Camping in a specific capacity

Dear Editor,

I agree with Don Shafer’s concluding message in his letter (Undercurrent, May 11) regarding a park at Cape Roger Curtis: “By building a shared vision, I’m confident that much of the toxicity and tension will be reduced, allowing us to take advantage of that time to come together as a community. I’m confident that if we can create that vision for Bowen, we can create a park that we can all be proud of”

A substantial number of Islanders have already signed a petition that calls for maintaining the existing Official Community Plan policy of no overnight camping, although it does not oppose having a park at CRC

While I agree with them that the scenario of 100 overnight public camp sites must be avoided, I did not sign the petition as the hard no position to all overnight camping precludes any alternative approach I believe there is an alternative, fitting approach that fills an important need and will be considered feasible by the majority of Islanders. It involves carefully formulating an OCP policy that only allows overnight group camping for educational and ecological groups, schools, scouts, etc.

The policy would carefully lay out the necessity for a detailed application process within a mandatory reservation system with specific requirements for group monitoring, group transportation modes, group drop off and pick up procedures, allowable number of campers, etc

Such a specifically detailed and managed policy that does not allow for any individual overnight campsites would significantly alleviate various problematic issues related to ferry service, island foot and vehicle traffic, fire safety, and other issues

As Edward Wachtman stated in a previous letter (Undercurrent, March 23), Bowen “sits in the Howe Sound UNESCO Biosphere Region” and “has a very distinctive and in some areas fragile ecosystem” The context of Bowen’s place within the UNESCO Biosphere Region and the distinctive character of its ecosystem also sets the tone for a monitored group camping policy that is specifically formulated for the ecological education of our younger generations

As Wachtman also states: “Let’s challenge Metro Vancouver Regional Parks to think big, bold, and differently This is their and our rare opportunity to do something innovative, leaving a legacy far more valuable than a mere ‘park’… and much more far reaching” .

I am convinced that such a detailed group camping policy for ecological learning purposes would provide that “innovative and valuable legacy” for our future generations - which is traditionally what happens on this resourceful island when we pull together with receptive organizations on important projects

I strongly encourage Islanders, our municipal council, and Metro Vancouver Regional Parks to work together on that course of action I believe that a policy allowing overnight group camping only in the context of an ecological learning experience is the much simpler, appropriate and manageable shared vision for the park that we need to pursue and that will avoid a sea of troubles for all parties - a “shared vision” , in Shafer’s words, from which “we can create a park that we can all be proud of”

- John Sbragia

ditional “big house” There is high demand for a similar resource in Squamish There was general interest and encouragement around the room

There was also agreement that issues surrounding day-trippers has not been examined closely enough A recent publication described how visitors to three regional parks had increased dramatically, with Crippen receiving 300,000 more visitors than previous years That data might be inflated if locals are included in the Cove counters, but still, it certainly feels like there has been a substantial increase and we are poorly prepared.

One macro suggestion for dealing with Metro is not to reject the rezoning application but defer it, in order to get more, much-needed, time for research and discussion. In particular, we need to identify the necessities for infrastructure before any consideration of camping. Deferral would allow time to build trust and co-operation in problem-solving

There seemed to be agreement at the meeting, that if Boweners could agree on a vision then we would be better able to negotiate what we would need for this development to benefit all of us and for more people to be interested in working on finding solutions The question then becomes how can we come to an agreed vision? It’s too late to get all or most of the present genie back into any bottle, nevertheless, what are our priorities? Again, fire and traffic dominated our discussion It was suggested that we consider the proposal for educational group camping in depth and possibly organize a workshop to share the idea.

The final topic related to our recent tax bills and a comparison of our garbage parcel tax compared to Quesnel’s. Discussion about similarities and differences followed, with a preference for the extra decal system so that low-volume users were not paying for high volume places, even though there were significant problems with that system

The meeting adjourned with a rhetorical question, left unanswered, about why our community generates so much garbage I’ve been told that moving days on Bowen could fill a large warehouse with perfectly good household items that are binned. More on that once we get past camping and fires By the way, I did not find time to bake and the wonderful treats were by Moe Makes!