FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
If we don't protect this land, what might legally happen to it?If these 19.46 acres are not protected, Creekside Rainforest can be developed in a way that will destroy its rare natural values entirely. Here are the facts.
It is zoned R to be subdivided into 3 lots a minimum of 5 acres each. On each lot, a large house can be built –as long as the house does not exceed 1/3rd of lot size. Each lot is allowed to have a seasonal cottage of 600 sq feet. Six septic fields will be legally in place (shared septics are no longer permitted). All land except for a strip along the creek can be legally clearcut. Excavators can change the topography and drainage of the land. So can blasting ---All this is legal. The land can also be entirely paved, legally, except for a strip along the creek. Houses can all legally have wood stoves and burn barrels. They can legally have home-based businesses, on each of the 3 lots on land that is NOT zoned watershed but is zoned residential. Outbuildings measuring under 100 sq feet can be built without permit. (See Official Community Plan (OCP, Land Use Bylaw (LUB) 355, zoning map and DPA map.) It would be challenging to develop but ---it is doable.
Some people think the steeply sloped land must be protected by a Land Use Bylaw DPA 6 designation. (Development Permit Area indicating –High Slope Instability Hazard Area/Erosion Area.) This is not the case. Even if it were designated DPA 6, this only means a developer must get an expert report. If this report says there is an acceptable way to work within the designated Development Permit area, local government grants a development permit.
The only Development Permit Area on the land is DPA 4 –“Lakes, streams and wetlands.” A DPA 4 means that 10 metres measured horizontally from the high water is theoretically protected by the fact that to work within this area, a developer must, again, get an engineer’s report before a permit is granted by local government, to build, cut trees, remove vegetation, or put in an impervious surface within the sensitive land designated DPA 4. The province has recently recognized that 10 metres is an insufficient distance to protect water and has required that local governments eventually adopt wider protection zones but this has not yet been enacted. Meanwhile Islands Trust Land Use Bylaw 355, Section 4.4, states that a developer can put houses within 15 metres of the “natural boundary” of the creek.
The owners have almost finished their application for subdivision approval –the file has been sent from local government to provincial government. There is an application to develop before local Islands Trust government that is on hold due to the agreement to purchase between the numbered company that owns the land and The Land Conservancy of B.C.
All ways of protecting this land were thoroughly investigated by contacting Islands Trust planning dept, Capital Regional District, Ministry Of Environment and Department of Fisheries and Oceans and we were given the clear message that buying Creekside Rainforest was the only way to protect it. No ministry can. The legal development of the land will mean the end of the creek as a productive salmon stream and as well as the end of this temperate rainforest.
What is a watershed?A watershed, in simple terms, is an area of land that drains into a water body or bodies. Everything that happens in a watershed has an impact on our lakes and streams. Cusheon Creek is in the lower Cusheon watershed connected to a chain of three lakes on Salt Spring Island.
What is a riparian area?A riparian area consists of the interface between land and water. Riparian land has direct influences on a creek or lake because such land slopes toward these water bodies. A natural riparian area has vegetation that protects these aquatic environments, shades water so it's cool enough for fish, contributes leaf litter, controls the speed of runoff, filters pollutants, prevents erosion, provides wildlife corridors and otherwise influences water quality. In addition, riparian land is especially biodiverse and supports many forms of life far beyond this buffer zone. The Cusheon Creek land we're hoping to protect is a green valley of mature second growth temperate rainforest fed by subsurface and surface streams that flow into this salmon-bearing creek.
How does an intact temperate rainforest help to stave off the impact of global warming?The main mechanism of global warming is that carbon dioxide (CO2) the key greenhouse gas emitted by cars, planes, power plants, factories, etc., builds up in the upper atmosphere where it traps heat and holds it around the earth's surface.
Trees are extremely important because they absorb and store carbon BEFORE it can reach the upper atmosphere as long as they live. Through photosynthesis, all plants absorb carbon dioxide. They extract and store the carbon in the form of sugar, starch and cellulose, and release the oxygen. Trees, as the largest plants in the world, are considered nature's most effective "carbon sinks." Trees also incorporate carbon into the soil.
In contrast, loss of trees (deforestation) contributes to global warming by releasing carbon back into the atmosphere due to rapid oxidation of soil organic matter. Although cut (or fallen) trees rot, releasing carbon slowly, burned wood (such as slash after logging) releases carbon quickly.
According to an article by Daniel Howden in The Independent (U.K. May 14 2007) entitled, Deforestation: The hidden cause of global warming, Carbon emissions from deforestation far outstrip damage caused by planes and automobiles and factories. Scientists say one day's deforestation [at current world rates] is equivalent to the carbon footprint of eight million people flying to New York. Howden quotes the Oxford-based Global Canopy Programme, pooling the expertise of many scientists, to say: "If we lose forests, we lose the fight against climate change."
Salt Spring Island's beautiful creekside temperate rainforest contains approximately 1,000 healthy mature trees within its damp, mossy ecosystem, including huge Red Cedars 100s of years old, Douglas Firs, Grand Firs, Large Leaf Maples and other carbon-storing trees and plants, all fed by strong natural springs and the waters of a salmon creek.
Red Cedars can live for over a thousand years during which time they sequester many tons of carbon.
If we work together, we can save both this forest and the important salmon stream within it, not just for ourselves, future generations, and the creatures who depend upon this environment, but for the health of our warming planet.
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Conservation AssessmentLearn why this land is so valuable.
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