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Local heroes, global lessons
Vancouver's Friends of False Creek is just one of many front-line environmental groups working at healing our nation's bruised ecology one small patch at a time
By: Tom Sandborn
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Before European contact, the waters and shorelines of False Creek were rich with marine, bird, and animal life. The arrival of 'civilization' didn't do the creek a lot of good. |
For the last two years, a hardy band of about thirty citizen volunteers has been working to restore the waters and marine life of Vancouver's False Creek.
Before European contact, False Creek was home to settlements of Squamish, Musqueam and Burrard First Nations. The waters and shorelines were rich with marine, bird and animal life. The arrival of "civilization" didn't do the Creek a lot of good.
Over the last century and a half, developers filled in the Creek's eastern shallows and built rail yards and warehouses. Sixteen sewer outfalls emptied into the diminished Creek, while sawmills and other industries laced the creek-bottom sediments with heavy metals and other poisons.
Vancouver's frequent rainfall flushes raw sewage into storm drains, leading the mess downhill to open water. Much of this sewage ends up in False Creek. Another problem is a small fleet of live-aboard pleasure craft that anchor in the shelter of the Creek, and dump their toilet tanks directly into its waters.
The despoiling of False Creek is, unfortunately, not an atypical tale. But the response by the Friends of False Creek may not that unusual either. Across Canada, similar groups are are at work every day defending and restoring our nation's bruised ecology one small patch at a time.
For the Friends of False Creek, that old environmental slogan about thinking globally and acting locally has meant rolling up their sleeves and getting their hands dirty--all in the service of trying to restore False Creek to some semblence of its former glory.
The Friends have organized regular creek clean up days, periodically tested the waters for fecal coliform at 18 separate stations on the Creek, and planted new pocket marshes of intertidal plants like marine grasses and bullrushes. They are currently monitoring the survival of their restored pocket marshes, and planning an experimental attempt to restore oyster beds to the Creek. (Oysters, which once thrived in False Creek, can filter pollution.)
If this kind of activity seems more rewarding to you than watching the world unravel on your TV screen, then I have a suggestion: find a similar group in your town, or form a new one. You can start by having a look at the list of contacts we've assembled below.
Tom Sandborn's first book, Joyride to Hell: Dispatches from the Automobile Century, will be published this Spring by Douglas and McIntyre's GrayStone Books imprint.
Get More/Do More
In Vancouver, the Friends of False Creek can be reached through Fred Mah at 604 879-5550 or Ray Straatsma at 604 873-9366.
For a comprehensive set of links to environmental organizations, visit the Canadian Environmental Network's website at www.cen.web.net.
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