On Friday, November 3, we were interviewed by CBC radio regarding the
TLC purchase of Harbourview. Andrea deLange of the IRC presented some
of our viewpoints, and later in the interview, Alison Spriggs of the Land
Conservancy voiced her opinions. Listen to the complete interview
here (1.8 MB, MP3 format), or read on for a complete transcript.
Be prepared for some typical environmentalist rhetoric in the second
half of the interview.
CBC: Four wheelers
are afraid of being rolled over by the Land Conservancy of BC.
CBC: A property in the Sooke Hills near Victoria
is the land in question. The Conservancy wants to buy it and turn it
into a wilderness park. Four wheelers don't like that idea. They've
started an information campaign to try to fight the plan. In a few minutes,
we'll going to speak with someone from the Land Conservancy of British
Columbia, but first, we've reached Andrea deLange - she is with the
Island Rock Crawlers Four Wheel Drive Society and she is at her home
in Victoria.
CBC: Good afternoon.
IRC: Hi, thank you for having me on.
CBC: You're most welcome. Thanks for joining
us. Tell me a little bit about this property in the Sooke Hills if you
will.
IRC: It's currently privately owned, and it's
just a little bit south of Sooke, or east of Sooke, pardon me, and what's
happening is we've been four-wheeling in it for many many decades now,
and it's currently under purchase option to the Land Conservancy, in
conjunction with Regional District here in Victoria.
CBC: What is it about the property that makes
you want to drive there?
IRC: It's close to downtown, it's one of the
few remaining spots open to us that aren't controlled by logging companies,
who are able to shut down virtually any place that they are currently
logging without any questions asked.
CBC: So what's it like to drive on this particular
chunk of land?
IRC: It's a small space, with really very interesting
places to go - well established trails, second and third growth forest,
and it's beautiful. It's really very much worth saving, however, not
at the jeopardy of the recreation that's currently there.
CBC: What kind of recreation is there aside
from people who like to four-wheel?
IRC: There's motorcycles, there's equestrians,
and fishers, and hikers, and hunters and gosh, you name it - they're
there.
CBC: They're multiuse.
IRC: It's been multiuse for decades.
CBC: When did you first find out that the Land
Conservancy hoped to buy the property?
IRC: We expected the CRD to actually purchase
it initially, and the Land Conservancy got involved with it in the beginning
of this year.
CBC: And when you heard they were involved,
what was your response?
IRC: Actually, it was great - what the Land
Conservancy does for their mandate is wonderful—they've saved a
lot of really great places and they're really necessary to maintaining
our green spaces on the Island and in BC. However, I'm not necessarily
convinced that closing down this particular area to the use it's currently
undergoing is going to negate the 'greenness' of this particular area.
CBC: Although there are people who say that
because four-wheel drives vehicles are loud, they can be pretty destructive
because of those big, thick, deep-tread tires and really, environmentally
speaking, if you're talking about saving land, the two just don't jive.
IRC: That's a bit of a misnomer, actually. What
four-wheel drive enthuisiasts do is we all stay on roads - we don't
actually go off any roads. The trails have been established, and they
have been for decades. This particular land in question, the area that
we travel on, you have to go slow - it's a slow trail, you can't go
too fast, therefore the noise is kept down. It's all a question of etiquette
when it comes to multi-use.
CBC: Doesn't it churn up the land though, even
on the roads that you're using?
IRC: To some extent, but no more so than rainfall
would, especially if it's done right.
CBC: I suppose if the Land Conservancy moved
in though, they would restrict any use of those roads and try to have
the land go back to its original state.
IRC: Oh yes, and the CRD's mandate as well would
be that they'd close it down to off-highway vehicle use and maintain
strictly hiking.
CBC: And that would mean what to you and your
members?
IRC: That would mean that currently, having
Butler/Boneyard closed in the southern island, there would be no place
for us to be with our vehicles for this very legitimate sport.
CBC: Other than logging roads that you don't
prefer.
IRC: Other than driving an hour and a half out
to Jordan River, Port Renfrew, or up to Cowichan Valley, so essentially
the whole southern island would be shut off to us.
CBC: Do you think there is a middle ground here,
that you can reach some sort of a compromise with the Land Conservancy
about using a particular section that might not be vulnerable?
IRC: Oh definitely. And if it's not in Harbourview,
then it has to be somewhere else in the lower island. There's been many
many examples of Off-Highway Vehicle parks in the States, and currently
I'm looking at on in Alberta called Wiaprous that's working really,
really well as an off-highway vehicle park.
CBC: Well, I'm going to speak now to someone
from the Land Conservancy. Andrea, thank you very much for speaking
to me about your point of view on this today.
IRC: OK, Thank you.
CBC: You're welcome. Bye bye. Andrea deLange,
she is with the Island Rock Crawlers Four Wheel Drive Society in Victoria.
CBC: Standing by on the line now is Alison Spriggs
- she is the Communications Director with the Land Conservancy of British
Columbia, she is also in Victoria. Good afternoon.
TLC: Hi Catherine.
CBC: Ms. Spriggs, it sounds like Ms. deLange
is quite concerned about this particular bit of property, do you think
there might be some common ground here?
TLC: Well, first of all, I'd just to say how
much I appreciated her appreciation for the Land Conservancy and what
we're trying to do. I think that there certainly is some common ground.
A little bit of history on this property - there's been a long, long
interest in seeing the area preserved that dates back to the 1920s when
the Alpine Club of Canada first established a cabin there, long before
there was anything other then just the smallest trails into the area.
And it was actually at their behest that Sooke Mountain Park was created
there, and, you know, gradually over the years, with the little bit
of logging that gradually became more concentrated in that area, there's
been more access to it, so there's been a long history of interest in
the area.
CBC: What makes it special?
TLC: Oh, it's just such a beautiful place, it's
part of a rain-shadow forest, so a lot of the hilltops are moss falls
with some of the province's rarest plant species, satin flowers, and
broad-leafed shooting stars and things that are very rare in the province.
There's also two salmon streams that have coho and chum salmon in them,
there's elk, and wolves and black bear, and really this is the last
of the wild on the edge of the city there and it's just such important
habitat, so you know the concerns about what kind of activities take
place there, you know housing developments, logging, and other activities
that are threatening to the fragility of that system are really what
we're dealing with now in wanting to purchase and protect this land.
CBC: Can you then by purchasing and protecting
it keep housing and logging away but at the same time allow some of
the motorized vehicles that have been using it for years to continue?
TLC: I think what we'd like to do is try to
work out some kind of an arrangement. I think that we would be most
willing to help negotiate, work with the off-road drivers to find a
place that is less fragile and more appropriate for that kind of activity.
When the vehicles go out on the high moss bluffs, the damage that's
done there is just phenomenal, and it's, you know, it's taken millennia
for those area to colonize the plants, and of course, it's damaging
to the salmon streams when the roads erode down into the waters of the
creeks themselves, and that impacts the fish.
CBC: So even what Ms. deLange is saying with
most of the drivers staying on the roads wouldn't sort of help to minimize
what ever damage these vehicles could cause.
TLC: It's very difficult to imagine the compatibility
of the wildlife in the area, and also just the human users - a lot of
people want to go into a wildlife, a wild land area simply to get away
from the noise of engines and all of that - that's just the human side
of it. The same thing is true for these wildlife species - they're frightened,
you know. On feet you can't get so deep into the area, so it's, you
know, if the trails are planned and designed properly, there's still
a sanctuary in there for Roosevelt Elk and other species that are increasingly
being nudged out of this region because there just isn't a safe haven
for them.
CBC: So it sounds like you want to create this
space as that 'safe haven'.
TLC: Yes I think that this is an important area
- we're linking, really what we're trying to do is create the 'Sea-to-Sea
Green Belt' that links enough contiguous habitat that we're actually
able to protect species. That's our mission, that's our mandate, but
I think I would really like to make the point that as with the Victoria
Motorcycle Club, and their lease with a forest company up at Muir Creek,
there's an opportunity for us to work with the off-road community and
I'm sure that we would be most happy to do that. In finding that area
that's less fragile, more appropriate, and less threatening to the wildlife
of the region.
CBC: How close are you to being able to purchase
the property?
TLC: Well we've got a little way to go yet.
We are very hopeful that because this area was identified as a priority
in the CRD Parks master plan that there will be significant funding
coming through that acquisition fund. And if that's the case, we have
now about $200,000 raised. We're still going to need to raise the balace
of the $5 million so we're hoping that a substantial amount of that
will come through CRD. I know that the federal government has expressed
interest and they have already put money into the protection of Ayum
Creek, which is one of the salmon streams through that area - so we're
hoping that there could be some funding there as well. And we're just
'ongoingly' fund-raising in the hopes that we will be able to reach
out to the public and raise the funds and do it by the February 9th
deadline, which is coming quickly. If we don't, then this whole discussion
is for nought because the area will be certainly be developed with housing
and it will be lost to everything and everyone.
CBC: Well, it will certainly be something we'll
keep an eye on. Thank you very much for speaking about it this afternoon.
TLC: Thank you very much for having me on.
CBC: You're welcome. Alison Spriggs, she's from
the Land Conservancy of British Columbia, and before her, I spoke to
Andrea deLange, she's with the Island Rock Crawlers Four Wheel Drive
Society.
So what's your opinion of this issue? Please let us know by e-mailing
the IRC: irc@can4x4.com
My suggestion this holiday season: If you have vast sums of money that
you're just itching to donate to some cause, please consider giving to
the Vancouver Island Cancer Centre. It just so happens that they are in
need of $6 Million dollars as well. For more information, please see the
BC Cancer Centre site, or the
Vancouver Island
Cancer Centre.
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