Saturday 9 September 2017

Who We Are

Whooo Will Speak for Me?

Baby Barred Owl inside Mountain View Park. 

One of the many reasons
more protection is neededagainst off-road wreckreational mountain biking activities, and sprawl! 

What good is a damaged habitat
?
 


We have been monitoring destructive mountain biking activities inside Mountain View Park  wetland and upland area of Fromme Mtn. and the North Shore -- for over ten years.This is the culmination of our research with warnings about the high ecological cost of carrying such mountain biking (which is essentially no different from off-road dirt biking) inside our public forests and wetland parks.

The damage will continue, unabated, until there are far more voices speaking out against this off-road wreckreational sport, and its even more invasive trail building habits. But, due to recent developments between the  District of North Vancouver and the North Shore Mountain Bike Association, it may already be too late... 

The tide will change, only when people begin to stop glorifying  such callous ecological vandalism inside our forests and wetlands via dirt biking activities. Our aim is to educate people about the value of these threatened places, including some background history, and with ample evidence of mountain biking damage being inflicted. Off-road wreckreation remains an ongoing threat as we struggle to preserve nature and wildlife...

Compromise only decides how much we are willing to lose never how much we are able to gain.  To accept compromise as legitimate strategy,  conservationist David Brower argued, that as conservationists we need to be unapologetic about our goals and our beliefs, that once we trade on those, we lose not only our campaigns, but our virtue and our credibility as well. As we already know, the many conservation and environmental groups on our North Shore have compromised away too much over the past ten years or more. What damage has been done cannot be undone... **

In the words of Canadian author, and friend of the natural environment, Farley Mowat (1921-2014): "The truth is what is important." & "I could honestly say I've fought the good fight.























Red Legged tadpoles waiting for their siblings to hatch (egg gels)


"The acquifer(sic) (western slopes), acquifer recharge areas (surface and subsurface drainage channels) and lake areas should become the park area. The park area should remain a natural environment..."
(from "Twin Lakes Development Study, 1970) Renamed Mtn.View Parkin the 1990's

"Mountain bikers...compact the ground and damage smaller species and mess up aquifers."(from A visit to: Saltspring Island’s gary oak meadow.)
Matsuo Bashô: Frog Haiku

古池や蛙飛こむ水のおと 


Furu ike ya                Old pond
kawazu tobikomu       frog jumps in
 mizu no oto              water’s sound


ふるいけやかはづとびこむみづのお
Skunk Cabbage in Mtn. View Park's pond

+++++++

** In so many environmental arenas, as David Brower once said, every win is temporary, every loss permanent.  He was quick to remind us, knowing too well the cost of compromise: a half, of a half, of a half...a friend said.... leaves you with nothing.

"War of the Woods"
2003 to 2017
Dear Father, hear and bless

Thy beasts and singing birds:

And guard with tenderness

Small things that have no words.
 ~A Child's Prayer 



2 Chronicles 7:13-15

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