without due process comprising carefully considered analysis of any such project's effects.

- My fellow BC citizens operating viable agricultural outfits in the Peace River Valley - many for several generations - are naturally concerned that Site C Dam would forever RUIN not only their own livelihoods but those of BC's richly fertile agricultural industry as a whole & the Peace River Valley's prolific part in it.  Such a prospect is not merely conjecture but an inarguably predictive adjunct of Site C's development, which would turn longtime Peace River inhabitants out of their established farms/homes & render them refugees in their own province - as well as turning one of the world's richest agricultural oases into a derelict floodplain (i.e. adding to unsustainable waste production) NOT TO PROVIDE FOR BC'S ENERGY NEEDS BUT TO SERVE INCREASED FOSSIL-FUEL/ FRACKING/TARSANDS PRODUCTION FOR EXPORT TO CHINA, ALREADY THE WORLD'S WORST POLLUTER.  Thousands of BCers have expressed repeated opposition to this appalling direction & called for transition to clean, renewable energy production in the face of government's negligent disregard for its own citizens' futures.

I.E. Building Site C Dam would entail AN ENSUING DISASTER SITUATION OF CATASTROPHIC PROPORTIONS FOR BC'S LAND & PEOPLE. This is irresponsible, short-sighted & unacceptable...

- Further deleterious effects of Site C Dam include putting BC's indigenous wildlife species in peril, include destruction via flooding of already-diminished critical habitat which would further limit access to the ecosystems on which wild species such as Cariboo, Grizzly Bear, Coyotes, Wolves & many others depend for their survival.  Such serious threats to BC's healthy biodiversity (= also a measuring-tool of human health) are significant.  Yet Site C's proposal looms over this precarious balancing-act as a very real threat highlighting another foreboding aspect of governmental ignorance that would signal failure to meet their most basic pledges dedicating allegiance to BC's best interests - which includes protecting BC's precious wildlife species, along with their habitats & our province's healthy biodiversity in general.

- The above points do not even take into consideration  Site C Dam's necessary destruction (through flooding) of First Nations heritage sites, including burial grounds & places of cultural/spiritual significance along with their low-footprint way of life which they have sustained (& which have sustained BC's natural riches) for centuries.  Such disgraceful (mis)treatment of our native people ought to be deal-breaking grounds for refusal by ANY assessment panel. If Government were smart, & forward-thinking, our First Nations would rightfully hold top consulting positions in all land management matters & our required critical transition to clean-energy/sustainable technologies which need to take place NOW, as per global directives on climate-change & emissions reduction. THAT is the forward-thinking business of any modern government entity, in order to secure futures - the LEGACIES to which Ms. Clark referred so frequently in her recent electoral campaign.  If there are to be any 'legacies' for BCers then economic returns must be bolstered by smart, sustainable resource management - i.e. safeguarding our forests, lakes, mountains, rivers etc. from unsustainable development/ industry.  If we don't, pollution will poison our fresh-water sources & cripple any chances of providing legacies for future generations. Building Site C Dam would further contribute to environmental damage via rising carbon emissions, in polar opposition to NASA's warnings that these levels MUST decrease to reverse global warming trends...

- FOR ONCE let's be smart vis-a-vis conservation of BC's precious native fauna/ flora (= the bulwarks of future survival/ sustainability) & respect for our First Nations, without whose knowledgeable/ skillful preservation of its ongoing bounty/ renewal BC's valuable forests & natural resources would be non-existent today.  Building Site C Dam would degrade both, jeopardizing BC's health & the lives of future generations.

  

- The financial cost to B.C. taxpayers, who would have to shoulder this $8 billion megaproject - NOT for the purpose of domestic consumption but to facilitate further unsustainable fossil-fuel/operations & increased pollution - makes this proposed project that much more untenable to BC & our future as a thriving province.

Why is BC, apparently a wealthy part of the world (for many), so desperate to continue favouring big-money POLLUTERS??

STEP IT UP -- & STOP SITE C DAM, BC!!

(photo by Graham Osborne of WildernessCommittee.org)