Great comprehensive video giving good overview on facts and future vision. Does the Dogwood Initiative have any action items for us to follow through on? To support this vision, at this key point in time? Time is of the essence - The WFP lands go on the market today!

thank you

You are going to include me in any visionary protective process, protecting the wilderness and natural habitat in perpetuity, for all generations to come. I am there. i love the natural world and want others after me to see what I see, feel what I feel.

I come from the UK, people have shaped and altered that landscape for tens of 1000's of years. Our modern tools can so easily undo in a few years what took 1000's of years to create slowly by horse and hand. So in the UK we have developed parks and regions of protection to protect our landscapes. It is in some ways a bit late as much of the wilderness has been lost. In a similar manner we need to protect our places from destruction by developers, misguided governments, the creep of suburbia and roads and the devastating pressures of planet wide human induced change. In BC we have pristine water and landscapes that should remain that way. We have an opportunity to protect here what has been already lost in other parts of our world. In our Canadian society we mine everything for profit; land and water, the fish and our forests. Our challenge is to stop, to draw up boundaries and to protect while we still have something to protect. This is a fight that I support.

Thanks for a providing us with a good summary of the situation on Vancouver Island re WFP lands and for Vicky Husband's insight. The Premier and Forests Minister Pat Bell will be hearing from me, (copying NDP MLA John Horgan, who represents the riding concerned and needs ammunition to go after the government). We can do this!

Below is an excerpt from a letter I sent Premier Campbell a few weeks ago, outlining a way that the province could puchase all the WFP lands in contention while creating a green investment opportunity for residents of B.C.. I mentioned 12,000 hectares, but I believe there may be more land in peril of development; however, I think B.C. Green Bonds could probably raise most, if not all, of the necessary funds.

"You and your government are not very popular right now, but enabling the purchase of the WFP lands would certainly enhance your image. Here’s how to do it: 1) Immediately provides funds to UBC to purchase, and establish an experimental forest on, all 12,000 hectares of WFP land. (Perhaps one day to be known as the Gordon M. Campbell-UBC Experimental Forest?)
    "2) Raise the funds by issuing special ‘B.C. Green Bonds’ (Don’t let the fact that the NDP has previously suggested using them to raise money for green projects; I’m sure they would support this initiative). At a respectable rate of interest (between 3 and 4%), available in denominations as low as $50 (so that even those on relatively low incomes can participate), at a time when many investors are wary of the stock market and would welcome a safe and laudatory place to put their money, and because the funds would be dedicated to a cause about which many people in B.C. care deeply, it should be relatively easy to raise the approximately $100 million needed to purchase the 12,000 hectares of threatened lands.
    "The advantage of raising funds in this fashion is that, while B.C. Green Bonds would be debt, they would be the most useful kind of debt, creating a win-win situation for B.C. residents. We benefit, on the one hand, as investors (interest on the bonds), and on the other, as taxpayers (the acquisition and preservation of priceless forest and tidal habitats). In effect, we transfer our money from one pocket to another, and in the process, save a magnificent tract of land while making a modest income from our investment."