A VOICE IN THE WILDERNESS Scott Noble’s environmental legacy

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STORY BY JENNY DUNBAR PHOTOGRAPHY BY ARDEN GILL

NESTLED IN THE HEART OF A LUSH TEMPERATE RAINFOREST, SHAWNIGAN LAKE SCHOOL IS THE CARETAKER OF OVER 270 ACRES COMPRISED OF LAKEFRONT, MARSHLANDS, PONDS, CREEKS, FIELDS, AND FOREST.

The School is home not only to hundreds of students and staff, but also to salmon, ducks, deer, and rabbits. As ponds overflow in the winter, creeks dry up in the sun, and invasive species take over, the School community is reminded daily of the beauty and fragility of planet Earth. Throughout the years, a few key players have spearheaded efforts to ensure that our home – not just our campus, but also the larger ecosystem of which we are a part – remains as healthy and beautiful as possible. One man in particular has led the charge: Scott Noble. Scott is a man of many titles, including alumnus, teacher, champion of the environment, and Enviro-Man. Generations of Shawnigan students remember Scott Noble standing onstage in the old Assembly Hall, urging them to recycle their pop cans and teaching them how to take the plastic window out of an envelope. His catchphrase, “If it crinkles, it’s crap,” still reverberates through many a memory. Times have changed – the Assembly Hall has been moved and converted into the Hugh Wilkinson Theatre, the general concept of recycling has been grasped, and Enviro-Man’s cape has been gathering dust for years – but Scott Noble’s passion and dedication haven’t waned. Scott graduated from Shawnigan Lake School in 1975 (Groves’) and returned as a teacher in 1981. Like many others before him, he found a lasting home here. Scott’s passion for the environment directed his teaching career and manifested itself in many ways over the years. Throughout a time of dubious environmental practices and attitudes worldwide, he remained a true voice in the wilderness in his fight for environmental stewardship. One of the most impactful things Scott did for the School’s sustainability was to form the Environment Club about 10 years into his teaching career at Shawnigan. Before this official club was established, students with a passion for the environment were already drawn to Scott. These zealous students helped Scott in the fish hatchery and taught the rest of the School about recycling – still a rather novel concept in the early 1990s. The inaugural Environment Club started out with three students in a little office above the old library. Sonja Leverkus ’97 (Groves’), one of the founding members of the E-Club, remembers, “We collected all sorts of environmental documents and brochures to share with the rest of the School. We were provided with the opportunity to design our own path, which included Streamkeepers, attending environmental law conferences at UBC and across the Island, being involved with the fish hatchery, and establishing the recycling program.” It is thanks to these students that Enviro-Man, Scott’s alter ego, was born. “They wanted to do a presentation to the School about recycling,” remembers Scott. “And we were trying

to figure out how to get the message out there. They came up to me and said, ‘Listen, if we make this costume, will you wear it?’” Ever good-natured, Scott accepted. He was presented with a cape – a bedsheet – with a large globe painted on the back. The rest of the costume was up to him. True to form, Scott jumped in with both feet, and went out on that stage wearing blue leggings, a plastic helmet adorned with antennas, and goofy glasses to complement the cape. “It was all to support their idea, and our idea together, that we need to promote recycling,” he insists. In that moment, a legend was born – one who would influence Shawnigan students and staff for decades, and whose spirit would guide Scott throughout his career. These days, the E-Club does much more than encourage recycling and manage the salmon hatchery. They battle invasive species, such as spurge-laurel, English ivy and Himalayan blackberry, on a regular basis. They plant trees on campus, stabilize the banks of Shawnigan Lake, and clean up the shorelines of Hartl and Shawnigan Creeks. Their work has even extended beyond the campus, as they regularly work in local parks and on nearby Portland Island. Shawnigan’s recycling habits have also come a long way. “We started recycling in the early ‘90s with Grade 8s just pulling out clean paper and recyclables,” remembers Scott. Since then, programs and teaching around recycling have seen many evolutions, including inter-House recycling and FROG awards. Now, returning students and staff have embraced the systems put in place and pass their knowledge on to others. “Waste management is something that I think we probably do, on a whole, better than a lot of institutions,” asserts Scott. Our large on-campus “recycling barn,” managed by a full-time employee, is used to sort all waste produced by Shawnigan students and staff, from plastics to batteries. We also have industrial-sized composting cells onsite. A community of nearly 800 students and staff produces a lot of compost – everything from food scraps to pizza boxes to trimmings from our extensive grounds. We also accept chipped trees from a few local tree-felling companies, which is blended into our compost cells to help with consistency. In a wonderful example of sustainability, the newly formed soil is then used in our gardens by our grounds crew.

One of Scott’s biggest passions – and already part of his lasting legacy – is the School’s salmon hatchery. Former Shawnigan teacher Mark Hobson, after whom our renovated hatchery is named, started the program in 1980, and Scott took it over in 1983. Every fall for the past 40 years, the School has received brood stock from nearby Goldstream Hatchery from which we take eggs and milt. Science classes, the E-Club, teachers, and volunteers all spend countless hours caring for these eggs, nurturing them through their early stages of development until they become large enough to release in the spring. “The process is a really good learning experience and it exposes the kids to what is one of the most important natural resources in BC, and that’s our salmon,” shares Scott enthusiastically.

Thousands of Shawnigan students have now gone through the program. “I remember working until my hands froze in the cold waters, making sure the eggs remained viable,” reminisces Sonja. “And I will always remember helping Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) release fish out of a huge hose and having to follow their instructions very carefully about shuffling our feet along the bottom of the lake with all the new fish swimming around us.” Many current students and alumni can likely relate! Working in the salmon hatchery has become one of those quintessential Shawnigan experiences, shared across many generations. The hatchery serves the dual purpose of student education and enhancement of the local salmon population. “We’re responsible to the DFO, so the number of eggs, the amount of fin clipping we do, when we release our fish – all those stats are kept,” shares Scott. He explains that while there are “good” years and “bad” years in terms of success and survival rate, ultimately, the work done in our salmon hatchery has made a huge impact on the local salmon population. Shawnigan, under Scott’s gentle guidance, has other green projects on the go. Our junior science classes have partnered with the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy since 1997 to conduct a fish survey in Shawnigan Lake. Our Environmental Science classes have created a research forest on campus, where they assess the effects of selective logging. The trees that were logged for this project were even milled on campus and used in the recent additions to Lake’s and Ripley’s Houses. We have installed solar panels on Duxbury House and the Prep School. We have recently completed the installation of a Growing Dome on campus, which will provide produce for our School year-round while giving students hands-on learning experiences. The list goes on and is steadily growing as opportunities present themselves.

Education remains a key focus in all of these programs, even while they aim to make tangible differences in the local environment. Scott makes it clear that it is always his goal to pass on knowledge, instill good habits, and ignite passion. “I am teaching students to be champions of sustainable behaviour,” says Scott. “It’s not something I explicitly try to get out of them, but I would hope they are leaving with behaviours that will make a difference – and translate to other people (families, friends) wherever they go.” Sonja’s memory summarizes the impact Scott has had over the years: “When I think of Mr. Noble, I think of kindness, compassion for the environment, curiosity, and a will to teach and to learn – and friendship,” she shares. Climate change is a necessary hot topic right now, particularly among younger generations. “I think youth awareness of global concerns is much higher than it ever was,” observes Scott. It is our duty as a School and as global citizens to teach – and to practise – sustainability and stewardship. Shawnigan, thanks in large part to leaders such as Scott Noble, has done and is still doing many things right. But a forward trajectory is imperative. Enviro-Man made his final caped appearance as part of a special video presentation for the 50th anniversary of Earth Day in April 2020. For Scott, who retired in June 2020, it was both a salute to a memorable alter ego and the beginning of his goodbye. It was time to pass the torch, along with his vision and passion, on to the next generation of Shawnigan environmentalists. Scott serves as a perfect reminder to everyone at Shawnigan that the actions of one person really can make a difference. It’s clear that his influence on students, staff, and the life and culture of the School will last for years to come. By following in his footsteps and continuing his good work, Shawnigan as a whole can continue to be a voice in the wilderness, championing sustainability and environmental stewardship at a time when the Earth needs it more than ever.