IN THE PRESS

Campaign catalogues flora and fauna

It’s hard to save what you don’t know exists.

That’s why a group of scientists broke the Creekside rainforest’s usual stillness last week in an effort to list creatures and plants found on the eight-hectare (19-acre) property.

“I’ve already found 40 different types of mosses and lichens,” said Terry McIntosh, a biologist from the Vancouver area. “This area has a tremendous concentration of species.”

Up the trail, a gastropod specialist and member of the Salt Spring Island Conservancy was on the lookout for snails and slugs of all sizes and shapes.

“We’re finding all kinds of species here,” said Laura Matthias, pulling out a handful of abandoned snail shells from a small rucksack.

Each organism found on the forest floor, she said, is but one piece of what makes the property such a significant ecosystem.

While a damp winter morning may not be the best time to get a full appreciation of the area’s biodiversity, data is needed before the group’s fundraising drive wraps up at the end of the month.

By getting a better idea of the plants and animals found in the rare ecosystem comprising old growth cedars, lush sword ferns and enough biomass to keep the legion of specialists busy for years to come, organizers hope to lure funding from conservation organizations.

The campaign to raise $975,000 to protect the property from private development began in late 2007. According to the latest numbers, organizers have surpassed $600,000 in pledges with more fundraising events scheduled over the next few weeks.

And with media organizations from across the province starting to take notice, campaign organizer Maureen Moore is confident the target is within reach.

“This is one of the only natural areas left,” Moore said on the one-day biodiversity blitz undertaken on Wednesday Jan. 30.

Towering above the mosses, snails and salamanders, biologist Briony Penn points out several culturally modified cedar trees, the bark of which was used by the region’s First Nations people to create baskets and clothing more than 150 years ago.

The area, she said, offers people a chance to see what so much of the West Coast was like before wide-scale development began to occur in the early 20th century.

What’s more, the steep topography along Cusheon Creek helps create a moist environment more characteristic of Vancouver Island’s west coast.

“This is a rainforest in a rainshadow,” she said. “What we have here is a piece of the West Coast on the east.”

By staff

  With some $600,000 now pledged for the Creekside rainforest purchase, and 60 more days to work on collecting the rest, campaign organizers are feeling optimistic the land can be saved from development.

“Were in an all-out effort to obtain the entire amount needed to protect the rainforest forever,” said campaign coordinator Maureen Moore from Europe on Monday.

“The pledges are the foundation and if we can add funding from grants while keeping pledges coming in, we can do it,” she said.

The Land Conservancy of British Columbia (TLC) negotiated the two-month extension with landowner representative Eric Booth before the end of 2007.

Before Christmas, some $200,000 had been pledged towards the $975,000 purchase.

The two-month deadline extension now gives the campaign access to grants, said Moore, and a grant-writing committee is busy working on applications.

TLC is also organizing a special fundraising dinner on Salt Spring in February and has been instrumental in attracting substantial contributions.

According to campaign committee member Matt Tobey, more than 190 individuals and organizations from as far away as the Netherlands and Hawaii have made donations.

Weekend guided walks of the rainforest land have also resumed after a short holiday season break.

So far, well over 100 people have taken up the offer to learn about the rainforest property and the ecosystems it supports.

Those walks leave from the end of Creekside Drive on Saturdays at 10 a.m. and Sundays at 1 p.m.

To ensure the fundraising goal is met, more volunteers are needed to join the acquisition committee.

An organizational meeting takes place on Wednesday, January 16 at 7 p.m. at the Institute for Sustainability, Education and Action office in Ganges, across from the Visitor Info Centre.

“All are welcome,” said Tobey. “We need new volunteers and new ideas for our final fundraising push.”

By staff

Unfortunately for Creekside Rainforest Appeal campaigners, the object of their desire doesn’t have the visibility of a Mount Erskine or the threat caused by logging trucks running around it like the Texada lands did several years ago.

And it’s only 19.46 acres, not the 100 acres of Erskine or the thousands owned by the Texada Land Corporation.

But it’s still a rare piece of endangered ecosystem and a beautiful sanctuary for plants, animals, spawning salmon and humans on this island.

Sure, a million bucks is a big schwack of money, but it’s starting to sound not so outrageous for any substantial chunk of the Gulf Islands and the associated transfer costs.

And the only sure way to protect green space on Salt Spring is to buy it at the asking price, or covenant it. Salt Spring Island is a long way from build-out. Even if future local Trust committees never allowed another rezoning on the island, lands will be sold, subdivided and houses will be built on them as long as there’s profit to be made and people want to live here.

In the case of the Creekside parcel, its owners plan to subdivide the property into three acreages, says their representative Eric Booth. If the purchase deal negotiated by The Land Conservancy of B.C. (TLC) falls through, “the owners intend to proceed with their plans early in the new year,” says Booth.

While people can be assured TLC would not have gotten involved if its board did not feel the land was worth saving, they should see it for themselves. Guided walks run the next two Saturdays at 10 a.m. and on Sundays at 1 p.m.

Fundraisers have used special events like the Art for the Rainforest exhibit and silent auction on at ArtSpring until December 21 to raise funds and awareness of the campaign, but this effort now needs big money — the kind that ends with the land becoming a park bearing a major donor’s name.

If there’s individuals or families out there who’d like to make the ultimate and most permanent kind of investment in Salt Spring Island, now is the time to contact the campaign. Its website is www.savesaltspringrainforest.net.

It’s also the right time of year for a miracle.

By chris stephenson and gail sjuberg

The Save Salt Spring Rainforest Appeal is gaining momentum, with its sights set on achieving the $1-million mark by the end of the year.

Campaign coordinator Maureen Moore said her organization has raised almost $200,000 for the 19-5-acre Cusheon Creek property so far, thanks to generous support from islanders.

I'm getting a fantastic response from the community, she said. More and more people are joining the campaign every day.

The campaign is now running in high gear as it tries to beat the clock. The first December fundraiser is the Reading for the Rainforest event at ArtSpring on Friday, December 7. A lush-as-a- rainforest writers list includes Arthur Black, Chris Smart, Kathy Page, Mona Fertig, Peter Levitt, Murray Reiss, Shirley Graham, Sandi Johnson, Derek Lundy, Kelsey Mech, Elizabeth Woods, Briony Penn, Nadine Shelley, Pat Barclay and Brian Brett, all reading from work with some connection to the natural world. Tickets cost $10 for adults and $5 for youth. Offered as a door prize is a copy of Alice Walker: A Life, by Evelyn White, which will be personally dedicated by the author. The reading begins at 7 p.m., but doors open at 6:30 with live slide guitar music from Donn Tarris and a slide show of the Creekside property.

Another benefit set for ArtSpring is an art show and silent auction running from December 15 to 21. Award-winning photographers Steven Friedman, Birgit Bateman and Janet Dwyer are among a throng of donating artists, and items as diverse as a gourmet feast, firewood and book art can be purchased to benefit the cause. The exhibit will also feature artwork created by children after they've had a tour through the rainforest property.

The opening event is on Saturday, December 15 from 3-6 p.m. The rainforest campaign is now offering guided walks through the lot every weekend for residents wanting to learn more about the areas diverse ecosystem. Walks take place every Saturday in December at 10 a.m., and at 1 p.m. each Sunday.

We feel it's important that the public get a chance to see this amazing forest in order to fully appreciate its ecological value and beauty, said campaign team member Matt Tobey. Meet at 107 Hillview Drive, uphill from Beddis Beach and just off Creekside Drive.

Moore urges people to experience the property for themselves to see why it should be saved.

This is a key riparian area sheltering Salt Spring Islandӳ second largest salmon-bearing stream, she said. It's vibrant with life, supporting Blue-listed and threatened species such as red-legged frogs, rough-skinned newts, flickers, kingfishers, pileated woodpeckers, varied thrushes, sapsuckers, winter wrens, owls, bats, red squirrels, and other creatures and plants.

If the property is subdivided and developed for residential use, which is what will occur if it's not purchased through the campaign, the land will never recover, she said.

The Save Salt Spring Rainforest Appeal is supported by The Land Conservancy of B.C., Salt Spring Island Conservancy, Island Stream and Salmon Enhancement Society, Friends of Salt Spring Parks and the Salt Spring Water Council.

For more information on the campaign, contact Moore at 538-1732 or visit www.savesaltspringrainforest.com.

Pledge forms are available on the website, at the Salt Spring Island Conservancy office, Salt Spring Books and Patterson Market, with brochures in various bookstores and cafes.

There is a creek on this island that trickles (cascades in the rainy season) out of the nether end of Cusheon Lake and meanders down to the Pacific a few crooked miles below.

It is Cusheon Creek and over the last few eons that never-ending trickle/cascade has worn a cavernous, vaulting fertile groove through Salt Spring's sedimentary flanks. A groove that teems with giant mossy firs and ancient, moody cedars, broadleaf ferns, huckleberry bushes, mushrooms, big leaf maples. Hell, I'm no botanist I couldn't name half the flora that flourishes along Cusheon Creek. I only know it's a wonderland of more greens and grays and browns than I knew existed. Walk Cusheon Creek and you get Emily Carr.

Nor could I name a tenth of the fauna that lives there. There are of course, the usual resident deer, ravens, raccoons and slugs. But also otters, salamanders, mink, pileated woodpeckers and at least one resident barred owl.

And every fall, like clockwork, you can watch bruised and battered coho impossibly humping their way from sea to spawning grounds up cataracts and around deadfalls.

Cusheon Creek is less than six miles from the bright lights of Ganges, yet it is just about as pristine as land gets on Salt Spring. Aside from a couple of rural, crossing driveways and the culvert it passes through under Stewart Road, Cusheon Creek looks about the way it did before the weird ships with the white sails appeared on the horizon.

But you'll have to take my word for that, because right now the access trails that Salt Springers have used for generations to walk along Cusheon Creek have two-by-four barricades nailed across them with NO TRESPASSING signs plastered about.

This is the tiny, fragile wonderland that the Creekside Rainforest Appeal hopes to save from development and it's doable.

They have support from The Land Conservancy of B.C., this province's largest preservation group. The TLC is working on funding, but it won't happen without back-up and commitment from Salt Springers. Can we do it? We've already raised $200,000 in pledges.

In my opinion this is one of the better Salt Spring bandwagons to jump on. It goes to the heart of what our island is all about. You'll find CREEKSIDE RAINFOREST APPEAL pledge forms at stores and cafes all over the island. You can also visit the website at www.savesaltspringrainforest.com. You'll even get a charitable receipt from The Land Conservancy of B.C.

I hope you'll support the Creekside Rainforest Appeal because when we get to take down those two-by-fours with their NO TRESPASSING signs, you won't believe what we nearly lost.

The writer is an acclaimed author, newspaper columnist and former CBC radio show host who lives on Salt Spring Island.

Gulf Islands Driftwood, Tuesday, November 13, 2007

By sean mcintyre

An agreement to purchase the 19.5-acre Creekside rainforest lot was signed on Friday, and the Salt Spring Island Conservancy wasted no time lending the campaign support to the tune of $25,000.

He think it's fine land and a great potential acquisition, said conservancy president Bob Weeden on Monday after the conservancy board made its decision. The big trees certainly stand out, but all of it has great potential for conservation.ԍ

On Friday, November 9, The Land Conservancy of British Columbia announced it had reached an agreement to purchase the environmentally sensitive property for $975,000. Funds must be in place by December 31.

During the Texada logging dispute, Salt Spring was able to pull off a miracle and we can do it again, said Maureen Moore, the campaign coordinator. We plan to host as many events as we can organize.

With nearly $200,000 already pledged or in hand, Moore said she is hopeful Salt Springer generosity will help raise the funds needed to preserve a rare piece of coastal temperate rainforest by the end of the year.

We have to take the long view. The numbers sound overwhelming, but in 100 years, the price will seem small, she said. Imagine how precious this forest and the salmon stream will be to Salt Spring Island in the future. Preserving the property, Moore added, is important for saving the biologically diverse array of plants, animals, birds and fish that depend upon Cusheon Creek.

If the land is subdivided and developed for residential use, the significance of the stream and the valley as a wildlife corridor will be compromised or even destroyed, she said.

Bill Turner, executive director of The Land Conservancy of British Columbia, said he and his organization have spent roughly two months negotiating a price with Salt Spring's Eric Booth, a representative for the numbered company listed as the propertys registered owner. He thinks the price is right, she said. you can't force someone to sell their land.

Efforts by Moore and others involved with the Creekside campaign are an inspiration to community-based conservation projects everywhere, Turner said.

There is a huge amount of interest already shown in the community,she said.

The support received has been an absolute inspiration.

Turner said TLC clout as a provincially recognized non-profit association will help garner the interest of foundations and corporations across the province. all be working mainly on that end of things, she said.

Cusheon Creek Land Is Priceless

By MAUREEN MOORE

The August 29 Driftwood featured a piece with the heading Why should we pay for Creekside land? by Kimberly Lineger.

She was referring to forested Cusheon Creek land that's the focus of a recent campaign to protect this special place from subdivision and development.

As Kimberly said in her article, and I agree, the only way we can preserve and protect public spaces is if we are prepared to pay for them. We either pay for sensitive land by allowing development proposals that involve amenity zoning that results in additional development in other neighbourhoods and other land or we dig deep and save land outright with no strings attached.

Now the latter option is on the table.

Here are the reasons to save this endangered land. It's the last available piece of temperate rainforest in a riparian (waterside) area along the second largest salmon-bearing stream on Salt Spring Island. Over 50 percent of the temperate rainforests of coastal B.C. have already been destroyed. The large, mossy trees that stand in this damp forest owe their size to strong, surface springs, the creek itself and plentiful subsurface waters that drench the sandy, fragile soil.

It's a key riparian area that supports Blue-listed (i.e. vulnerable, very sensitive to human activities/habitat loss) threatened, red-legged frogs, rough-skinned newts, flickers, kingfishers, pileated woodpeckers, varied thrushes, sapsuckers, winter wrens, owls, bats, Douglas squirrels, and other creatures and plants. In addition, riparian areas and the water within them support life far beyond their borders. Fully 80 per cent of land animals including birds are dependent on riparian areas for survival. As for the fish in the creek, a healthy riparian area is a matter of life and death for them.

The salmon themselves would be at severe risk if the trees that now shade its water, filter runoff and hold earth together with the force of rebar were removed. Coho do not just pass through the creek. The newly-hatched fingerlings stay in its clear, cool water for almost a year feeding and growing until they are able to begin their saltwater life. If the creek's water temperature rises due to loss of deep shade, they die.

In its current state, this land that is part of a wildlife corridor of streams connecting three lakes to the sea, offers an outdoor classroom for our children and grandchildren to learn about salmon, the temperate riparian rainforest that nurtures salmon, the precious gift of water, and the link between freshwater and the ocean.

That's the answer to, Why should we buy this land?

An update. Since the campaign started, over $40 thousand has been pledged. These pledges will be called in only if we are successful in acquiring the land at a reasonable price. The Land Conservancy of B.C. (TLC), a large, charitable land trust, is actively negotiating with the owners agent. If a fair deal can be worked out, pledges will be called in. When they are honoured, TLC will issue charitable tax receipts and this land will be covenanted and protected forever.

Pledge forms and brochures are available in Ganges and Fulford: Salt Spring Books, Natureworks, Watermark Books, Volume 2, Patterson's Market, Rock Salt and Morningside Bakery. There are also pledge forms and more information online at: www.savesaltspringrainforest.com.

Thank you Salt Spring for all the generous support, kind messages and for cherishing future generations!

The writer is part of the Save Salt Spring Rainforest Appeal.

A local author is trying to sway island residents to pitch in and help preserve one of Salt Springӳ most environmentally pristine areas before it is subdivided and sold off.

Maureen Moore estimates the 7.5 hectares (19 acres) of Douglas fir and cedar trees nestled along the banks of Cusheon Creek may be worth roughly $600,000, but says the land possess an environmental value beyond any monetary cost.

This green valley moss-festooned rainforest is stunningly beautiful on an island where land is being destroyed bit by bit, Moore writes in a pamphlet distributed to retailers, politicians and community organizations. Our children and grandchildren need and deserve to inherit beauty and mature trees that absorb carbon dioxide and support life. We want to buy, covenant and preserve this land forever."

The push to save the Creekside Drive property comes after the owners submitted an application to subdivide the property into four lots. Moore said she has received ԥncouraging support from various levels of government and organizations, though none have yet to step up with a financial commitment.

She is working towards securing an agreement with The Land Conservancy (TLC) in hopes the B.C.-based group would provide up to 25 per cent of the funds required.

In 2005, the Salt Spring Island Conservancy helped mobilize community support to help raise a portion of the $625,000 required to purchase a portion of Mount Erskine, ensuring existing hiking trails and access to the peak remain available to the public in perpetuity.

Moore hopes for a similar public response once people realize the Cusheon Creek watershed's ecological significance as well as the areas potential to host environmental stewardship programs.

I think it's well worth the effort to save this land,Ԡsaid Moore. There's a lot of action in that area and it used to be considered undevelopable but since development pressure is so great, even land that is hard to develop is getting developed.

According to realtor Eric Booth, the single lot was taken off the market last month after the owner, a numbered company based in Duncan, submitted an application to subdivide the land into four lots for private sale. Booth said the propertys owners have agreed to hold off in order to give Moore time to develop an offer.

The owners are prepared to entertain an offer and are minimizing any disturbance of the land, Booth said during an interview last week. If it doesn't get purchased by the community or a conservation group, it will be subdivided, she added.

The owners have not indicated they have any plans to log the area, he said, adding that signs posted to several older trees are part of riparian assessment.

The lot made headlines last year as part of a land-use proposal that would have seen the creation of more than 55 acres of parkland near the mouth of Cusheon Creek in exchange for the right to construct 21 homes higher up the valley below Stewart Road.

The proposal was unanimously rejected by the Salt Spring Island Local Trust Committee.

For more information on the Creekside Campaign, contact Maureen Moore at 538-1732 or via email at m@gulfislands.com