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January 2019
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CONTENTS
Creative Director Aaron Orlando The Revelstoke Mountaineer Magazine is a free monthly publication featuring the best of Revelstoke outdoor life, food, style, visitor experiences, lifestyles, entertainment, home style, and healthy living. Each month we distribute 3,000 free copies to over 200 public venues across Revelstoke, including accommodations, shops, restaurants, cafes, community centres, bars, and everywhere people meet. We are an independent, locally owned publication dedicated to showcasing our amazing mountain town and the great people who create the stoke. For more information, including details on our very affordable advertising rates, please contact us:
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On the cover
18 Passive building
Revelstoke graphic artist Pau- line Hunt
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A splitboarder’s journey
Our preview of January’s Ca- nuck Splitfest
A new commercial construc- Local businesses earn the tion project leads the way on rewards of taking a green reduced greenhouse gas emis- approach sions
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News briefs
Cannabis retail and caribou fines
10 January events calendar
Find out what’s happening around town
13 The Green Issue
www.revelstokemountaineer.com on the advertising tab.
Our special issue focusing on Revelstoke environmental topics
250-814-8710 info@revelstokemountaineer.com
14 A tiny home community for Revelstoke?
PO BOX 112, 606 Railway Avenue, Revelstoke, B.C. V0E 2S0
A young developer envisions a tiny home community, but faces many challenges
16 Dumpster diving chal lenge
How midnight dumpster raids helped lead to a Revelstoke food recovery program
28 Green business pays off
20 Living waste free
What does it take to live with out garbage?
22 Sustainable Living Expo
Our guide to an upcoming sustainable living expo Bringing green practices to the mountain lifestyle
What climate change will mean for the mountain life style
Sometimes climate change can be overwhelming, but there’s hope in controlling what you can
Longtime residents reflect on winter climate changes over their lifetime
32 Can food be our salva- tion?
Plans for a tool library for Revelstoke
27 Revelstoke’s changing winters
Finding solace in the green sensibilities of Revelstoke kids
34 Tooled up
26 The snows of winters past
24 Protect Our Winters
30 Children provide hope
36 The next steps
What Revelstoke needs to do to be a Bear Smart community
37 Lost creeks
How Revelstoke can daylight our lost creeks for an ecologi cal win
38 Organic benefits
The benefits of eating organic may be broader than you think
Contributors COVER PHOTO Graphic artist Pauline Hunt’s mandala-inspired collage Ski Mandala. For more on Revelstoke artist Pauline Hunt, see our ‘On the cover’ feature on page 5.
Aaron Orlando
Alex Cooper
Jenna Fraser
Maggie Spizzirri
Fraser Blyth
Heather Hood
Melissa Hemphill
Pauline Hunt
Shannon MacLean
Sarah Newton
Kate Borucz
Abby Cooper
Louise Stanway
Claudia Bambi
Creative Director
Melissa Jameson
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On the cover
ON THE COVER Graphic artist Pauline Hunt’s mandala meditations
Left: Digital collage Begbie Triangles by Pauline Hunt. Bottom left: Digital graphic artist Pauline Hunt at work at her home studio. Below: Troubled Waters overlays projected future sea level rise on the New York skyline, and questions what may become of our civilization in the future.
By Aaron Orlando
“We started in Spandex — no pads, no full-face helmets, two-inch travel on the front and back,” says Pauline Hunt, the cover artist for the January issue of Revelstoke Mountaineer Magazine, as she recalls her downhill mountain bike racing career in the 1990s. Hunt travelled the world to race, and was crowned the provincial downhill champ in 1996, when she won the B.C. Cup. The call of the mountains, specifically mountain biking and backcountry skiing, drew Hunt to B.C. from Ontario in the 1990s, after she completed a graphic design degree at college. Since then, she’s balanced a career as a graphic and web designer with artistic and mountain pursuits, often blending the two. She was the art director at Ski Freak Radical, a short-lived magazine that was (arguably) the precursor to Kootenay Mountain Culture Magazine, where she worked under the nom de plume Design Queen Spleen. In print, she went on to help with early iterations of Reved Quarterly and was the editor of the Forest Workers’ Voice, a newsletter focusing on Revelstoke’s forestry workers. Through it all, she’s maintained a career as a web designer and graphic artist; she currently manages numerous local websites for clients, for whom she does both graphic design and web work. Hunt’s artistic output has included many formats, such as acrylic paintings, watercolours, and a wide variety of digital creations. Hunt was diagnosed with ALS about a decade ago; the loss of fine motor skills has led her to focus on digital creations. Or as she puts it, “I can still run a mouse fine.”
Of late, her creations often remix photography and graphic elements into a collage composite. “It’s like digital pop art meets painting. There’s a hand-drawn element – curves and free-flowing lines meeting with the bold colours and vibrant backgrounds,” Hunt said. A trip to Tibet in 2010 exposed her firsthand to the ancient yet living practice of mandala creation, and many of her recent works have been a meditation on the mandala theme. “What I like about creating them is there is a bit of mathematics involved,” she said. Variations in the viewers’ distance and perspective change their experience with the creation, evoking multiple experiences from the same work. “When you get close, you see so many things – you’re hiding things for people to explore.” Her recent collage works have explored environmental themes, particularly the planet’s looming
climate change disaster. While reading a story about projected sea level rise, she was struck by how much will be lost, including many major coastal cities. “When I saw that, I was taken aback by the amount of the earth we’ll lose and how catastrophic it will be.” In response, she created a collage Troubled Waters, which juxtaposes the New York skyline with projected future water levels, and inserted visual editorial content on the real possibility of civilization collapse. Her work is a call to action. “I think people need to wake up, and we need some radical change.” Pauline Hunt often displays her work at Revelstoke Visual Arts Centre exhibits, and was a featured artist at the 2018 Shambhala festival. You can see her latest creations online at www. huntadventures.ca, and access her web and design services through her company Spark Solutions Ltd. Find her on Instagram at: @artistpaulinehunt.
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CANUCK SPLITFEST
My splitboard journey Words and photos by Abby Cooper I wake my splitboard from its summer hibernation and cannot fight the wave of nostalgia. Who would have imagined the power a couple of boards with metal edges could make on one’s life? My first backcountry experience is etched into my memory. I was an awkward snowboarding-obsessed 13-yearold girl taking my first avalanche class. It was -23 degrees Celsius. I sat on my pack, eating my sandwich. I looked at my bag of frozen baby carrots; my toes felt like the carrots. I thought of my friends snowboarding at Sunshine Village and felt a bit jealous. With snowshoes stuck to my feet, I learned about the terrifying power of avalanches. It wasn’t exactly what most girls this age would classify as a fun weekend. How did I get here? My big-hearted older brother bought me my first snowboard when I was in elementary school. Despite being older and much cooler than I, he always made it a priority to spend a few weekends a season snowboarding with me — the highlight was chasing him through the powder. He gave me a gift certificate to take an avalanche safety class with him for Christmas one year. I was thrilled — it was the gift of powder face shots. Fast-forward to frozen toes and a serious case of FOMO, I was experiencing my 6
first proper backcountry gig along with my first case of type-two fun. With time, I’d realize they were often one in the same, and I loved them both. My high school years were spent bootpacking every inch of the backcountry accessed off of Sunshine Village and Lake Louise. I knew the terrain better than I knew any named runs. Always a competitive person, I challenged myself
to bootpack as efficiently as men triple my age with legs twice as long as mine. A short snowshoe phase followed, but didn’t last long – my bootpacking skills were too refined to welcome the clumsy feeling of slow-shoes. I had a regular crew that I’d ride with, but I often found myself tagging along with the dad crew because they too had avalanche gear and loved the backcountry.
During university I spent the majority of my time at Grand Targhee Resort in Wyoming. A patrol snowboarder had a splitboard and we often found ourselves lapping midweek powder together. Enticed by the freedom and the efficiency a splitboard seemed to offer, I gifted myself one for a graduation present, and committed to a whole new life. Up until this point, I had been working as a photographer while in university, specializing in ski resort photography (and weddings in the summer months). Now the resorts and their bootpacking boundaries would no longer contain me. Hello splitboarding Excited and a little bit overconfident, I embarked on my first splitboard mission. It included faceplants, ski tripping, gear slamming, struggles galore, and skins stuck to everything but my snowboard. Cute. Determined to glide and transition with ease, I made friends with a cross-country skier named Wendy. I chased her up, down, and all over the ungroomed forest service roads of Northwest Montana for a month straight. She made me fast. I began to push further, building confidence in my abilities over time and formally gained more avalanche safety knowledge. It’s a big transition from resort-accessed
backcountry to big multi-day traverses with camera gear, but each outing was a building block for my foundation. The fundamentals of moving through backcountry terrain were ingrained in me while doing photography at a CAT-ski operation. SheJumps Alpine Finishing School hosted by Selkirk Lodge taught me mountaineering skills. Patient friends taught me transition hacks and skin setting skills. I didn’t have a mentor; I had an army of friends and experiences that shaped my journey. Some touring partners and experiences needed no repeats, while others have been a steady part of my life for years. Both have been instrumental in defining my splitboarding journey. The growth of my sport was simultaneous with my photography career. If I could split there, I would bring my camera. Soon I was receiving backcountry assignments and photoshoots that were dependent on my backcountry skill set. Personal and work splitboard trips had no distinction. I promised myself to never go a season without furthering my backcountry education. Any type of skiing or snowboarding is most rewarding when there is progression. To safely pursue the unseen, I had to match my backcountry knowledge with my skills and career goals. It is a delicate balance I constantly reassess, and I will never tire of trying to reach.
CANUCK SPLITFEST
Still. Always. Splitboarding. Each trip offers a new perspective and teaches me something about the mountains and myself. It will always feel like the first time. The first time I tried to cut my skins and got scared so took them to a ski shop. The first time I lost a split-ski crampon down a bulletproof slope. The first time I took my dog touring and he loved the face shots as much as I did. My first first-ascent. The first-time sharing my newfound love of splitboarding. The first light every time. Splitboarding is addictive because it’s always changing. You are changing. Your skills are growing. You’re seeing new things. You’re feeling new things. It’s a journey without an end; every experience is a new chapter building on the next. A journey I hope I’m smack-dab in the middle of with no end in sight. No end in learning, no end in experiencing, and no end to craving another journey. Splitfest Let’s be honest: if you’re a fan of the mountains you probably preach it like religion. The same is true for splitboarders – we’re obsessed. A few times a year in select mountainous regions, we collect to talk shop and get out there together. This year Revelstoke’s Canuck Splitfest will be January 11–13, 2019. Regardless of where you fall on the spectrum, from splitboard-curious to seasoned professional, you’ll find something for everyone here. Most importantly you’ll find a community. Abby Cooper will be speaking January 12, 2019 at the Revelstoke Community Centre about the risk, reward, and growth from working and playing in the backcountry. Join her and other professional splitboarders for an inspirational evening.
Clockwise from above: Abby Cooper breaking trail with a smile, while teaching the splitboarding ropes to pal Tyler Ravelle. Photo: Kris Harris. Abby Cooper getting ready to split her board and skin up for another lap of earned powder. Taylor Pfaff, a fellow splitboarder sneaking in a tight waterfall line — oh the places these boards can take you. Photo credit: Abby Cooper
Canuck Splitfest event details All Day; January 11–12 The Canuck Splitfest returns to celebrate the sport of splitboarding. Highlights include an open house with food, beer, and music at Trapper Snowboards in the Big Eddy from 5–10 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 11. The main tradeshow, featuring manufacturers, guest speakers, free demos, raffles, prizes and more starts at 4:30 p.m. at the Revelstoke Community Centre on Saturday, Jan. 12. Of course, the main attraction is the tribal gathering to get out for a rip in the backcountry with friends, which happens all day long, all winter in Revy. For more info visit canucksplitfest.com.
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NEWS BRIEFS
Starbuds applies for cannabis retail location in downtown Revelstoke City of Revelstoke considers its first retail cannabis application; CSRD introduces procedures for production and sales in the region. Well-known cannabis brand Starbuds could soon be a fixture in Revelstoke. At its Dec. 11, 2018 meeting, Revelstoke city council unanimously supported a staff recommendation to support an application for the brand to open up a retail location at 109 Connaught Avenue. Under B.C. cannabis retail rules applicants first apply to the provincial Liquor and Cannabis Regulation Branch (LCRB), which then sends a referral request to the municipal government. A positive referral from the municipal government is required before the application heads back to the LCRB for the next steps. While Starbuds received a positive
referral from council, not everyone appears to be on board with the application. Kurtis Koehler of the Revelstoke Glass and Vape shop asked council at the Dec. 11 meeting to consider holding off on making a decision about Starbuds. Koehler said he has also filed an application with the LCRB and is currently waiting for a referral to council. Koehler’s predicament is based on Revelstoke’s 100-metre exclusion zone between cannabis retailers. Should Starbuds’ application be successful, Revelstoke Glass and Vape Shop would not be able to offer cannabis sales. Starbuds’ application still has more steps to complete through the LCRB before it
The provincial government isn’t putting a timeline on the next steps to get a cannabis retailer approved in Revelstoke. can be approved, with final authorization resting with the government body.
Columbia Shuswap Regional District implements procedures for cannabis production and sales applications The CSRD has announced application procedures for sales and production of cannabis in the region. The procedures, which will operate in conjunction with the Cannabis-Related Business Policy, apply to areas of the CSRD located outside municipal boundaries, First Nations
Reserves and National Parks. The procedures establish steps to follow when responding to referrals from individuals who want to operate a retail cannabis business or are looking to develop a facility to grow or process cannabis. The process of issuing licenses for cannabis production and retail sales will remain under the authority of the LCRB on retail applications and Health Canada on production facility applications, however the CSRD will be able to provide recommendations. The CSRD said in an announcement that applications will be considered on a site-by-site basis.
The Winter Permit System Permis d’accès hivernal
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Planning to ski Rogers Pass?
Vous comptez skier au col Rogers?
The Winter Permit System is in effect between November and March annually. Learn it. Get your permit.
Le Permis d’accès hivernal est en vigueur entre novembre et mars de chaque année. Apprenez-en le fonctionnement. Obtenez votre permis.
In Rogers Pass, artillery is used to fire explosives and trigger avalanches for the highway avalanche control program. Before you go:
Dans le col Rogers, le programme de déclenchement préventif d’avalanches pour la Transcanadienne est axé sur des tirs d’artillerie. Avant de partir :
• Learn how the system works at pc.gc.ca/skirogerspass • Check daily to know what areas are open or closed before you park, ski or ride • Get your winter permit and national park pass at the Rogers Pass Discovery Centre • Look after your own safety. Have the skills and equipment to travel in avalanche terrain.
• Apprenez le fonctionnement du système : pc.gc.ca/skicolrogers • Chaque jour, tenez-vous au courant d’où vous pouvez vous stationner et faire du ski ou de la planche à neige • Obtenez votre permis d’accès hivernal et votre laissez-passer de parc national au Centre de la découverte du Col-Rogers • Possédez les compétences et l’équipement nécessaire pour voyager dans le terrain avalancheux
Learn more at pc.gc.ca/skirogerspass
Pour en savoir plus, consultez pc.gc.ca/skicolrogers
Transporting a mountain caribou as part of the Revelstoke Caribou Rearing in the Wild program. Photo: Rob Buchanan
HearingLife Clinic Staff Help Revelstoke Community Hear Better
B.C. government increases fines for off-road vehicles in protected mountain caribou closures BC Snowmobile Federation supports the increase, but says the focus on sledders is nothing more than a deflection The BC Snowmobile Federation says it supports the provincial government’s recent decision to increase fines for infractions against unlawful use of off-road vehicles and snowmobiles in protected habitat, including mountain caribou closure areas. The Ministry of Environment and Climate Change announced in early December that fines for anyone operating an off-road vehicle in sensitive habitats, including all BC Parks and southern mountain caribou habitats, would increase to $575. Previously the fine amounts were either $230 or $345 depending on the violation. The ministry also stated that court convictions for snowmobiling in southern mountain caribou habitats could result in fines of up to $200,000 and six months imprisonment. A public post on the BC Snowmobile Federation’s Facebook page dated December 4 states the organization does not support any form of non-compliance by the snowmobile community. However, the BCSF notes the $200,000 maximum fine and six months imprisonment is not new and already existed under the Wildlife Act.
BCSF, provincial government disagree on many points, but do agree on the need for science-based approaches The continuing decline of southern mountain caribou is central to the government’s decision to increase fines for
non-compliance. Caribou are considered a species at risk and currently a key component of the provincial caribou recovery program is focused on reducing the effect of winter backcountry recreation, which the government says has potential to damage caribou habitat. The BCSF disagrees, saying the provincial government’s continuous approach of painting the snowmobile community as the key catalyst behind decline in caribou numbers is nothing more than deflection to takeaway from what they say is evidence that the 2007 closure of 2.7 million hectares to industry and recreation has not resulted in improvements to herd counts. The BCSF further states that the majority of caribou mortality happens during summer months and the 20% mortality rate that does occur during winter months does not take place in snowmobile areas, but rather in low elevation corridors where predators are present. Despite the differences both the government and the BCSF appear to agree a science-based approach is needed in order to solve the decline in southern caribou populations. The provincial government has set aside $27 million over three years to establish the Provincial Caribou Recovery Program. Currently, the government is in the process of consulting with stakeholders regarding possible closures in the northeast portion of the province. While the BCSF stated it had not been made aware of any snowmobile clubs being asked to participate in consultations, the organization said it was hopeful the government would look at science and review previous efforts in considering next steps.
amazing to see the positive impact that hearing aids can have on a person’s life!”
Dameion Notte Registered Hearing Instrument Practitioner
You may have already seen the Revelstoke HearingLife (formerly Canadian Hearing Care,) clinic staff around town. Hearing Instrument Practitioner Dameion Notte and Client Service Administrator Abbey Renaud have been servicing the Revelstoke community for years. Dameion and Abbey both wanted careers that they could grow with and help people in. They found that in the hearing healthcare industry. “Seeing people hear better as well as seeing the reaction of their family members when they can hear is most rewarding for me,” says Dameion. “The thing I find most rewarding is when a client comes in stressed out about a hearing or hearing aid related issue and seeing their face light up when we help them solve the problem,” adds Abbey. “It’s truly
HearingLife has a hearing healthcare clinic at 305 1st Street West that is open Monday to Friday from 8:30am to 4:30pm. The HearingLife staff provide hearing evaluations, hearing aid services, and custom hearing protection to Revelstoke residents, but the appreciation that these hearing experts have for the Revelstoke community goes beyond business. Dameion loves the familiarity of the town and Abbey was born and raised here. “I love the small town feel and the ability to walk down the street and wave to everyone,” says Dameion. “I love how I know almost every person in the grocery store, or walking down the street. Most of the time, clients stop me to ask a question about their hearing aids, or to tell me a story about my Dad when he was younger. I like how connected everybody is.” As a Client Service Administrator, Abbey cleans and repairs hearing aids, books appointments, and answers client questions. If you are interested in booking a free hearing appointment with Dameion at the Revelstoke HearingLife clinic, please call Abbey at 1-888-542-1170. Formerly
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ENTERTAINMENT VISIT REVELSTOKEMOUNTAINEER.COM/CALENDAR FOR MORE DETAILS AND TO SUBMIT YOUR OWN EVENT FOR FREE FOR INCLUSION ONLINE AND IN OUR MONTHLY PRINT CALENDAR. *Please check the event on the day as details may change*
WEEKLY EVENTS MONDAY Soup and a Smile @ Revelstoke United Church 11:30 a.m.–1 p.m. Enjoy soup and a sandwich each week at the Revelstoke United Church. Cost is by donation or free for those who cannot afford to pay.
WEDNESDAY Free meditation @ Balu Yoga 7:30 a.m. Guided meditation using the practice using the practice known as Sadhana. No experience necessary and all are welcome.
THURSDAY Revelstoke Winter Farmers Market @ Revelstoke Community Centre 12 p.m.–5p.m. The Winter Farmers Market brings together farm and craft vendors from Revelstoke and beyond. The market takes place every second Thursday.
FRIDAY Drop-in curling @ Revelstoke Forum
The Freeride Open returns to Revelstoke in January.
7 p.m. Give curling a try in a non competitive environment. Cost is $5 and includes instruction and equipment use. Bring clean running shoes to wear on the ice.
EVENTS FRIDAY, JANUARY 4 Revelstoke Grizzlies @ Revelstoke Forum 7 p.m. Catch the Revelstoke Grizzlies as they take on the Osoyoos Coyotes. Tickets are $11/adults, $9 students/seniors, $6 children.
SATURDAY, JANUARY 5
M OV I ES IN T H E M OU NTAINS Revelstoke Performing Arts Centre 1007 Vernon Avenue PRESENTED BY
The best multicultural films and short films from the Toronto International Film Festival in cinema-quality surround sound.
TICKETS
$8
MONDAY, JANUARY 7 Freeride Open 2 @ Revelstoke Mountain Resort 8:30 p.m. A freeride event showcasing up and coming talent in skiing and snowboarding. Athletes compete on Separate Reality. Event qualifier on Jan. 7, finals on Jan. 8. Small Town Artillery & Year Of The Wolf @ Last Drop Pub 7 p.m.
Small Town Artillery and Year Of The Wolf perform rock ‘n’ roll music at the Last Drop Pub.
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 9 CREDtalks @ Revelstoke Library 12p.m.–1p.m. CREDtalks (Columbia Region Ecological Discussions) include speakers addressing a diversity of topics such as science communication, active ecological management, citizen science, research skills and techniques and the influences that our natural environment has on art and culture.
THURSDAY, JANUARY 10 Freeride World Qualifier @ Revelstoke Mountain Resort
Colette - Wed Jan 30, 2019 7:30pm Director Wash Westmoreland Country USA/UK/ HUNGARY
Language English Rating R Short Film Blind Vaysha
Three Identical Strangers - Wed Feb 27, 2019 7:30pm Director Tim Wardle Country UK Language English
Rating PG-13 Short Film Fluffy
3 Film Pass
$20
Tickets available at the Visitor Centre & online at www.revelstoketheatretickets.com
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Revelstoke Grizzlies @ Revelstoke Forum 7 p.m. Catch the Revelstoke Grizzlies as they take on the Kamloops Storm. Tickets are $11/adults, $9 students/seniors, $6 children.
Woman At War - Wed Mar 27, 2019 7:30pm Director Benedikt Erlingsson Country FRANCE/ ICELAND/UKRAINE
Language Icelandic w/ English subtitles Short Film The Road to Webequie
ENTERTAINMENT
JANUARY 2019 8 a.m.–4p.m. Watch as some of North America’s gnarliest compete for their spot in skiing’s biggest freeride event. Venue selections include Separate Reality and North Bowl, with plenty of room for spectators to watch the action.
FRIDAY, JANUARY 11 Canuck Splitfest @ Various Locations All Day; January 11 - 12 The Canuck Splitfest returns to celebrate the sport of splitboarding. Highlights include an open house at Trapper Snowboards on Jan. 11 starting at 5 p.m. and a tradeshow, guest speakers and free demos at the Revelstoke Community Centre on Jan. 12 starting at 4:30 p.m. For more info visit canucksplitfest.com.
ets are $11/adults, $9 students/ seniors, $6 children
FRIDAY, JANUARY 18 Revelstoke Grizzlies @ Revelstoke Forum 7 p.m. Catch the Revelstoke Grizzlies as they take on the 100 Mile Wranglers. Tickets are $11/adults, $9 students/seniors, $6 children.
SATURDAY, JANUARY 19 Avalanche Awareness Day @
Boulder Mountain Welcome Centre 8 a.m.–12:30p.m. The Revelstoke Snowmobile Club hosts its annual Avalanche Awareness and Mountain Safety Day. Learn and practice with avalanche forecasters, search and rescue, pro riders and experienced snow mobilers. Visit revelstokesnowmobileclub. com for more info. Revelstoke Grizzlies @ Revelstoke Forum 7 p.m. Catch the Revelstoke Grizzlies as they take on the 100 Mile Wran-
glers. Tickets are $11/adults, $9 students/seniors, $6 children. Revy Stomp @ Revelstoke Community Centre 8 p.m. One of Revelstoke’s most popular events the Stomp is an evening of country western dance. Tickets $15 available at the Community Centre.
SUNDAY, JANUARY 20 January Grom Con @ Revelstoke Mountain Resort 9:30 a.m.–4 p.m.
SATURDAY, JANUARY 12 Revelstoke Grizzlies @ Revelstoke Forum 7 p.m. Catch the Revelstoke Grizzlies as they take on the Summerland Steam. Tickets are $11/adults, $9 students/seniors, $6 children.
TUESDAY, JANUARY 15 Revelstoke Grizzlies @ Revelstoke Forum 7 p.m. Catch the Revelstoke Grizzlies as they take on the Chase Heat. Tick-
Check out the French historical drama Colette on January 30 at the Revelstoke Performing Arts Centre.
Check the website for more details or to get registered!
www.laninasledcamp.ca Check out this seasons line up of camps including an Intro to Backcountry the ever popular 2-day Backcountry Bootcamps & new this year, Sunday Funday for the advanced rider. Lots of dates in Revelstoke and across the province
Backcountry snowmobile camps designed for women 11
ENTERTAINMENT A rail jam competition for skiers and snowboarders ages 5-12, held in the Gnome Zone. Entry fee $20. Register in advance by emailing info@somewoncollective.com or register at RMR guest services on the day of competition. Snowed in Comedy Tour @ Roxy Theatre 8 p.m. An evening of comedy with Dan Quinn, Paul Myrehaug, Pete Zedlacher and Flight of the Concords Arj Barker. Tickets $40 available at snowedincomedytour.com.
TUESDAY, JANUARY 22 Revelstoke Grizzlies @ Revelstoke Forum 7 p.m. Catch the Revelstoke Grizzlies as they take on the Sicamous Eagles. Tickets are $11/adults, $9 students/seniors, $6 children.
Night: Food Production @ TBA 6p.m.–9p.m. Focused around food production: ‘growing a community of food entrepreneurs. This event is seeking presenters with established food production businesses to inspire start up ideas and people with ideas to pitch. More details to come at startuprevelstoke.ca.
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 30 Colette @ Revelstoke Performing Arts Centre 7:30 p.m.–10:30 p.m. Movies in the Mountains presents an historical drama about the famous French novelist Colette. Buy tickets online: www.revelstoketheatretickets.com. revelstokeartscouncil.com or at the door.
THURSDAY, JANUARY 24 Startup Revelstoke Innovation
10TH ANNIVERSARY - LOCALS APPRECIATION DEALS -
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The Snowed In Comedy Tour featuring Arj Barker comes to the Roxy Theatre on January 20.
THE GREEN ISSUE For our January 2019 issue, we searched for Revelstoke stories with an environmental focus, and reached out to many contributors to share what’s happening to make Revelstoke a greener, more sustainable community. As you transition into the new year and contemplate changes in your life, we invite you to connect with the people, ideas, and movements that seek to lessen our impact on the earth and to hand down a better planet to future generations.
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ENVIRONMENT
A tiny home community in Revelstoke? Adrian Giacca believes that small homes could have big potential in our town By Louise Stanway Revelstoke has a big housing problem. For those who are just tuning in to the ongoing conversation, let’s rewind for a second. As touched upon in our December issue, a recent survey by the City of Revelstoke revealed that our town is short by a staggering 425 housing units. What’s more, Revelstoke is experiencing rapid population growth each year. Housing shortages, rising living costs, and the unaffordability of our rental market, has meant that “ski bumming it” is becoming a thing of the past. The implications of this (all-toocommon) ski-town problem, can quickly snowball into other facets of the wider community too. Snow lovers from around the globe regularly file into Revelstoke with hopes to quench their appetite for world-class powder. Most often, these seasonal transients are happy enough to fill the service industry jobs that keep the heart of this town beating. But how can these workers survive on rural mountain-town wages, while paying the monthly outgoings of a city dweller? The short answer is they can’t. They’re forced to leave town. As a by-product of this, small-business owners are facing closures or reduced operating hours, as they struggle to find and retain staff. This harsh reality is all too familiar for local resident Adrian Giacca, who was forced to leave town last winter after his plight to secure rental accommodation was unsuccessful. Giacca is a freelance landscape designer and a self-titled “lifestyle migrant,” who has recently returned to Revelstoke with a potential fix. He hopes to win over the people of Revelstoke with his vision of minimalist 14
eco-living, in the form of a tiny-home community. So, what exactly is a tiny-home community? A typical tiny home clocks in at around 100–400 square feet in size. These structures serve as financially
survey to gauge the level of community interest in the project. “From the results, a lot of people have said that they are just looking to be a part of something bigger than themselves,” he explains. He aims to create a permaculture
Giacca envisions a housing community that is “uniquely Revelstoke” in its design and its ethos. He, like many others, has been overwhelmed by Revelstoke’s charm and is determined to preserve it. “Instead of clear-cutting forests or disturbing the ecology of the soil, its about learning about nature and finding out where these houses should go, as to lessen our impact on said landscape,” he explains. Of course, there are obstacles to overcome. The first and arguably the most important, is the lack of available land. Much of the Renderings of a proposed tiny home community that is seeking a home in Revelstoke. Images: open space Adrian Giacca surrounding Revelstoke is viable living options for renters who community with shared social spaces protected Crown land, or is reserved don’t wish to sacrifice their privacy for and amenities, where people can by the city for alternate projects. the sake of saving on rent, or for firstconnect, collaborate and contribute to Within current city limits, a handful of time buyers on a lower budget. Living the village and the larger community of property moguls sit on huge portions in one of these homes, the occupant Revelstoke. “We’re looking to create the of undeveloped land. This throws a is rewarded with a simplified and sort of spaces where people can have spanner in the works for the community sustainable lifestyle. community gardens, sharing circles and aspect of the micro-housing project, as Giacca has begun painting us a picture fire pits and all sorts of other spaces that it looks as though development would of how these micro-dwellings will look allow them to come together.” need to start from the inside out, so to in our town. In 2018, he sent out a speak, rather than expanding through
utilizing these unused spaces. Another drawback is that typical 8x12 units target a limited market. Even with one of the larger units, housing a family of three would be a real push. Often, the initial financial freedom that these homes grant is lost in customizations and renovations that are done to adapt
these spaces to the varying needs of the occupants. Giacca believes we need to come together as a community to solve this alc./vol. crisis: “It’s not about building a microRevelstoke. Instead, it’s about utilizing the parcels of land we already have allocated for housing and learning to
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densify.” The project may have to start small, in order for the larger vision to come to fruition. These tiny homes can work well in places where real estate is at a premium. Even if that means they must be parked on small plots of land, campgrounds, or the backyards of those who have the space. Giacca urges the
people of Revelstoke to see the bigger picture, utilize the land that they have and invest in this project that promises a greener future. So, could micro-housing be the solution to our problems? Adrian Giacca invites the people of Revelstoke to join the conversation.
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ENVIRONMENT
Challenge accepted! How many people can say they’ve participated in an accidental dumpster diving challenge? By Jenna Fraser, Community Food & Outreach Coordinator with the Food Connect program at Community Connections How many have repurposed dumpster finds into delicious home-cooked meals? Let me explain how I got involved, and how this experience shaped the future of my career and, most importantly, my everyday life. Now, I recover food for my job now as Community Food & Outreach Coordinator with the Food Connect program at Community Connections. It wasn’t that long ago that I was sitting in a kitchen watching my two longhaired ski-bum roommates preparing a smorgasbord of a soup using only ingredients sourced from a local grocery store’s dumpster. Watching them walk through the door that day carrying bags upon bags of perfect-looking food was shocking. I was more shocked to witness this ritual over the span of their one-month dumpster diving challenge. These two roommates were not from a marginalized demographic that couldn’t afford groceries, nor were they in need. They were environmentally
conscious individuals who had watched a documentary about food waste. It motivated them to try to eat solely from recovered foods, and if they strayed, they agreed to shave their heads. Over the few weeks, I couldn’t help but join in on the tasty creations that these chefs were plating. I ate like a king. You just never knew what was going to be brought home each day. One day, a box full of bananas arrived. Imperfect, yes, rotten no. So we had banana pancakes, bananas in our smoothies, banana bread and banana anything for the next few days. Their dumpster-dining challenge taught me about the rampant food waste in our community and in the country. In Canada, the stats are disheartening. Over 40% of our food is thrown in the garbage. On farms, in grocery stores, and in our homes, food is tossed because of unrealistic consumer expectations of what food should look like, what advertisements tell us to buy, or what
the misleading ‘best before’ label says. I have always taken pride in calling myself an ecoholic. I try to do as much as possible to reduce my environmental impact, but I hadn’t put much thought into the damaging effects of food waste. These include methane emissions, wasted water, degraded soil, fossil fuel consumption, and needlessly killed animals. Once I joined the food security team to build the Food Connect program, I was able to integrate ecoholic practices to divert food from the landfill and give it purpose instead. Food Connect has been evolving over the past two years. Over 250,000 pounds of food has been recovered
from local food retailers, and now we are sharing food with approximately 500 Revelstokians each week through 18 different community programs. It’s not just people we are feeding. With all the food deemed inedible, we provide to local farmers to feed their animals or to compost, then we recycle all the food packaging we can. By providing food to people through Food Connect, my hope is for them to keep fighting the war on food waste in their own homes. As far as curbing food waste at home, my biggest tip is just eat it! Easy right? Here are some more realistic tips: -Don’t judge a book by its cover: In food terms, don’t judge food based on
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dates provided by the company making the food and profiting from selling that food. These best-before dates are a freshness guideline and are not about safety. -It’s common sense: Use your senses — look, smell, small taste — to tell if it’s OK to eat. Chances are you will know when a food has gone off. -Get creative: Use ripened veggies in the fridge by making soups, stews, stirfrys or smoothies. Educate yourselves on how to properly store or revitalize perishable foods to maximize life. -Maximize the potential: Evaluate everything before you toss it in the garbage, including food packaging. Can it be repurposed or recycled (check out RCBC.ca for clarification)? And if the food is no longer edible, embrace your inner science geek and build a compost to decompose food.
How about living out the Revelstoke dream, urban edition, by having your own little homestead with backyard chickens that will help dispose of food scraps? If these solutions are not attainable for your home, reach out to local farmers to see if you can share your food with their animals or use a neighbour’s compost — they will thank you for this when their tomato plants are eight feet tall next year. Sometimes caring is exhausting. But if we don’t do care, who will? Every bit does count. I chuckle thinking that jumping in a dumpster searching for meal ideas led to my own dive into reducing food waste in our community. I now challenge you to dive into reducing your overall household waste starting today.
Above: Jenna Fraser, Community Food & Outreach Coordinator with the Food Connect program at Community Connections, stocks the fridge with products past their ‘best before’ guideline, but still fine for consumption. Right: The food recovery program got inspiration, in part, from grocery store dumpster raids that turned up lots of edible foods, including the haul from a late-night mission, pictured at right.
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ENVIRONMENT
Revelstoke’s first passive house standard commercial building underway New low-emmisions building could be a first for Western Canada By Aaron Orlando
Above and right: Interior and exterior renderings of the new ‘Tatnrum’ building under construction at 306 First Street West. Centre right: New building owners Selim Sabbagh and Michelle Bowlen with Tree Construction owner Greg Hoffart (right).
It’s easy to spot gas-guzzlers on the road, such as an emissions-belching super-duty pickup that could tow a commercial fishing trawler up to Rogers Pass at the posted speed limit, but instead is used as a runabout for grocery shopping. Less discernable and less discussed are the stationary energy hogs amongst us: our homes and workplaces whose greenhouse gas emissions make up a significant portion of our total emissions — just compare your monthly vehicle fuel bill to your home heating bill during a Revelstoke winter. We have a growing array of options to reduce our transportation greenhouse gas emissions, but where are the electric cars of the building sector? A new commercial building under construction in Revelstoke is shining a LED light on possible solutions. The new 7,500-square-foot build at 306 First Street West is vying to be among the very first commercial buildings constructed to a specific commercial certified ‘passive house’ standard in Western Canada. The passive house certification is a strict set of rules and standards designed to dramatically reduce a building’s greenhouse gas emissions by regulating not just insulation standards, but also a long list of requirements that make the building more efficient, and also improves the air quality in the building. Revelstoke-based Tree Construction is constructing the new building, which will be the new home for the Tantrum bike shop, Selkirk Law Corporation, and 18
other future tenants. Lawyer Michelle Bowlen and bike shop co-owner Selim Sabbagh commissioned the building from Greg Hoffart, the owner of Tree Construction. They sat down with the Mountaineer to chat about the project, and their reasons for choosing a passive home standard. Bowlen and Sabbagh’s current home was built to a very high emissions standard, which included improved air quality, and Bowlen said she’s noticed the difference. “I noticed the respiratory issues experienced a big change,” she said. “We noticed how much of a difference it made in our lives.” With the home construction experience under her belt, Bowlen said there were many reasons to choose a passive house standard for the Tantrum building, including greenhouse gas reductions and improved building environment. The building method increases construction costs significantly, but the payoff comes over the long term, with reduced heating and cooling costs, and reduced maintenance costs on mechanical heating systems. The building standard requires significant expertise, and is strictly regulated by a national passive house organization. Tree Construction focuses almost solely on the passive house standard. Hoffart is convinced that the low-emission buildings are the path forward for reducing residential and commercial emissions. “To save the planet, if we simply
reduce our demand on the planet, then we don’t need to have the next latest and greatest technological advancement to solve our problems. We need to reduce our consumption,” Hoffart said. So why isn’t everyone building to these high emissions standards? Both technically and financially, the builds are challenging, increasing up-front costs for the project, which disincentivizes many. Bowlen is sold on their goals, but said more could be done to incentivize greener building methods. She lists tax breaks, parking regulations, DCC reductions, or other tax incentives for lowered greenhouse gas emissions as policy measures various levels of government could implement to spur greener building practices. Dan Gellein is the Manager of Building Services for the City of Revelstoke. He said that greener building practices are in the pike, and the next decade will mean big adaptations for everyone involved in construction. The provincial government is targeting 2032 for all new buildings to be “net-zero building” ready, a designation that means new buildings are constructed so that all energy requirements could be produced on-site, such as through solar panels. In addition, the provincial government introduced the B.C. Energy Step Code in 2017. It is a five-step system that rates a new building’s emissions standards. Local governments can adopt the standard through their bylaws, such as by requiring new buildings to be a “step 2” or “step 3” building. By 2032, the
provincial government wants all new buildings to be the highest standard, step 5, which includes the Passive House designation. Gellein said that some municipalities in B.C. have adopted bylaws requiring mid-level steps, but Revelstoke has yet to. Gellein said many new builds are already adopting de facto mid-level steps without being required to, as energy efficiency is a consideration whether it’s a requirement or not. Gellein said that an economic counterbalance to high levels of energy efficiency is cost. In Revelstoke, where affordable housing is a major issue, new step code requirements would bump up construction costs, which are then passed on to the buyer. “Most people aren’t [building passive] because the payback is there,” Gellein said, adding he favoured offering incentives to use greener building standards. While the new Tantrum building is an early Revelstoke example of a new paradigm, the future of energy-efficient building standards, Gellein said that provincial regulations and targets are the writing on the wall. “We’re going there anyway,” Gellein said. “Anyone in this industry who wants to be working in 2032 needs to start gearing up.”
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ENVIRONMENT
The dos and definite do-nots of going waste free Trying to go waste-free for a week is an eye-opening experience By Kate Borucz Oh, the holiday season! How easy it is for us to get wrapped up in the joyous wonderment of over-spending, over-stressing, over-eating, and, in general, over-consuming. Historically, during this time I would spare no expense or extravagance on my loved ones (or myself), but this year was different. Maybe it’s personal growth, but I thought it would be an interesting social experiment to challenge myself and my friend Hannah to go waste free for one week, perfectly planned for December 10 until December 16. Only nine short days away from the most indulgent time of the year. Hannah and I met to discuss our goals at La Baguette, one week prior to starting the challenge. The rules were simple: create no new waste – no packaging, no plastic, no paper napkins, no tiny ridiculous clips that hold your bread bag closed. If creating waste is inevitable, find a new purpose for it. If something can’t be repurposed, can it be recycled? Composted? And finally, any waste that
can’t be repurposed, recycled, or composted we must carry with us (for visual reference). Day 1: Monday, December 10 – I’m off to a bad start. I had made plans to drive a friend home to Salmon Arm, but we left in a rush and next thing I know I’m getting a croissant to go (in a paper bag, no less). Ok, paper is recyclable, but that should really be the last option. What can I do with this paper bag full of crumbs? I don’t know, let me think on it a bit. On our way back to Revelstoke I get a rumble in my tummy. Feeding time, but I don’t want to create more waste. I can wait until we get home. It’s obvious eating out presents many wastefilled challenges. Time to get proactive. Hannah was in an AST course all day and packed her own lunch (good girl). She had mentioned she finished the milk in her fridge and can return the glass container for a deposit, but what about the plastic lid? Day 2: Tuesday, December 11 – Truth be told, we went clothing shopping
while in Salmon Arm yesterday. So many tags pinned to new clothes, and the tiny little plastic that connects the tag to the clothing. I got creative with the tags and turned them into tags for gifts under the tree (which are wrapped in cloth, by the way). I also stopped into the grocery store on my way home from work, an unplanned trip, which meant I didn’t have the foresight to bring a reusable bag with me. I packed three tomatoes, a field cucumber (not wrapped in plastic), two lemons, a bunch of dill, and soup stock into my purse. Note: leave a supply of bags in the car, at all time! Hannah picked up a prescription from the pharmacy and noted the never-ending packaging, at least most of it is paper or cardboard – perfect for starting fires in the wood stove. I managed to give the crumb-filled bag from my take-out croissant a second life as an organizational envelope to hold pins, tacks, and paperclips in the junk drawer. Crumbs have been removed prior to repurposing.
Day 3: Wednesday, December 12 – As I’m doing my self-care routine in the morning, I can’t help but notice the amount of waste created in the bathroom. Cotton pads used for makeup removal, swabs for ear cleaning, tissues — all paper-based products. I’m making a pledge to empty the bin from the bathroom into the backyard compost from this point on! With a little planning and foresight, waste reduction is quite achievable. No word from Hannah today, I assume she’s given up and is rolling in a pile of garbage, out of spite. Day 4: Thursday, December 13 – It’s actually getting easier on a day-today basis to create less waste. I have a zero-waste kit in the car at all times which is composed of a reusable bag, a to go coffee mug, a cloth napkin, and a container for any possible leftovers from a restaurant meal. We had made plans with a friend to go for sushi, my favourite! I thought ahead and brought a pair of reusable chopsticks from home. The server at the restaurant was quite
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A young contestant at the 2018 Trashion Show held at Revelstoke Mountain Resort. Contestants designed and made custom costumes out of trash, recycled materials, and other upcycled items. Photo: Aaron Orlando/Revelstoke Mountaineer Magazine impressed and noted that she doesn’t see that very often, but she mentioned that she is seeing more people bring their own take out containers. Yay for reusability! Boo for Styrofoam! Day 5: Friday, December 14 – Still no word from Hannah. She has brought shame to her family, no doubt. I am continuing on with the waste free week challenge into the weekend, but this article is due today for print, so this is as far as my journey goes with you, as the reader. I’ve learned a lot so far, and my plans for the weekend are to head to some retail stores downtown to shop for gifts. I am maintaining this
waste-conscious approach even in my gift giving, looking for products that are not disposable and will last the receiver a long time. I also plan to go to the Return-It Centre and get as much information as I can about what can and can’t be brought to the depot. The very least we can do as conscious consumers is to recycle, although we should be considering repurposing, reducing, reusing, rethinking, and even refusing before we even think about recycling. To learn more about waste consciousness and how living life in the mountains can limit our options check out http://bigmountain.kitchen/life
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Sustainable Living Expo helps encourage better consumer decisions By Kate Borucz, North Columbia Environmental Society
Living a more sustainable lifestyle is a goal many people strive for in their daily routines, but putting those goals into practice can be difficult. If being a greener citizen is on your to-do list, the Sustainable Living Expo will help you reach your goals of being an informed and conscious consumer. My personal goals for sustainability seem to fluctuate with the seasons. I am inspired to take action and choose products and services that not only benefit myself and my family, but also the environment and my community as a whole. But of course, there are challenges and limitations. Affordability, for one, is a major concern. Effectiveness, another. And then of course, accessibility, because living in a small town can really limit your options. If only there was a way I can get all the information I need in one convenient location. The North Columbia Environmental Society (NCES) will be hosting Revelstoke’s first Sustainable Living Expo on Saturday, February 9 at the Revelstoke Recreation Centre from noon to 5 p.m. There will be a variety of vendors, speakers, and presenters taking part in the event. By hosting a one stop shop for Revelstoke’s residents to come and explore green businesses, eco programming, sustainable lifestyle options, and products that pro-
mote a more earth-friendly approach, residents can be empowered to make better decisions on where and how they spend their money. Ethical consumerism encourages individuals to make conscious decisions on how they heat or cool their homes, how they travel around their hometown, how they spend their free time, and how they feed themselves (just to name a few). At the expo, you can look forward to learning about holistic coaching, soap dispensaries, reusable household products that are built to withstand the test of time, tiny homes, energy saving tips, recycling information from the regional district, green buildings, alternative energy, and so much more. There are still opportunities to get involved as a vendor, so if you think your business, product, or lifestyle can be a learning experience for others or a benefit to someone else’s sustainable living journey, you are encouraged to get in touch. An individual’s journey into sustainability is very much a personal experience, whether you dedicate your entire life to it or just want to dip in a toe to test the waters, the Sustainable Living Expo will help you along the way.
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BIG MOUNTAIN KITCHEN & LINEN
Sustainable Living Expo exhibitors
Big Mountain Kitchen & Linen is an independently owned retailer providing durable, quality housewares for the waste-conscious shopper. In partnership with the Local Food Initiative, we host a sharing library of food preservation equipment. From Lust to Dust, we help you make wise decisions on cookware, gadgets, glass and stoneware for entertaining, bedding and bath items. We educate our customers
so that they know how to use their new (or old) kitchen tools. We actively seek out reusable and fixable items, and find responsible suppliers as close to home as is practical. Internally, we run our business as waste-free as possible. Consolidated shipping, reusing packing materials, and lobbying our suppliers and local government to encourage and support responsible business practices.
REMOTE LANDSCAPE Learn about preliminary plans for a micro-home community in Revelstoke at the Remote Landscape booth. For more details, see the story on pages 12 and 13 in this issue.
BIRCH & LACE COMPANY NAME At Birch & Lace we are proud to offer a waste diversion program, which allows us to divert material from the landfill. Hair is repurposed to soak up oil spills while all our other waste is used to generate energy for BC Hydro and produce asphalt needed for road construction. Our waste-free shopping area allows you to bring your own container and load up with
household cleaners, hand soaps, body wash, deodorant, tea, and more! We source products from companies respecting the Earth, and using post consumer packaging. Join us this April for our Fourth annual Trashion Show Fundraiser!
NORTH COLUMBIA ENVIRONMENTAL SOCIETY The North Columbia Environmental Society is a non-profit charitable organization which formed in 1999 in Revelstoke. The group came together to be the voice of concerned residents on issues around conservation and sustainable living. As the community grew, so did the NCES. With over 500+ annual participants in their events, workshops and programming, and a
growing list of members, the NCES works to bring valuable and informative events to the community. The Sustainable Living Expo is just one of those events. Visit us at the Expo to meet our Board of Directors and take the BYO Pledge! Commit to reducing single use waste in our community by bringing your own reusable bag, mug, water bottle, and take out container! 23
ENVIRONMENT
Reaching summits with sustainable energy Greg Hill talks us through the steps he’s taken to reduce his environmental footprint and enjoy greener adventures By Louise Stanway
Revelstoke Mountaineer: How did you first get involved in the Protect Our Winters (POW) movement? What was it about the project that captured your interest?
at my conscience. Something needed to change, and that change had to start on a personal level. So, I quit heli-ski guiding, sold my F-350, let my snowmobile rust, and limited my flights to business trips and important events. It was time to ditch the fossil-fueled fun and start looking in my own backyard for the next adventure. I’ve also become a weekday vegetarian (meat is only enjoyed on the weekends). I knew I couldn’t be perfect, but I could be better. Once my personal footprint was being worked on, I began to wonder how to effect change on a larger scale— something I hadn’t previously considered. During the past eleven years, since its inception, POW (USA) has gained a great momentum and developed a voice for the outdoor community. To the point where they visit the White House and talk with Senators to push for various environmental protections. Seeing their successes, I started envisioning a plan for POW Canada.
Greg Hill: My eco-anxiety has been growing for many years, the hypocrisy of being a lover of nature — while being a huge polluter — has been eating away
RM: POW has recently opened a Canadian chapter. Can you tell us about any developments or events happening locally?
The slopes have been Greg Hill’s natural habitat for the past twenty years. So far, the professional skier and alpine-adventurer has summited over 200 mountains, has skied 50,000 vertical feet in one day, and was named “Adventurer of the Year” by National Geographic in 2006. More recently, Greg is a known for advocating renewable energy solutions through his use of electric cars and sleds, as well as for his involvement in Protect Our Winters (POW) Canada. So, what’s the next step for this seasoned pro? A lighter footprint, Greg tells us. Painfully aware of the paradoxical nature of his lifestyle, he is eager to find a solution to accessing and enjoying nature responsibly. We’re curious to know what that journey of discovery entails...
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GH: When Dave Erb took-over the reins a year ago, I handed over my pieces to the puzzle, and we were finally able to launch POW, Canada. The objective of POW is to unite the outdoor industry to address climate change. We believe that our love of adventure in nature demands our participation in the fight to save and protect it. We were able to meet and engage with hundreds of enthusiasts at our launch events: in Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver and Calgary. Chris Rubens, a local ambassador, helped with two launches. POW works by leveraging amazing athletes, creating conversation and a commitment to the cause. So far, Revelstoke-based athletes such as Kim Vinet, Casey Brown, Bruno Long, Anna Segal, and Nat Segal are involved in the POW Canada movement. Gaining members strengthens our collective voice, so we’re able to speak-up to our government about the importance of a sustainable future. There’s also a program called Hot Planet Cool Athletes, in which we go to schools and educate and inspire the youth to speak up about the futures they want. By next year we’re hoping to have some local events that are pertinent to
the people here. RM: As well as being a POW ambassador, a backcountry guide and a professional skier, you’re also a known advocate for renewal energy solutions. Is it difficult to juggle these projects, or do
they complement one another? GH: These are all complementary facets of who I am. I love being a ski guide and taking people out into the mountains, embracing the experience and enjoying nature with them. Being a POW ambassador and raising my voice to protect these experiences simply makes sense. As a professional athlete, the stories I create can influence people, so now I work on stories that resonate with what I believe in. My latest electric adventures prove that there are other ways that we can reach our trail heads and that we can live an adventurous life with less of an impact. Much like I break trail into a new zone, I am venturing down a new path that others will ideally follow and enjoy. Renewable energy, in my eyes, make sense because it provides long-term solutions. Now that there are viable options, I must explore them. The electric car has been fantastic, super fun and convenient, though I cannot wait for a SUV or small truck. In the future, I would like to install solar cells on my house to see about generating my own electricity.
while I selfishly ski around the mountains,” is one that clarifies that there is always more we can do. We must continue to strive for progress, not perfection.
RM: Moving forward, what are your goals for 2019? GH: As a father of two, I want to ensure my kids have an appreciation for adventure and for the environment, as well an understanding of the lifestyle I impose on them. I wish to stimulate their desires to aim for a better future. In my own adventurous life, I have summited fifty-nine mountains electrically, and hope to hit one-hundred mountain-tops by May. Next, the plan is to craft a film-festival worthy piece — one that addresses the internal conflict surrounding my own lifestyle. The common criticism of myself, “leasing an electric car trying to make my conscience feel better,
Clockwise from left: Revelstoke-based ski mountaineer Greg Hill has embraced a low-greenhouse-gas-emission lifestyle, in part due to his involvement with the new Canadian chapter of Protect Our Winters. Above and bottom left: Greg Hill capturing powder. Photos: Angela Percival/Arc’teryx
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ENVIRONMENT
The snows of winters past As our climate changes, average snowfalls in Revelstoke have been declining.We spoke with longtaime residents about the snows of yesteryear By Alex Cooper Talk to any longtime resident in Revelstoke about winters past, and they’ll tell you a story of 1971–72. That was the year Mother Nature dropped 779 centimetres of snow on town and nearly 24 metres on nearby Mount Copeland – a Canadian snowfall record that still stands. To put it in perspective, during last year’s epic winter, Revelstoke Mountain Resort recorded half that amount. The storms were relentless in 1972, burying the town and the surrounding mountains. Trains got stuck in Rogers Pass and drivers were stranded on the highway as crews battled to keep transportation routes open. Louie Deschamps was a plow driver for CP Rail that winter. He remembers spending a week digging out the Lanark snow shed after an avalanche filled it to the roof. “There was 300 feet of snow inside the tunnel, solid. It was like cement,” he recalled. “I was the only one in there for three days. I bucked out 11 slides from here to up there.” Peter Kimmel, who moved to Revelstoke a few years later to work in avalanche control
Louie Deschamps (left) and Dusty Veideman reflect on past Revelstoke winter experiences. Photo: Alex Cooper/Revelstoke Mountaineer Magazine in Glacier National Park remembers going to dig out his family cabin, which was buried above the roof in snow. There was so much snow, CP hired local photographer Dusty Veideman to ride on the front of a train and take a picture of the snowbanks along the rail line. “That was a cold trip sitting on the front of the engine taking pictures,” he remembered. One day, he left his store on Mackenzie and couldn’t find his car under the mountain of snow. 1971-72 is the winter people remember, but it is an anomaly, even for Revelstoke. The City of Revelstoke keeps snowfall charts going back to 1907, and there almost 1.5 metres more snow that season than the next snowiest winter. “Do you remember any other winters?” asked Veideman rhetorically. “Nope, because they’re all the same.” The numbers show snowfall amounts for Revelstoke are trending downwards, while it is getting warmer. Revelstoke averaged 385 centimetres of snow per year from 1969 to 2018. In the first decade of that period, the
average was 475 centimetres per year, whereas in the last 10 years, there’s been an average of 343.3 centimetres of snow each winter. Last winter’s 446 centimetres would have been about average for the 1970s, even if you don’t include 1972. The three men I spoke to for this story all have different experiences in Revelstoke. Deschamps drove the loader and blower for CP Rail. Veideman was a photographer and one of the founders of the Revelstoke Snowmobile Club. Kimmel was part of the avalanche control team in Rogers Pass before becoming starting his own avalanche consulting business. My hope was to get a sense of whether or not Revelstoke winters really were tougher in the past. There was no real feeling among them that winters were harder back then, and just like now, they varied year to year. “Some winters it snowed a lot, others it snowed less,” said Kimmel. The biggest changes he’s noticed over his years in the snow industry were the shrinking glaciers. Veideman, who moved to Revelstoke
when he was 14, described walking to high school in knee-deep snow, and sometimes skiing. He says people were more tolerant of the snow back then, and didn’t expect the roads to be plowed right away. Winters might not have been worse, but people were hardier. They walked uphill to school – both ways. “Back in the day, when it snowed, you didn’t go to town for three to four days, and if you did, you used your skis. They never removed anything. They never plowed nothing. They didn’t want to do the job twice,” he said. “They left the snow until it was over, then they would remove it. Now they remove it during the storm. People seem to forget that.” Added Deschamps: “If somebody had to go to the hospital, they’d use a horse because vehicles couldn’t get there.” The other thing they noticed has changed. “Back in the day,” it was a privilege to get called out of school to go pack down the ski jump, said Veideman. “Now they take every second day off to go skiing. Kids are spoiled.”
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What climate change will mean for Revelstoke winters “There may be a lot of years where you don’t have to shovel off your roof,” says Murdock. “There may even be some years with no snow to speak of, which is hard to imagine, but it is the case.” A lot of these positives sound pretty great. The negatives will be noticeable higher up in the mountains and will impact Revelstoke’s winter tourism industry. It’s still going to snow, even more than today, but that snow will be heavier. According to Reasoner, the average alpine snowpack is expected to increase by more than seven per cent by 2070. Unfortunately, the snowline will be higher and the snow quality will be worse. Think Whistler. Think mashed potatoes. “Winter recreation will be biggest impact,” says Reasoner. “The main impact is it will be squeezed up into higher elevations to get the good conditions.” The gondola at Revelstoke Mountain Resort will be an access lift and there’s a good chance that many winters we’ll be riding it up over snow-free runs before reaching the snowline. We might be riding our mountain bikes or The Pipe down from mid-mountain all winter in 2070. We’ll be trading cold smoke for brown pow. The snow conditions will be a bigger issue for heli-skiing and CAT-skiing, says Reasoner, as they’re forced to look higher and higher for good snow. There’s potential for winter floods if a big rainstorm falls on frozen ground. The money saved on snow removal might have to be spent on better storm drains. What about our glaciers. The shrinking of our glaciers is one of the most obvious signs of climate change. Will Mount Begbie even still have a glacier in 2070? Glaciers respond to how much snow they get in winter and how much ice melts in summer. Begbie’s glacier is shrinking, but whether or not the extra snow it receives in the future is enough for it to hold on remains to be seen.
Glacier expeditions will be a thing of the past after local glaciers melt away.
By Alex Cooper
Warmer and wetter – that’s what the models show. “The big thing compared to today is increased precipitation, but much more of that as rain than snow,” adds Murdock. PCIC released their latest projections for the period of 2041–70 for the Columbia Basin last year. They show the annual mean temperature will increase between 1.8 C and 2.7 C. There will be more warm days in summer, fewer cool days in winter, and cold spells will be about half as long as they have been in the past. The number of days when the daily maximum temperature is below freezing across the Columbia Basin is expected to decrease by 10–30 per cent. It doesn’t mean winter as we know it is over. Because increased precipitation is expected, cold years could be really snowy. “Because Revelstoke is cold enough in winter, it can mean more snowpack in some years and more big snow events in
Imagine looking up at Mount Begbie, the glacier bisecting its twin peaks, gripping the rocky summit by the tips of its icy fingers. Fifty years from now, Mount Begbie’s iconic glacier will be a shadow of its former self. Brown Christmases will be greeted with a shrug rather than shock. Most winters are long, wet, and grey, and snow only sticks around for a month or so. It rains a lot and snows a little. Only the coldest winters match the stories you’ve heard. This is the future of winter in Revelstoke at the rate the climate is warming. “In the future, the new average temperature at the end of the century, if you can think of the warmest winter on record historically, that’s the new average,” explains Trevor Murdock, a climate scientist with the Pacific Climate Impacts Consortium at the University of Victoria.
many years,” Murdock says. What does this mean for our daily lives? Some of the impacts will make winters more manageable. The valley bottom snowpack is expected to shrink by at least 20 per cent, says Mel Reasoner, a climate change impact consultant based in Nelson, B.C. You won’t have to shovel as much, if at all some winters. Rain on snow events will be more common, so the snow that falls might melt just as quickly (just think of this past December). I doubt many people will miss shoveling the roof, but brown Christmases will take some getting used to. And, let’s face it, a blanket of snow is definitely cheerier than grey pavement and brown lawns. You might save money in winter by having to heat less. The city will save a bundle on snow removal, and there might be fewer potholes, which are often caused by frequent melt-freeze cycles.
REVELSTOKE SNOWFALL 779
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YEAR
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GREEN BUSINESS
How going green paid off for local businesses Award-winning Revelstoke business owners share the benefits of operating with an environmental focus. By Melissa Jameson
Planet over profit. It’s not the sort of mantra you’d expect to hear from business owners, but Birch & Lace/Feather & Stone owner Sara Sansom and Big Mountain Kitchen & Linen owner Nicole Cherlet are running their businesses with a focus on being environmentally conscious, and it’s paying off.
spills. In addition, Sara takes home all of the organic waste from the two businesses and composts it in her backyard.
The green approach is has succeeded for the two businesswomen, who tied for Business Person of the Year at the Revelstoke Chamber of Commerce’s Excellence in Business Awards in 2018. The Mountaineer had a chance to chat with Nicole and Sara about their respective decisions to go green, the challenges and the response from their customers.
Sara: Cost can sometimes be an issue when implementing certain things, but if I
Mountaineer: What made you decide to take a green approach with your business? Sara: The beauty industry has some seriously toxic waste that is being ignored. It isn’t taught in school, it isn’t talked about in business practice and it is wreaking havoc on the environment. I wanted to stay in my craft, but I wanted to be able to control the waste situation, talk about it openly and inspire change. Nicole: It’s 2018, I don’t see an alternative. I can’t imagine why you wouldn’t try to reduce your impact when we’re surrounded by all the evidence of what convenience is costing us. Mountaineer: Can you provide an example of changes you’ve made to make your business green? Nicole: One of the big things I noticed with my business was just the shear amount of shipping. That’s where I put my focus at the beginning, trying to consolidate our shipping as much as possible to reduce the impact and therefore reduce the cost. I’ve been trying to be really conscious of what is the social cost and what is the environmental cost of everything we do beyond the economic cost. In addition to focusing on reducing the amount of shipping, Big Mountain Kitchen & Linen also hosts the Revelstoke Local Food Initiatives sharing library and promotes making mindful decisions when it comes to purchasing items. Sara: We deal with product lines that package minimally and use sustainable materials including post consumer packaging. We also cut down on waste and have systems in place to use everything to its maximum usage. Birch & Lace/Feather & Stone also offer waste free, bulk shopping and is probably best known for its waste diversion program. Through the waste diversion program, hair, an organic material that creates methane when trapped in the landfill, is instead sent off to be made into hair booms which are then used to help soak up oil
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Mountaineer: What are some of the challenges you’ve faced?
move forward with good intention — it’s easy enough to save up. It’s been a good lesson to learn you don’t have to do everything all at once and nothing will ever be perfect. Nicole: A lot of it is trying to change customers’ views because we’ve been trained for convenience. Our whole throwaway culture has consequences. It’s been interesting figuring out how to reconcile that with a retail store because I sell stuff and I have to sell stuff to pay my rent, so there is a certain amount of, “OK, I want you to buy new things, but I want you to be mindful of when you buy new things.” Mountaineer: What has the response been like? Sara: Our community seems to really champion environmental movements, and since we opened I know for sure one of the other salons in town has joined the waste diversion program, and I have talked to several others who are interested. Nicole: Most people aren’t really interested in what other people are doing. People need to be conscious of the whole lifecycle of the entire product. What’s the social cost of this thing? Is this thing giving me more time with family and friends? Five years in we are seeing people trust us more. We’re not going to sell you on the latest and greatest big thing unless it’s going to help you do what you want to do. So we are seeing people becoming more mindful.
Opposite page left: Sara Sansom at First Street West salon Birch & Lace, where you can reuse your containers to buy bulk soaps, detergents, and much more. Above: Nicole Cherlet of Big Mountain Kitchen & Linen places emphasis on environmentally friendly practices, including a kitchen supplies loan library, where you can rent seasonal items like food dehydrators. Photos: Aaron Orlando/Revelstoke Mountaineer Magazine
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Children provide hope for climate despair We were all once like my ten-year-old students: finding joy in the natural world By Sarah Newton, parent of two precious teenagers, Begbie View Elementary teacher, North Columbia Environmental Society board member, dairy eater, ferry taker, and consumer To say that I despair over the condition of the environment is an understatement. There is a cognitive dissonance between what we want for the world and what we actually do. We need bees to pollinate, water worth drinking, clean air for our grandchildren, and our favourite wild places to stay wild. But what do we do? Continue with business as usual. We are not changing our ways. The only thing that keeps me from the abyss of gloom are my students. They are the champions of all that is good, with deep empathy for other living creatures. They rush in to show me a beautiful leaf that they found at recess or tell me they saw an eagle fly by. If someone had the heart to tell them about the misery that must happen to create industrial milk, they wouldn’t drink another glass. Or if they understood that the sound of boat motors makes marine animals unable to hunt or fend off prey, they wouldn’t get in another boat. My students, with no coercion, want to do the right thing: to be a friend to nature. But we go to great lengths to hide the true cost of things from them. I speculate that society does this to kids long enough for them to become like us — callous to our enormous ecological footprint. It’s just easier to not think about things too deeply.
and worry about the world they will inherit. They also don’t understand how the people who love them seem to disregard climate change, extreme weather events, and resource depletion. The adults that steer them through all their present fears don’t take clear action to be part of the solution in this current crisis. The more complex our children’s thoughts become, the more illogical this divide becomes. Kids realize that they are left with no choice but to join the rest of society, embracing pragmatism while ignoring the dire warnings that come to their ears from every angle. We were all once like my ten-year-old students: finding joy in the natural world. How do we remind ourselves about what is truly important? How do we get back to feeling empathy for the other creatures that share this planet? And take action to do the least harm to them? So what do I tell my students when they confide their deep fears to me about the environment? This is what I do: I hold up my audacious iPhone and tell them that if this phone can be invented, we can solve the current problems of the
But while they are children, our young people are amazing. They demand to compost in class, use towels instead of paper, raise money for wells in Tanzania, reuse school supplies from the year before, ditch Ziploc bags, and above all, they are eager to protect habitat. When I ask children what worries them, they tell me two things: family and the environment. They hold deep sorrow
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I want to be able to tell my grandchildren that I truly made an effort to be part of the solution to civilization’s woes. Let’s be real heroes to our children. Let’s join them as champions of the environment. Let’s see with a lens that view every choice, every action, every dollar we spend as a vote for what we believe in. Let’s stop blaming others and rationalizing away our lifestyles. If not you, then who? If not now, then when? For more in depth information on this subject, do a video search for The Story of Stuff and The Story of Solutions.
Clockwise from left: Students take in a lake view on a local hike. Photo: Rory Luxmoore. Nelson Luxmoore uses a spider’s web as a frame for a portrait of his sister. Photo: Nelson Luxmoore. Right: Children commemorate a trip to Halfway Hot Springs near Nakusp. Photo: Sarah Newton world. That device my hand can do the most complex actions. Figuring out how to reduce emissions isn’t rocket science in comparison. This comparison helps kids understand that it’s not the way that’s the problem, it’s the will that’s the hitch. This leads to the second thing I tell my students: they need to use their abundant skills to rant, whine, and temper-tantrum their way into championing game changing roles. They need to lobby parents and their leaders into action. We try to reduce waste in our classroom and we also become pen pals with our elected officials and corporations. We write letters, for example, to the federal government asking them to restrict single use plastics, and the municipal government to thank them for pesticide-free playing fields. I am not perfect; I fly in airplanes and use more than my share of the planet’s finite resources. But when I look back on my life,
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ENVIRONMENT
Can be food be our salvation? By Melissa Hemphill, Food Security Coordinator at Community Connections
The highlight of the Revelstoke Local Food Initiative’s summer celebration A Midsummer Night’s Green is the tour of the host Terra Firma Farm by farmers Rob Jay and Terra Park. Connecting to where your food comes from and who is growing it is what the local food movement is all about. Photo: Northwave Media
When I think about the world around me, the state that it’s in and the future that is predicted, I feel downright sad. What world will my kids inherit? And why aren’t we doing more to paint a brighter picture for future generations? Why are we so short-sighted and driven by the dollar? How can this change? This line of thinking always brings me back to food. When you look at all of the systems that must change in the world in order to turn the tide on climate change, food feels like the one that I personally can have the most impact on. Nutritious, quality food will always be something that we need — multiple times a day. But our food system is broken. Industrial farming with monocultures, pesticides, GMOs, and CAFOs will not feed our growing population or heal our earth. A new approach to agriculture is needed and every one of us has a part to play in that change, at least as consumers. Where each of us spends our money, on which products, and how we deal with our waste products, is a statement for the change that we want to see in the world. If you keep buying it, they will keep producing it — no matter the environmental cost. There is one very important choice that you can make — to become a locavore. A locavore is someone who eats mostly locally grown foods. Your definition of local may be different from mine, but even having a definition is a step in the right direction. Sourcing your staple foods from as close to home as possible has multiple positive impacts. Gardening preserves food-growing knowledge and connection to the earth. Shopping directly from local farmers creates irreplaceable relationships that directly 32
feed the local economy and your body. While we may need to import some items during the winter to maintain optimal nutrition, we can do so responsibly by not wasting any of that food and purchasing from trusted brands that use sustainable practices. Grocery shopping for me has become an ethical minefield. It is super challenging to balance a family food budget with environmental impact of the product’s production methods (e.g., palm oil), place of origin (apples from New Zealand), seasonality (fresh raspberries in February), sustainability of the crop (fish), and social impacts (fair wages, safe working conditions). The more that I learn about the food system, the more difficult it is to always make the right choice. Yet, what bolsters me in my quest for positive impact through my participation in the food system is knowing that more and more people are getting it. We are hearing the stats on food waste and realizing that those stats are about us and our dirty habits: snobby conceptions of what food should look like, shunning leftovers, creating meals based on what we want, not what is available in season. We are learning that eating less meat can have huge cumulative environmental impacts. We are learning that farmed fish is destroying aquatic ecosystems. We know that ugly vegetables taste the same as beautiful ones. We are seeing the error of our ways and we are trying to change. Composting programs are in huge demand, the Local Food Initiative’s programs are packed, the number of urban farms is growing, and the food recovery program has rescued over 250,000 pounds of food from the landfill.
The local food movement is on fire in Revelstoke, much like other cities in B.C. The demand for locally grown foods is skyrocketing, evidenced by the growth of farmer’s markets and grocers adopting farm market branding. The Young Agrarians organization has infiltrated the Columbia Basin with support for new farmers and land-leasing arrangements. The Columbia Basin Trust has identified agriculture as one of its focus areas and is investing more money into this sector. The Legislative Assembly of B.C. has just passed a bill that strengthens the Agricultural Land Reserve and its ability to stop the development of farmland into mega-homes and dumping grounds. Policies are changing to make Canadian food systems more resilient and sustainable. We are collectively gardening more and buying more food locally. Though a renewed food system is not yet our salvation, as conscious consumers we can all be part of the solution! So, the next time you see me in the grocery store scrutinizing labels and holding an internal debate, you’ll know why. I can’t shut down pipelines. I can’t save our oceans from become a desolate plastic desert. I can’t even trust that my recycling will ever get recycled — but I can try to change the world for the better with every bite that I take.
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ENVIRONMENT
Nailing down Revelstoke’s first tool library Libraries are usually places associated with books, reading and speaking in hushed voices but a tool library in Revelstoke would be breaking all those rules. By Kate Borucz Borrowing from a library of things is a convenient way for consumers to get access to the things they need without the price tag or the clutter of purchasing brand new, all the while lessening their environmental footprint. When we think about the rare earth minerals, materials and other resources that get used up in the process of making and distributing tools, it seems like a colossal waste to have every house on the block
or unit in a building storing a drill that is only needed for occasional use. Not to mention the waste of money and space in our homes involved in purchasing and storing such items. According to research conducted on tool usage, the average drill is used for 13 minutes in its useable lifespan. The rest of the time it sits unused in the basement, garage, or storage unit. Now imagine if that same drill was
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interested in a sharing economy, freeing them from having to purchase things to own, opting to encourage sharing within their communities. Building on that, tools aren’t the only things that could be put up for short term rent – camping gear, event supplies, sports equipment, gardening tools, board games, the limit does not exist! The North Columbia Environmental Society (NCES) and Revelstoke Local
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Budget-friendly wine picks for the new year By Heather Hood It’s amazing the amount of reflection that occurs when one year is ending and the new one approaching. I am hopeful that 2019 is a year of greater peace and positivity in the world. In keeping with a world theme, here are some delicious wines for you to enjoy which are also budget friendly.
Redheads Studio “Yard Dog” White, 2017 Tanunda, South Australia $15.52
Plans for a tool library are in the works for Revelstoke. Food Initiative (LFI) are already offering their members access to kitchen supplies for rent, available at Big Mountain Kitchen & Linen. Things like canning supplies, cherry pitters, food dehydrators are available to help you live more sustainably. The NCES received funding from the Columbia Basin Trust to help make this dream a reality, but there are obstacles to get through such as location, materi-
als acquisition, insurance, and staffing (problems we’ve been chiselling away at). We’re labelling this project as “under construction” for the time being, but you can expect to see developments in early 2019.
An aromatic wine filled with stone fruit, pineapple, and citrus with hints of floral and honey. It is flavourful on the palate with a nice sweetness on the mouth, finishing with a great acidity that balances out this wine beautifully. Yard Dog is a blend of Verdelho, Chardonnay, and Semillion. Verdelho is a commonly grown grape in Portugal that is used in the fortified wine Madeira. In Australia it is a commonly grown grape for blending into table wines. Pairing: roast vegetables, spicy curry, or poultry.
C’est La Vie! Pinot Noir/Syrah, 2016 Languedoc Roussillon, France $17.09 If you’ve ever been invited to a dinner party and been tasked with bringing wine, and you are someone who struggles with deciding what to bring, then this is a fantastic choice. It is an easy-drinking wine that will be appreciated by most wine drinkers. There are nice flavours of strawberry, red cherry, tobacco, and a hint of spice with medium body and fine tannins. Pairing: almost anything you’re cooking, including chees, mushrooms, or meat.
Raza Malbec Reserve La Rioja, Argentina $16.22 A wine that provides a excellent value for the price. This is a full body wine that is very flavourful with dark fruits of red cherry and plum, ripe blackberry, chocolate, vanilla and tobacco; the smooth tannins linger nicely on the finish. Pairing: This wine can be enjoyed on its own or would pair well with roasted meat, rich pasta dishe,s or chocolate desserts.
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What Revelstoke needs to do to become a Bear Smart community Can Revelstoke adapt to live conflict-free with bears? By Maggie Spizziri, Revelstoke Bear Aware Community Coordinator
Bears and Revelstoke go hand in hand. Bears are part of the Revelstoke logo, they are the mascot as you drive through the town, and they are often seen wandering the streets looking for food. Some bears become conditioned to eating garbage and fruit, and are destroyed. So far in 2018, five bears have been killed in town by B.C. conservation officers. Keeping bears out of our community has been a challenge; other cities across the province have met this challenge. Revelstoke can, too. We need to become a Bear Smart Community. What does that entail? This provincial program recommends activities and standards to reduce human/bear conflicts. Revelstoke already has completed many of the necessary Bear Smart requirements. A bear hazard assessment and human/bear conflict management plan was completed in 2009, updated in 2013, and will be updated again in 2019. Planning documents have been revised to be consistent with the conflict management plan. In 2017 the City of Revelstoke implemented the new wildlife and garbage bylaw. This leaves the last item on the Bear Smart list: develop and maintain a bear resistant solid waste management plan. Why does it matter if a bear comes into Revelstoke and eats our garbage and fruit? Let’s first take a look at the history. In 1994, our landfill was surrounded by electric fencing and bears were no longer able to feed there. Grown accustomed to garbage as a food source, local bears turned to garbage in the city. That year 62 bears were either killed or relocated. The following year, the berry crop failed and 23 bears were killed and 25 were relocated. In 1996, concerned citizens formed the Revelstoke Bear Management Committee, and in 2004 the Revelstoke Bear Aware Society was formed. Things have improved. Now, an average of only six bears are killed each year. Revelstoke Bear Aware offers a community education program; the City of Revelstoke installed bear-resistant bins downtown and throughout the community; the city implemented a garbage and wildlife bylaw; Revelstoke Bear Aware coordinates the Gleaning Program, offering free services to pick fruit; Home Hardware partners with Revelstoke Bear Aware for a cost-share bear-resistant garbage storage bin program. But again, why does this all matter? In 2018 alone, there were four reported instances of a bear breaking into a home. A bear demolished a shed to get to garbage. Bears have figured out how to open vehicle doors. And a bear was bluff-charging residents as they were putting their garbage to the curb on garbage day. The more food-conditioned and habituated a bear becomes, the more aggressive it is about gaining easy access to accessible food. It is often difficult to understand how well bears can climb; they can easily scale any fence. It is also difficult to understand how strong they are. They can easily lift open the lid on any metal garbage bin or container that has not been certified as bear resistant. 36
Bear Aware Brandy Monashee Distillery’s Bear Aware Brandy is a unique collaboration between Revelstoke Bear Aware and the local craft distillery. Unwanted apples, pears, cherries, huckleberries, and plums were gleaned from local gardens and distilled into a wine-cask aged brandy. Distiller Josh McLafferty said the result is a heavy, fruit-forward flavour with notes of red wine and caramel. He’s created a signature cocktail, the Hibernation, based on the brandy, which is made of chartreuse, maraschino, and lemon. Get one of the limited run of 60 bottles at the Mackenzie Avenue distillery. Photo: Aaron Orlando/Revelstoke Mountaineer The remaining step necessary for Revelstoke to become a Bear Smart community is creating a city-wide bear resistant garbage solution. This would alleviate the remaining issues. The Johnson Heights neighbourhood used to have the most human/ bear conflicts. Now they have a centralized bin and the lowest number of human/ bear conflicts in the city. Until the city is willing to implement a solution, it is up to individual citizens to take action to keep bears out of their garbage and fruit. The more steps we take, and the more improvements we make, the more we reduce human/bear conflict. Let’s keep working together to keep bears wild and our community safe!
FOOD A band on parade on Second Street West in 1908 crosses a bridge over a creek, which has since been culverted and buried underground (notice the Modern building and the old City Hall building in the background). Daylighting these lost creeks could have many benefits for the community. Photo: Revelstoke Museum & Archives
Daylighting Revelstoke’s lost creeks can return natural aquatic ecosystems A century ago, burying Revelstoke’s natural creeks was thought of as progress. Restoring these natural ecosystems can bring many benefits to the community. By Fraser Blyth One of the most fascinating things I learned about several European cities is that there are entire neighbourhoods buried beneath the streets and buildings that adorn postcards. Streets below streets with three-storey buildings holding up everything above the surface. In Revelstoke, we tend to think our city’s history isn’t very old, and yet we’ve buried things much older than those European neighbourhoods. Approximately 100 years ago, many of the creeks that drained off Mt. Revelstoke were culverted and buried to make way for development. If you walk along the banks of the Columbia River in winter, you can see and hear the creeks spilling out from culverts. This early push to bury streams and wetlands was a practical one. Water causes problems for roads and buildings. Burying them seemed like the easiest option. With time, the history and environmental benefit of these creeks has been erased and buried beneath our own streets and buildings. Revelstoke Museum and Archives curator Cathy English said that parts of downtown Revelstoke used to be much wetter. A recent downtown excavation found soils indicating the existence of former wetlands. So far, English has been able to find little information on Revel-
stoke’s old creeks. Tapping Creek once ran alongside Campbell Ave, and flowed under a bridge on Second Street. It then continued south and carved out the dry gulch next to Centennial Avenue, before running past the old smelter and emptying into the Columbia River just a few feet south of the old CPR landing station. Now it races at unnatural speeds through a culvert under Campbell before flowing into the Columbia River. Another buried creek, known as Brewer’s Creek, provided water to Revelstoke’s first brewery. This practice of burying creeks and wetlands was common throughout Canadian cities in the early 1900s. What’s becoming more common today is that many of these cities are now looking at ways of daylighting the streams again. Daylighting is exactly what it sounds like: bringing sunlight back to buried watercourses. There are several reasons why culverted streams aren’t as desirable as natural ones. Some of Revelstoke’s culverts are 100 years old and are overdue for replacement. The cost of replacing the culverts is comparable to the cost of daylighting. Culverted streams tend to reduce overall water quality because they travel at a higher velocity than natural streams. The higher velocity increases the amount of pollutants that are transported and washed
into our natural water bodies. Natural streams, by comparison riffle over debris in the riverbed which oxygenates the water, while plants and microorganisms work to “fix” pollutants. Flooding risk is increased in two ways. First, storm sewers and culverts can fill up faster than they can empty, causing them to overflow. They can also get blocked with debris, as we saw this past November when a blocked culvert and high rain event caused flooding on Highway 23 North. Finally, flooding risk is increased because water can’t infiltrate into the ground. A natural creekbed allows some of the water to infiltrate into the ground, reducing the total amount of surface water flow and capturing pollutants before they reach higher velocity creeks. Beyond the ways that culverted streams can underperform natural ones, there are several reasons we may want to start daylighting in Revelstoke. First, these natural systems can be valued for how well they help reduce the need for costly engineered systems and achieve the same or better results naturally. Gibsons is the first community in B.C. that has an eco-asset strategy that recognizes that, “Nature plays an integral role in a municipal infrastructure system.” They consider both engineered and natural assets as a
part of its municipal infrastructure, and recognize that nature can help reduce risk, and provide cost savings (by doing the work for free) while maintaining healthy local ecosystems. Second, we can create stronger links to our heritage and history by daylighting streams, naming them, and better telling our natural history. This creates a stronger connection to the natural world. Rather than burying and hiding creeks and pretending they don’t exist, we can bring them back and create beautiful natural public spaces within the city. Third, we can bring back life to these watercourses. Life is almost non-existent under the culvert. Daylighting can bring back the vegetation, invertebrates and other animals that call our creeks home. There are several potential daylighting projects in town. My two favourite being creating natural community park space around the culverted creek running through the Mountain View School site, and daylighting Tapping Creek along the Campbell Avenue median. As you wander through town this winter, keep your eyes and ears open for your own favourite creeks to shed some more light on.
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On home turf Eating seasonal,organic food takes the guess work out of nutrition while supporting our bodies and planet. By Shannon MacLean RHN, CHNC, BA-IR Determining what a healthy diet means for you can be confusing. Marketing tactics and sensational headlines abound, promising the next miracle fruit will give us unending vibrancy, and claiming one specific way of eating as best for all of us. It makes sense; life is busy, so we crave simplicity, while businesses want to sell, so they generalize our needs. Yet each of us has unique needs, and these needs change, quite literally, with the weather. It’s one of many ways that our biography becomes our biology. The irony here is that when we skip the “health check” assurances and magazine headlines in grocery store aisles, going instead to the farmer’s market to purchase local, organic, seasonal whole foods, we take the guess work out of nutrition and give our planet a chance. Nature knows Our bodies need specific foods in correlation to time and place, which is why nature made sure they’d be ripe at all the right times. In the spring, our body craves gentle cleansing, and fresh greens abound. Summer brings juicy, sweet fruits and vegetables to keep us cool and hydrated. Fall’s bounty includes immune-building foods such as pumpkin, squash, kale, garlic, and onion, to prepare us for winter. With the arrival of winter’s chill, we crave warming, salty soups and stews, full of bone broth, root vegetables, squash, meats, and healthy fats to keep us warm and grounded. Packaging Any sailor will tell you we don’t need more plastics taking over remote islands, leaching into our food, or filling the bellies of whales. Bring a basket or cloth bag to the market and skip the plastic clamshells and double wrapped packages found elsewhere. Nutrient density Fruits and vegetables begin to lose nutrients once picked, and a typical conventional carrot travels 1,838 miles to land in your grocery bag. Fruits and vegetables sold in Canadian supermarkets today contain far fewer nutrients than they did 50 years ago, with new studies reporting up to 38
In a handful of healthy soil, there is more bacterial biodiversity than you will find in all the animals of the Amazon basin. 40% fewer antioxidants in conventionally grown food when compared to organic. Factory-farmed meats have been shown to contain fewer nutrients and less Omega-3 fatty acids than organic, grass-fed meats. Taste and variety Eating seasonally is exciting. Seasonal crops can be a treat to savor and celebrate. That first sweet little strawberry or juicy peach is a beautiful summer moment. Challenging yourself to try new vegetables such as rutabaga or celeriac, because they’re in season now, can expand your culinary skills, add variety to your diet, and keep you inspired. There are roughly 6,000 North American tomato varieties known, yet you will see the same ones at the supermarket all year (these ones are bred to withstand shipment, be uniform, and have greatest yield). When you support local organic produce, you get to experience heirloom varieties that tickle your senses.
The bee’s needs
tures.” – The Bhagavad Gita
We need bees. They pollinate our food, helping plants grow, breed, and produce food. Bees need us to stop supporting the use of pesticides which are causing bee extinctions, and to ensure crop variety by supporting the growth of organic heirloom plants. “Like the honeybee, the sage should gather wisdom from many different scrip-
Shannon MacLean is a Registered Holistic Nutritionist with a BA in International Relations. Open for bookings at Balu Yoga and Wellness, she is currently studying Functional Medicine and is passionate about wild foraging, recipe creation, and all things health and wellness. Her Instagram is sprucetipnutrition.
Tending our tapestry The health of our food depends on the health of our soil. Chemical fertilizers, fungicides, herbicides, and pesticides devastate soil microbiota essential to plants’ health and ability to assimilate nutrients. Phytonutrients are responsible for the colour, hue, scent, and flavor of plants. They are essentially a plant’s immune system, meant to protect them from environmental threats, such as insects. The use of pesticides and herbicides negates this need, reducing phytonutrient content, in turn reducing flavor, colour, and health benefits.
SHANNON MACLEAN RHN, CHNC, BA-IR
Registered Holistic Nutrition.
Reducing toxic burden Pesticides, herbicides, and chemical fertilizers pollute our lands, degrade soil, destroy habitats, waste freshwater resources, and create loss of biodiversity. Conventional foods have been tested to contain much higher levels of harmful pesticides and the heavy metal cadmium, a known carcinogen. Factory farmed meats contain antibiotics and hormones that disrupt our endocrine and immune systems.
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