TheGreenGazette
April/May 2014
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April/May 2014
TheGreenGazette
TheGreenGazette
Contents
Issue # 26
April / May 2014
Features:
05/ All is Fair in Love… and Fairtrade There are many ways to ring in spring, but none that will have the same global impact as Fair Trade Fortnight – Fairtrade Canada’s two-week, all out celebration of reigning fairness and decency down on the global marketplace. - by Jessica Kirby
06/ April 22 - Earth Day: Remembering the importance of nature and play The CBC recently ran a special series titled “Rewiring Our Kids” (February 26, 2014). It cites new research that highlights the long-term psychological dangers that come with depriving kids of regular experiences and relationships with nature, in its most modern context: one that is predominantly urban and technological. - by Brianna van de Wijngaard 08/ Health Impacts of Radio Frequency Radiation from Smart Meters Smart Meters have been installed on our homes by utilities in many provinces and states in North America as part of a new Automated Metering Infrastructure. - by Dr. Karl Maret 15/ Keep Your Electrical Fluid Dry and Your Grid Tied In 1789 Benjamin Franklin coined the phrase “nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” Ben, a true renaissance man, is considered by some the father of electricity. - by Ron Young 18/ At Road’s End: Farming by 0umbers As spring starts to feel like it actually is just around the corner, I realize that I know a lot more now than I did at the end of last season; and thank goodness for that since the following is an only somewhat embellished account of where I was at in December. - by Terri Smith 19/ Five Healing Plants to Gather and Four to Grow in the Cariboo-Chilcotin this Spring We are lucky to be surrounded by plants that can have profound effects on our well-being, though for the last few months they have mostly been sleeping patiently beneath the cold and snow. - by Ciel Patenaude
TheGreenGazette Publisher / Editor-in-Chief Lisa Bland lisa@thegreengazette.ca Senior Editor Jessica Kirby Contributors David Suzuki, LeRae Haynes, Jessica Kirby, Cael Geier, Jim Sims, Bill Chapman, Fin Donnelly, Michelle Daymond, Ciel Patenaude, Ron Young, Lisa Bland, Dr. Karl Maret, Tera Grady, A.K. Amy, Jasmin Schellenberg, Terri Smith, Susan Tritt, Ray Grigg, Colleen Gatenby, Richard Case, Pat Teti, Brianna van de Wijngaard, Calvin Dubray Advertising Lisa Bland Creative Directors Lisa Bland / Teena Clipston Ad Design Teena Clipston, Rebecca Patenaude Published by Earthwild Consulting Printing Black Press Ltd. Cover Photo Sunny studio Index Photo solarseven
PO Box 164 Horsefly, BC, V0L 1L0 250-620-3419 www.thegreengazette.ca info@thegreengazette.ca TheGreenGazette is published by Earthwild Consulting. To subscribe call 250-620-3419. To view the web s ite an d on lin e f lipb oo k, v i s it www.thegreengazette.ca © 2014 all rights reserved. Opinions and perspectives expressed in the magazine are those of authors, and do not necessarily represent the views of the ownership or management. Reproduction in whole or part April/May without 2014 the publisher’s consent is strictly prohibited.
27/ 0ational Wildlife Week: Seeking the Soul in 0ature What is often seen as the “childlike” tendency to attribute human qualities to animals and the rest of the non-human world has long been criticized as undeveloped thinking by many so-called sophisticated realists and philosophers. - by Ciel Patenaude
Also in this Issue: 04/ Publishers Letter: Keep on Movin’ for Life - by Lisa Bland 07/ Transition Town Group Hosts Films and Discussion 09/ Science Matters: Wild win in court, loss on the ground - by David Suzuki 11/ Chicken Column: Growing our meat, and yours, too - by Susan Tritt 11/ Quesnel Food Gardeners: Hmm... How about trying pomegranates this year? - by Colleen Gatenby 12/ Geo-Thermal and Solar Energy Options at Toosey - by LeRae Haynes 12/ Youth Perspective: the Road to Salvage-Salvation - by Cael Geier 13/ Featured Green Business: It pays to be green at Williams Lake Scrap Metal - by LeRae Haynes 14/ Pat’s Basic Pizza using a Biga - by Pat Teti 17/ The Horsefly Green Team Youth Healthy Inquiry Project: Reducing our carbon footprint - by Calvin Dubray and the Horsefly Green Team 20/ Extended Producer Responsibility: Part of the Cariboo Regional District’s Solid Waste Info Series—Becoming Waste Wise - by Tera Grady 20/ The Unlikely Pipeline - by Ray Grigg 21/ Canadian Tire: In tune with recycling 22/ What’s in your well. Part 2: Testing your well water - by A. K. (Sandy) Amy 23/ Changes to Park Act Pave the Way for Industrial development in BC Parks: Controversial Bill 4 becomes law 24/ Inviting Wild Mushrooms into your Kitchen - Bill Chapman 25/ Rivershed Society of BC - by Fin Donnelly 27/ First 0ations Respond to Judicial Review of Federal Rejection of 0ew Prosperity: “Enough is Enough” 28/ Sharp-tailed Grouse (Tympanuchusphasianellus) - by Jim Sims 28/ Welcoming in Spring with the Williams Lake Food Policy Council - by Michelle Daymond 29/ 0ourishing our Children - by Jasmin Schellenberg 30/ Calendar of Events 31/ The Green Collective
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TheGreenGazette
Letter from the Publisher
Keep on Movin’ for Life ets, climbing steep hills, along game trails, and wading through deep sphagnum moss and bogs. At the end of the day we may Lisa Bland have walked 20 or more kilometres. For me, there was nothing more satisfying than sitPublisher/ ting down for lunch and hot tea on a log, Editor-in-Chief taking in the scenery and fresh air, and knowing that if I ate a big chocolate chip cookie or butter tart, it would pretty much be burned up by the end of the day. For whatever reason I’ve always ear Readers, struggled with those few extra pounds and Spring is finally here – or is it? whether it is due to a genetic pre-disposition It’s the end of March as I write or the bad habit of sitting still for long perithis while looking out at the ods without moving, I’ve never enjoyed a freezing rain, crossing my fingers that fast burning metabolism and thus a free ride April will launch us into the balmy spring in consuming decadent desserts without weather and green sprouts people on the paying a price. Now that I spend increased BC coast have been enjoying for well over time indoors working at a desk, like most a month. But we all know how slowly win- people, I’m realizing the impacts of not conter can recede in the Cariboo. stantly moving. It turns out that there are After the challenge of staying active ways of staying fit, healthy, and sane while through the winter with outdoor activities working an office job, and with a few intenlike skiing and snowshoeing, the seasonal tional modifications in behaviour and transition to spring brings numerous days changes to traditional office spaces, people when getting out into nature is downright can be productive and maintain their health unappealing. In addition to the damp chill, while spending long periods indoors. cold rain, slush, and splashes of wet snow, However, if we don’t get a handle on getting outside during the spring melt in the our sedentary ways, the impact can be far Cariboo means venturing out on icy drive- reaching. The latest research warns that ways, squishy road banks, and into the off- “sitting is the new smoking,” and shows that road clay muck that cakes the bottom of people working a regular office job can your shoes and splatters up your legs - not spend from 11 to 15 hours a day sitting if exactly inspiring unless you have sheer de- you combine a full day of desk work with termination, a few changes of shoes, an in- commuting, eating, and relaxing in the evesistent pet, or a buddy system worked out ning reading, watching TV, or at the comfor your daily walk and fresh air. puter. The acute and long-term physiological Walking is always worth it though, effects of sitting too much are quite signifieven if getting out the door and dragging cant, and in the short term can cause metaoneself away from endless tasks seems diffi- bolic dysfunction such as elevated glucose cult. No matter the conditions, if you are levels leading to type 2 diabetes and a rise in well dressed for the weather, taking the time fat and cholesterol levels. While sitting, the to clear your mind, breathe in fresh air, body’s metabolic engines basically go to boost your metabolism, and insert a little sleep. As the muscles stop moving and the inspiration into your day can work wonders. heart slows, the body’s calorie-burning rate In fact, according to recent research, our is reduced to a third of what it would be if indoor-based, sedentary lives are quite liter- you were walking. ally killing us. It is also well known that loading our As we move further into a techno- skeletal systems with weight ensures the logically based society, movement has in- strength of our bones, but in prolonged sitcreasingly dropped out of our day-to-day ting where body weight is transferred to our routines. Health experts have recommended chairs, bones grow weak. Long-term studies for years that even if we lead a relatively suggest that people who sit the longest each sedentary life, exercising vigorously for at day have two times the risk of developing least one hour, five days a week will keep us diabetes and cardiovascular disease, and are healthy enough to maintain a level of fitness 1.5 times more likely to die prematurely. It for overall health. But the latest research is also thought that prolonged sitting may be suggests otherwise—we are sitting still far linked to depression and cancer. too much. A recent CBC radio Quirks and The good news is that even if you Quarks episode (http://podcast.cbc.ca/mp3/ don’t like to exercise, the most important podcasts/quirksaio_20140322_91565.mp3) thing you can do for your health is to keep highlighted studies suggesting that even changing positions. Scientists recommend with moderate daily exercise, if we spend standing up at least every 30 minutes, even the majority of our time in a prolonged sit- for short periods. The transition between ting posture, we are still at risk for diabetes, postures is more beneficial than holding cardiovascular problems, premature death, prolonged positions such as standing, which weight gain, depression, and even cancer. can contribute to back pain or blood pooling We are in effect, ‘sitting ducks’ when it in the legs. Frequent interruptions, like comes to compromised health. standing up or quickly walking short disIn my past working life doing field tances, keep the muscles and skeleton active work, even though I was often tied to my and in a state of constant adjustment and chair with marathon stints of data entry or variability. This creates better physiology cooped up on a boat in a sheltered bay for and reduces the risk of diabetes and strokes. days on end with no exercise, waiting for a To combat the sedentary workplace, storm to subside, I usually did a lot of walk- some offices are finding solutions such as ing. Sometimes it’s all my day consisted of sit/stand desks that mechanically move up – in all types of weather, scampering over and down to suit the worker’s needs, conlogs, across streams, crawling through thick- ducting standing meetings, and setting up
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Technology is here to stay, but who says you have to take it sitting down. Photo: Lisa Bland
treadmill desks, as revolutionary ways of bringing fitness front and center. A friend of mine created a healthy work environment in his company by installing stationary bikes in the lunchroom, where employees take breaks throughout the day to recharge their energy with exercise. Treadmill desks are on the rise in the workplace, and while it might seem awkward or strange to put on your runners for a day at the office, the benefits from walking at a slow to moderate pace throughout the day might turn anyone from a desk potato into a walking worker. Not only have the use of treadmill desks indicated an increase in work productivity, enhanced health, increased problem solving ability, and weight loss, they also solve the problem of interrupted work and flow of ideas when taking a break. Treadmill desks range anywhere from a $50 home-made adaptation of an existing treadmill to a $3,000 state-of-theart panoramic desk unit. In my fear of becoming too sedentary, last year I purchased a second hand treadmill, attached a wooden shelf to hold my computer, and have been attempting to integrate walking into my work routine. I can say that writing an article on the computer while walking is challenging at first, but after awhile it is preferable to sitting, feels better, and at the end of the day, I don’t feel so bad about not getting outside in the slush and mud for a walk. I can report that I walked 6 km while working on this article and it definitely motivated me to move more in my day. I plan to set up my computer station permanently at the treadmill.
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Whether we choose to stand up and stretch every 30 min, walk around the block a few times every hour, or install a treadmill desk, the commitment to lifelong movement and well-being can be achieved by reinventing the way we move ourselves in our modern world of comfort that all too often steals our health and vitality. ***
April/May 2014
All is Fair in Love and... Fairtrade... By Jessica Kirby, Senior Editor of TheGreenGazette
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here are many ways to ring in spring, but none that will have the same global impact as Fair Trade Fortnight – Fairtrade Canada’s two-week, all out celebration of reigning fairness and decency down on the global marketplace. We’ve all seen the stickers and fingered through the pamphlets, but what do we really know about the Fair Trade certification system and its impact on world commerce? Though coffee drinkers and banana fans will likely have a good idea of how Fairtrade International (FLO) and its members, including Fairtrade Canada, run their show, for many the concept appears to be more of a buzzword than an essential, life-changing system that affects 1.2 million farmers and workers worldwide. Fair Trade 101 According to the World Fair Trade Organization (WFTO), the Fair Trade system was developed to address injustices in the conventional trade process that discriminate against small scale producers and push them into marginalization. “This is evident in many poor countries where poverty and economic inequalities are persistent, largely due to the failure of conventional trade to deliver sustainable livelihoods to communities,” says the organization. “WFTO’s response to this failure is Fair Trade.” WFTO, Network of European Worldshops, European Fair Trade Association, and FLO operate under a shared Charter of Fair Trade Principles and two sets of economically relevant Standards to ensure small producers in developing nations receive fair, sustainable wages for their products, providing a safety net at times when world markets fall below a sustainable level. In addition to the Fairtrade price, an additional sum called the Fairtrade Premium is collected and earmarked for a communal fund workers and farmers use to improve their social, economic, and environmental conditions. Considered a trading partnership based on dialogue, transparency, and respect, Fair Trade still encompasses a change-focused component that seeks to change the rules and practice of contemporary trade and secure human, social, and environmental rights. “The FAIRTRADE Certification Mark, which applies to products rather than companies, aims to give disadvantaged small producers more control over their own lives,” says FLO. “It addresses the injustice of low prices by ensuring that producers receive fairer terms of trade and better prices—however unfair the conventional market is.” Fair Trade: the Movement Religious groups and politicallymotivated NGOs first inspired fair trade initiatives in the 40s—these were focused primarily on establishing aid for develop-
April/May 2014
TheGreenGazette about it with customers, draw attention to FairTrade items in your store, or kick up a full scale block party. Maybe you are a student who gets totally crazy like University of Ottawa grad student Lia Walsh, who, as part of Fairtrade Canada’s 2012 Step up for Fair Trade campaign, sent volunteers out to a Halloween street parade dressed in zombie makeup and banana suits. Or could you be the all powerful consumer, who forks over an extra two bucks for coffee that makes a difference in a developing community or refuses to buy non -Fairtrade chocolate in support of exploited cocoa workers the world over? Discover the Power of You
Fairtrade Certified quinoa producers in Ecuador. Photo: Dider Gentilhomme ing nations by selling handicrafts to wealthy westerners. The first inkling of consciousness about a system to correct how consumerism in the West was affecting developing nations began in Europe in the 60s and was seen as a political movement against neo-imperialism. The movement differed from earlier attempts at establishing fair supply chains in that it called into question traditional trade methods; actually, it called them out as fundamentally flawed. Throughout the 60s and 70s, the idea grew legs, largely because Oxfam’s Helping by Selling program established in 1965 spanned the globe (and still does) and because fair trade hit the retail sector in 1969 when the first Worldshop launched in the Netherlands. In fact, ideas about how to bridge the world’s economies and create a stronger and fairer link between price and the cost of production blossomed until alternative trade organizations (ATOs) were running from sea to sea, attacking worker and farmer exploitation and foreign domination. From Crafts to Commodities By the 80s, westerners were growing weary of handicrafts and ATOs were faced with changing their direction or losing face. Fuelled by the collapse of the International Coffee Agreement in 1989, the fair trade coffee movement led the way to a new level of awareness and support of marginalized food producers in developing countries. Although coffee farmers became poster children for the new age of responsible consumerism, with coffee sales making up around 50 per cent of fair trade income, the wave of support caught momentum and soon included tea, dried fruits, sugar, fruit, rice, cocoa, spices, and nuts. By 2002 agricultural goods were responsible for 70 per cent of fairly traded items, with handicrafts down to around 25 per cent. When Oxfam abandoned crafts and hopped on board the food train that same year, the wave crested and the future of fairly traded commodity items was secured.
Label This The first Fair Trade labelling initiative kicked off in 1988 with the Max Havelaar program in the Netherlands. The crux of its success was that it brought fairly traded goods out of specialty shops and into the general public—namely, grocery stores—opening up a world of awareness and adoption. Now, the public could see the label and even track the item’s point of production to ensure the path from factory to feast was an ethical one. Fair Trade labelling officially became “the new black” in the early 2000s when FLO launched its International Fairtrade Certification Mark, and then later divided into two independent bodies—FLO International, which oversees Fairtrade standards and provides producer business support, and FLO-Cert, which inspects and certified producer organizations. Today, FLO International covers more than 20 labelling initiatives and the list of fairly traded commodities has grown to include just about everything from quinoa to footballs.
This year’s Fair Trade Fortnight coincides with the launch of Fairtrade Canada’s The Power of You public engagement campaign focused on just how much power discerning consumers make on the state of global trade. The idea is to connect groups, organizations, and businesses on an international scale with long-lasting campaigns that feature self-inspired, individualized messages aimed at the real power discerned from choice. Fairtrade Canada is ready to act and offer support for bouncing off ideas and providing promotional materials. Reach out at communications@fairtrade.ca for ideas, support, and campaign updates. No matter what steps you take, bringing the eyes of your community to the social, economic, and environmental success of developing nations will make this the most refreshing spring of your life. What are you waiting for?
Live it Up for Fair Trade So who is ready to celebrate? May 1-15 is Fair Trade Fortnight, and World Fair Trade Day falls on May 10—either is an ideal opportunity to become more aware and spread the word about this important system that affects six million people world wide, including families and communities that benefit when we mindfully purchase fairly traded items. Maybe you own a business and make a point to talk
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TheGreenGazette
April 22—Earth Day: Remembering the importance of nature and play
By Brianna van de Wijngaard
provements could be realized. Dickinson may be right – EE needs to be more culturally relevant – but the imprinting of environmental stewardship needs to be consistent, and accessible to all youth. Many of you likely already have strong bonds with nature; when one writes in The Green Gazette about the importance of human-nature relationships among children, they’re probably preaching to the choir! So this Earth Day (April 22), maybe do something a little different: if you are not already planning to be out in the woods with your kids, checking out the old man’s beard hanging from the trees, or looking for crayfish in the lake, book it in and ask one of your little ones to invite a friend … one that’s never seen a crayfish.
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he CBC recently ran a special series titled “Rewiring Our Kids” (February 26, 2014). It cites new research that highlights the long-term psychological dangers that come with depriving kids of regular experiences and relationships with nature, in its most modern context: one that is predominantly urban and technological. This research is referenced through the work of experiential environmental education advocate Richard Louv, author of the bestselling 2005 book “Last Child in the Woods.” Louv’s book coined the popular term “nature-deficit disorder.” His website, childrenandnature.org, clarifies that the term is meant to “serve as a description of the human costs of alienation from nature” and not “a medical diagnosis, (although perhaps it should be).” One of the reasons Louv’s book was a national bestseller was because the level, quality, and readability of his research was indisputable. In a nutshell, his research supports the conclusion that “children are smarter, more cooperative, happier, and healthier when they have frequent and varied opportunities for free and unstructured play in the outdoors” (C. Charles, president, Children & Nature Network). To start, it is probably old news to many that increased outdoor play in nature decreases instances of many physical disease risk factors in children – even nearsightedness, as chances of myopia drop by approximately 2 per cent for every extra hour a child spends outdoors (University of Cambridge, 2011). But what is perhaps more important, and less well-known, are the psychological contributions of nature time. Most research to date focuses on the benefits of nature inclusion: • Children with ADHD who regularly play in green settings have milder symptoms than those who play in built outdoor or indoor settings (Faber Taylor &Kuo, 2011) • Children with ADHD concentrate better after walking in a park (Faber Taylor &Kuo, 2008) • Nearby nature reduces stress in children, and improves their cognitive functioning (Wells, 2000/2003) • School gardens positively impact children’s learning, behaviour, and eating habits (Blair, 2009) • Urban brains respond differently to stress than rural brains (Lederbogen, et al, 2011) It has been more difficult to study and prove a causal relationship between lack of nature time and common psychological ailments, such as depression and ADHD, but evidence is mounting. Should further research support a causal relationship between lack of nature time and psychological ailments in the future, however, it could mean more opportunities for preventative treatment of diseases like ADHD.
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Child holding globe. Photo:expatchild.com There are criticisms of Louv’s work that raise interesting points, however. In her paper titled, “The Misdiagnosis: Rethinking ‘Nature-Deficit Disorder’,” Elizabeth Dickinson does not discredit the value of Louv’s work, and the positive attention it has given to the issue of nature deprivation in today’s children: she argues that the problem lies with how NDD “can be predicated on assumptions that are arguably part of larger alienation issues.” One of these assumptions, Dickinson writes, is cultural: we (North Americans, in particular) seem to have a habit of using what Dickinson calls “a fall-recovery narrative” when we talk about current humannature relationships. A “when I was young” reaction to fixing the not-many-children-inthe-woods problem, wherein adults lament childhood memories of frolicking in the back 40, catching fireflies. This may have been entirely true, but it is selective, and can, Dickinson states, “deemphasize a long history of environmental degradation and disconnectedness”—a history that has been there long before the 1950s, and for a variety of reasons that have entrenched bad behaviours up to this very day. It also neglects to consider major cultural differences. For example, Louv recollects his own nature-filled youth of fly fishing, hiking, camping, and other predominantly white, North American, male, middle-class oriented activities. While I personally think this distinction is a reality, it is not entirely inclusive, or lacks some suggestions on how to make unstructured nature adventures more available to other cultures, demographics, and/or income levels. In addition, if you look beyond our own borders, where a significant amount of global environmental degradation takes place, the reasons behind them are entirely different. So solutions must reflect these realities, both at home and abroad, as our impacts have become more globalized. One thing is for sure: environmental education (EE) in our public schools is so
Brianna van de Wijngaard is the community liason for the Cariboo-Chilcotin Conservation Society, and can be reached at 250-398-7929 or wastewise@ccconserv.org
important, and Louv advocates for this very well. Public school curriculum knows no bounds when it comes to socioeconomic or cultural differences. Kids from a variety of backgrounds and incomes can have access to nature experiences when they might not otherwise. If EE were incorporated as part of the standard curriculum, many cognitive, behavioural, emotional, and social im-
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April/May 2014
TheGreenGazette
Transition Town Group Hosts Film and Discussion
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entral Cariboo Arts Center (Old Fire Hall) in Williams Lake. Films start at 6:30 p.m. doors open at 6:00 p.m. Come early and browse the new books and DVDs in the lending library. Share snacks and join the discussion. Email rcase@laketown.net for more info. Monday, April 21- GROW! (60 min) It's not just Old MacDonald on the farm anymore. All across the US there is a growing movement of educated young people who are leaving the cities to take up an agrarian life. Armed with college degrees, some are unable to find jobs in the current economic slump. Fed up with corporate America and its influence on a broken food system, they aim to solve some of the current system's inequities by growing clean, fair food. Mostly landless, they borrow, rent, or manage farmland in order to fulfill their dreams of doing something meaningful with their lives. GROW! takes a look at this new generation of sustainable farmers through the eyes, hearts, and minds of 20 passionate, idealistic, and fiercely independent young growers. In the film they speak of both the joys and the challenges involved in tending the land. Filmed on 12 farms throughout the state of Georgia during an entire growing season, GROW! provides an honest and inspiring look at this next generation of farmers.
April/May 2014
Anybody who appreciates the value of good, wholesome food grown close to home, and who cares about our food supply and the future of farming will want to see GROW! Monday, May 26 - FAT, SICK, A0D 0EARLY DEAD (97 min) Part road trip, part wellness manifesto, this feature length documentary is the uplifting story of two men whose chance meeting and struggle to overcome the same rare autoimmune disease saves one life, and changes another for good. Across two continents and 9,000 miles, what emerges is nothing short of a miracle—an inspiring tale of healing and human connection. One hundred pounds overweight, loaded up on steroids, and suffering from a debilitating autoimmune disease, Joe Cross
is at the end of his rope and the end of his hope. With one foot already in the grave, the other wasn’t far behind. FAT, SICK & NEARLY DEAD is an inspiring film that chronicles Joe’s personal mission to regain his health. With doctors and conventional medicines unable to help long-term, Joe turns to the only option left: the body’s ability to heal itself. He trades in the junk food and hits the road with juicer and generator in tow, vowing only to drink fresh fruit and vegetable juice for the next 60 days. Across 3,000 miles Joe has one goal in mind: to get off his pills and achieve a balanced lifestyle. Dr. Fuhrman oversees Joe’s medical care along the way and is featured throughout the film providing him with nutritional guidance, support, and encouragement. While talking to more than 500 Americans about food, health, and longevity, it’s at a truck stop in Arizona where Joe meets a truck driver who suffers from the same rare condition. Phil Staples is morbidly obese weighing in at 429 lbs, and is a cheeseburger away from a heart-attack. As Joe is recovering his health, Phil begins his own epic journey to get well.
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Eat Good to Feel Good All Year Long at the Co-op Eat good to feel good all year long. Visit your local non-profit Farmer's Co-op in downtown Williams Lake: Open Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 11 a.m. - 6 p.m. and Saturdays from 10 a.m. - 3 p.m. Find out what is new and instore with our weekly emails. Open ALL-YEAR long. Email admin@cariboogrowers.ca or call 778-412-COOP (2667) or visit us on the corner of 3rd & Oliver Street in downtown Williams Lake.
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TheGreenGazette
Health Impacts of Radio Frequency Radiation from Smart Meters By Dr. Karl Maret
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mart meters have been installed on our homes by utilities in many provinces and states in ?orth America as part of a new Automated Metering Infrastructure. Unfortunately, using microwave radiating devices was a poor health choice that could have been avoided if Powerline Communications (PLC) technologies or other dedicated wired or fiber optic cables had been utilized instead. The most common smart meters transmit thousands of short bursts of powerful microwave radiation at frequencies between 902–928 MHz both day and night. In most places they are configured as part of a mesh network transmitting and retransmitting utility usage information not only from your home but also from all of your neighbours’ homes. They represent the latest additional wireless microwave radiation source that burdens our population, along with the already ubiquitous exposure from cellphones, cordless phones, and WiFi from wireless routers, computers, laptops, tablets, and smartphones that are now so prevalent. Microwave radiation is cumulative. Over long time periods, even low levels of microwave radiation that these devices emit can overwhelm the body’s innate repair processes of damaged D?A strand breaks. Research on Biological Effects of Low-level, 0on-thermal EMFs The biological effects of low-level, non-thermal electromagnetic fields (EMFs) have been researched for over 30 years. In 2007, Biomedical engineering professor Arthur Pilla from Columbia University wrote in the authoritative, Handbook of Biological Effects of Electromagnetic Fields: “The biophysical lore prevailing until the late 1980s and lingering to this day is that, unless the amplitude and frequencies of an applied electric field were sufficient to trigger an excitable membrane (e.g. heart pacemaker), produce tissue heating or move an ion along a field gradient, there could be no effect. …. However, this position had to be changed as the evidence for weak (non-thermal) EMF bioeffects became overwhelming.” Today, there are numerous reports on the adverse health effects of non-thermal electromagnetic fields. Some of the early comprehensive research papers were published by Frey (1993), Lai (2000), and Hyland (2000), among many others. In 2009, a special edition of the journal Pathophysiology was published, describing the biological and health effects from low level EMFs. Recently, an international working group of 29 authors, including 10 MDs and 21 PhDs from 10 countries, and three former presidents of the Bioelectromagnetics Society, compiled the “2012 Bioinitiative Report.” This report outlines the dangers of low-level, non-thermal electromagnetic field exposure based on 3800 peer-reviewed studies, 1800 of which, being new studies, dated 2007 and after. The European Journal of Oncology published an entire monograph titled, “Non-Thermal Effects and Mechanisms of interaction between Electromagnetic Fields and Living Matter,” explaining non-thermal effects on living systems. This came from Italy’s National Institute for the Study and Control of Cancer and Environmental Diseases “Bernardino Ramazzini” (L.Giuliani & M. Soffriti, eds. 2010). In 2011, the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer classified Radiofrequency Electromagnetic Fields as “Possibly Carcinogenic to Humans” (Group 2B). This includes RF/EMFs
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Left : In addition to the radiation emitted by individual smart meters, there is also radiation from the relays, routers, and towers within the smart grid. Photo: Thermoguy.com Right: Tens of thousands of BC residents, and many more across Canada and US, have chosen to refuse the installation of smart meters in their homes, out of concerns about radiation, privacy invasion, excessive billing, fire hazards, and malfunctioning of appliances associated with the installation. A civil class action lawsuit has been filed against BC Hydro, and a Human Rights Tribunal application has been submitted for accommodation of citizens who suffer from Electrohypersensitivity (EHS). Photo: stopsmartmetersbc.ca emitted by cellphones, WiFi, smart meters, and various other sources. Key Mechanisms for the Action of Weak Electromagnetic Fields There is now a large body of scientific literature describing several key mechanisms of how the action of weak electromagnetic fields affects living beings. These processes occur at low electromagnetic field strengths that are quite different from the damage done by microwave heating of tissues (the so-called thermal effect) which is the only consideration in today’s short-term exposure guidelines adopted by the American and Canadian governments. These non-thermal mechanisms include, among others:
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Removal of calcium ions bound to cellular membranes, leading to weakened membrane structure and changed cellular functioning
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Activation by microwave pulses of voltage-gated calcium channels in cell membranes leading to changed metabolic processes in cells and the production of oxidative stress
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Leakage of calcium ions into neurons generating spurious action potentials • Fragmentation of DNA in cells seen through the Comet assay
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Disruption in the normally protective blood-brain barrier in animals after microwave exposure • A well-defined cellular stress response, including the production of heat shock proteins (HSP) and oxidative stress free radicals that are triggered by low level microwaves Activation of specific genes leading to gene transcription to form RNA, the first stage in the synthesis of proteins. All of the above biological effects are well substantiated in the scientific literature and occurred at much lower exposure levels than current FCC or Canada’s Safety Code 6 standards. The evidence is accumulating that, given sufficient time, health effects will become more widespread. The extensive REFLEX study involving research groups in seven European countries found adverse results in biological systems from cellphone radiation at levels that are 1/40th the current ICNIRP acceptable levels, i.e. at only 2.5 per cent of current exposure guidelines promulgated by the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (Adlkofer, 2006). This report focused
on a four-year international collaboration of 12 European research groups involving in-vitro studies of non-thermal radiofrequency radiation from cellphones. 0on-Linear Response Biological systems often respond in a non-linear manner and there is a large degree of genetic variability as to how animals or people are affected. Non-thermal EMFs might be comparable to the hazards of low levels of toxins found in the environment, which can be potent in disrupting enzyme systems in the body at very low concentrations. Dr. Richard Gautier in France offered a full description of active mechanisms for the action of non-thermal EMFs. There are peerreviewed scientific studies for each step of the processes that can lead to chronic diseases such as cancer, leukemia, and neurological diseases. These conditions often require longer time periods to develop and the Precautionary Principle ought to be applied when adding new sources of microwave radiation, such as those from smart meters which are active night and day in our homes and places of work. There is mounting evidence of various types of tumors being caused from cellphone usage including parotid gland tumor (Czerninski, 2011), meningioma (Hardell et al., 2006), acoustic neuroma (Sato et al. 2011), brain tumors (Hardell & Carlberg, 2009), and testicular tumors (Hardell et al., 2007), to name just a few. Considering the increasing number of scientific papers describing various types of tumors associated with non-thermal radiation from cellphones that are appearing in the medical literature, it is not helpful to let the non-thermal radiation from smart meters increase our long-term susceptibility to serious diseases. It is important to remember that the current exposure guidelines are only for short-term microwave exposure and do not consider long-term effects resulting from continuous radiation of cell towers and smart meters. Another problem is the potential health effect of microwave radiation exposure during our sleep, which may adversely affect our biological and circadian rhythms (daily physiological regulatory cycles). Smart meters pulse intermittently day and night and may have an adverse effect on sleep cycles. Since smart meters were not tested for health impacts prior to their deployment, they now represent an epidemiological experiment of gigantic proportions.
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E xp o s u r e to m ic r o w a v e / radiofrequency fields affects the neuroendocrine system causing neuroendocrine chemical mod u lat ion s and b eha v iour a l re actions. Already in the 1970s it was known that resonant absorption within the cranium may result in the focusing of energy and the production of electromagnetic “hot spots” in the brain (Johnson & Guy, 1972). Microwaves may disturb the critical hormonal regulatory areas including the hypothalamic-pituitary axis through “low intensity” exposure. The body may elicit “different responses relative to the timing of the exposure with respect to circadian rhythm” (Michaelson, 1982). At night, while sleeping, the body is principally in a repair mode and exposure to the pulsed microwave radiation from smart meters may potentially be more damaging than exposure during the day. Already many sensitive people have reported sleep disturbances, cognitive difficulties, and increased memory issues. I highly recommend that people become more informed about the adverse effects of non-thermal electromagnetic fields and reduce their exposure as much as possible. This includes keeping your old non-radiating analog utility meter or opting out from a smart meter, not placing cell or cordless phones next to your head, using wired telephone landlines rather than cordless phones, and eliminating or decreasing WiFi exposure in schools and homes (turn wireless routers and equipment off when possible or replace them with wired Internet and wired devices). Children, older people, and those who are immunecompromised are especially at risk. So are the growing number of electromagnetically hypersensitive people now estimated to be between three and five per cent of our population. Dr. Karl Maret holds a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering, a Master of Engineering degree in biomedical engineering, and a Medical Doctor degree. In addition, he has completed a four-year postdoctoral fellowship in physiology. Dr. Maret is president of the Dove Health Alliance in Aptos, CA, a non-profit foundation interested in energy medicine and the health effects of electromagnetic fields. He has presented many lectures to governments, academia, and the public about the adverse health impacts of non-ionizing, non-thermal radiation created by modern wireless technologies. References for this article can be found at http://goo.gl/ Iz8ahq.
April/May 2014
TheGreenGazette
Science Matters
Wildlife Win in Court, Loss on the Ground By David Suzuki
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f 345 species at risk in Canada, more than 160 have waited far too long for recovery strategies. Thanks to a recent federal court decision, Southern Mountain Caribou. Photo:Alamy four luckier ones are finally getting overdue plans detailing the steps needed to save and years for action plans, which have no timeprotect them including identifying the habi- lines, to take effect. For killer whales, whose tat they need to survive. But to make it hap- overdue action plan was just released, the pen, environmental groups including the process has taken about 13 years and a court David Suzuki Foundation, with the help of challenge from the David Suzuki Foundation Ecojustice lawyers, had to take the federal and others, which concluded that government government to court. It wasn’t the first time was failing to protect the whale’s critical we’ve gone to court to protect wildlife. habitat. Many species have been waiting In what the judge called “the tip of the even longer. iceberg,” the court found an enormous sysThe Species at Risk Act was adopted temic problem in the two ministries responsi- in 2002 to protect Canada’s plants and anible for protecting endangered and threatened mals. Although the act itself is sound, implewildlife. Both the environment and fisheries mentation leaves much to be desired. Some ministers broke the law for the species in species that need help, such as the porbeagle question by allowing multi-year delays in shark, are excluded from the list, along with meeting deadlines required under the Species other fish that have high economic value. at Risk Act. Despite a 90 per cent decline in population, This legal win is good news for Pa- the shark was denied protection because of cific humpback whales, marbled murrelets, possible impacts on the fishing industry. Nechako white sturgeon, and southern mounThe act only automatically applies to tain caribou. But their fate and that of many a small fraction of species at risk, since most other federally recognized endangered and are not guaranteed protection on provincial threatened species remains in jeopardy. Court lands, and allows the federal government to victories are just a start. It will take political step in if a province is failing to protect a will to ensure species and their habitats get species. But this has only happened once, for the protection they need. the greater sage grouse. Despite a recent fedThe yellow-breasted chat, northern eral emergency order to improve protection goshawk, and spotted turtle are just some of for the bird and its prairie habitat, concerns the endangered species that continue to remain around continued delays on recovery wait—some for as long as seven years now. actions. The eastern whip-poor-will – known for its The main threat to more than 85 per distinct nocturnal cries – struggles to survive cent of species at risk is habitat loss and degpollution, pesticides, and climate change, radation. Recovery plans identify habitat, while the grey fox and prairie loggerhead which can then be protected and restored to shrike confront agricultural and pesticide help wildlife survive. Strategies are now rethreats as they contend with recovery strat- quired for 192 species. Successful court chalegy delays. lenges – such as our 2009 Nooksack dace When plans come this late, impacts of case involving a small minnow on the brink large development projects such as the of extinction – helped enforce the act’s reNorthern Gateway pipeline aren’t adequately quirement that the federal government idenconsidered before projects are approved. tify critical habitat. Government can speed We’ll never know if the Joint Review Panel’s the process by following a precautionary recommendation to support the Enbridge approach in the absence of scientific cerproject would have been different had it con- tainty. sidered recovery impacts on threatened speWouldn’t it be nice if we didn’t have cies such as the humpback whale. to resort to court challenges to protect threatRecovery strategies are not the only ened wildlife? Endangered species caught in slow-moving part of the species-at-risk proc- long delays are like emergency patients deess. Just getting status assessments for spe- nied life support. If we really care about cies may take up to five years. Five more them, we need to do a better job of supportyears could be required for government to ing them. decide whether to accept these scientific asWith contributions from David Suzuki sessments and give species protection. Then, Foundation communications specialist legal timelines kick in, followed by recovery Th e r e s a Be e r . Le a r n mo r e a t strategies – many delayed – and still more www.davidsuzuki.org
April/May 2014
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Williams Lake Wanderers To join this group, come about 9:15 a.m. to the Cariboo Memorial Complex on a Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday. We always begin our outings from there, so you can fill out a membership form and pay your $10 annual fee. We leave at 9:30 a.m. Once you’re a member, you will receive emails with schedule and schedule changes. Schedules and updates are also on Facebook. April Schedule We have optimistically scheduled bike rides in April, but those will be dependent on weather and road conditions. Check your schedule daily. Tuesday, April 1 – Scout Island walk Wednesday, April 2 – River Valley walk Thursday, April 3 – Mission Road walk Tuesday, Apr. 8 – Soda Creek Road bike Wednesday, April 9 – Mission Road walk Thursday, April 10 – Signal Point powerline walk Tuesday, April 15 – Chimney Lake Road bike Wednesday, April 16 – River Valley walk Thursday, April 17 – Fox Mtn. Roads walk Tuesday, April 22 – Earth Day garbage pickup walk Wednesday, April 23 – Dairy Fields walk Thursday, April 24 – Mission Road bike Tuesday, April 29 – Fraser River walk Wednesday, April 30 – Chimney Estates walk All of these activities are subject to change according to weather conditions, so keep an eye on your email/Facebook. Members’ Monthly Breakfast Social Our no-host breakfast get together for conversation and new ideas for outings will be April 8, at 8 a.m. at Dog 'n Suds.
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April/May 2014
Growing our meat, and yours, too By Susan Tritt
Dual purpose German breed, “Bielefelder” Photo: Bart 0agel, Bulbs of Fire.
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he sun is shining and it feels like spring has finally sprung. We’ve started the bedding plants and are now making the plans for the meat selection that is going to fill the freezer this year. We were going to grow our Jersey Giant (JG) chickens organically as an option for us and to have processed to sell to others. The flavour and butcher weight of the birds turned out great last year, even though they took a while to mature. We enjoyed the home grown chicken all winter. But, unfortunately, when we did our flock health testing this winter we were left with the dilemma of needing to find a new breed or breeds for meat birds this year. I had already found the Cou cou de Malines, which we were going to grow with the JGs this year. If you recall these are the birds that I wrote about last fall. I purchased the hatching eggs from Bart Nagel, from Bulbs of Fire in Ontario. He also told of another breed he was carrying called Bielefelders. The Bielefelders are a fairly new German breed developed from the Cou cou de Malines and are a great dual purpose bird in that the hens are prolific layers and the roosters grow to a nice butcher weight. Naturally, I ordered a good number of these hatching eggs as well. We are very much looking forward to having both these breeds in our freezer for next year. Now I just want to mention some things others may want to consider when they are looking for homegrown organically fed heritage meat birds to add to their freezers. First thing is the pricing. For home grown real heritage poultry you can expect to pay between $5.50 and $10.50 per pound. You need to remember these aren’t mass produced birds, but are small farm raised, with love and care by farmers who, in most cases, don’t feed medicated feed to their flock and therefore have losses. These farmers usually don’t have large automated barns, but grass feed and move their flocks on fields and have to work 24/7 to protect their flocks. They also have to transport their own birds to a government approved processing facility to have the birds processed and inspected for sale, and they have to source their own markets for the small amount of birds they are allowed to produce without provincial quota status. This is not to mention the cost of the chick, feed (which, in our case, is organic), housing, fencing, predator protection, and health testing. We just purchased two rolls of electric poultry netting and are planning to have our meat birds in chicken tractors (moveable chicken houses) and move them around the fields each day. Our feeling is Funky Fowl Farm is going to be a very happy place for meat birds this year and that this will contribute to a better tasting bird.
Susan and her husband Rudy have shared a passion for hobby farming since they met almost 30 years ago. “Our goal at Funky Fowl Farm is to grow everything we need to live, and to grow as naturally as possible.”
April/May 2014
TheGreenGazette
Quesnel Food Gardeners
Hmm... How about trying pomegranates this year? By Colleen Gatenby
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had driven by the home of Doug and Cheryl Perdue on Gook Road literally thousands of times, and had no idea the bountiful garden that existed in the back yard. Their 50 by 100 foot plot produces everything from pumpkins and squash to celery and beets. Cheryl says in its heyday, when the children were growing, they could sit down to four meals a week with everything coming from the garden, meat included. When asked why she gardened, Cheryl replied, “We’re frugal. If we can grow it why wouldn’t we?” Both she and Doug grew up with gardens, freezers, and cold rooms full of preserves and they have grown gardens everywhere they have lived. Their philosophy is, “if you can’t get a bounty, it’s a waste of space.” So they try a crop and if it’s successful, keep going, otherwise they buy it at the farmers’ market. Doug is famous for wanting to try anything different. At one time or another he has grown sugar maples from his grandfather’s farm in Ontario, lemon and orange trees, and presently is babying a pomegranate tree. Last season he grew Tinda, an East Indian squash the size of an apple that everyone loved. They have even grown sweet potatoes, which they acquired from Gardner Farms. They have raspberries and strawberries, Saskatoons and gooseberries, two apple trees and three cherry trees, and a couple of plum trees which do not bear fruit as they are out of synch. These are stored in the cold room, turned into preserves, or frozen. They pick blueberries and huckleberries from “Doug’s secret spot near Dunkley’s.” They have raised meat chickens, turkeys, and had laying hens. One year they got a European wild boar piglet to fatten up and the unique smell drove the neighbours crazy. When the kids were young, Doug, who is a forester with Dunkley, brought home a newborn lamb. They had been using sheep for vegetation control and when the lamb was born they needed it removed so it wouldn’t attract wolves. Lambert was fed with a nipple on a pop bottle and eventually ended up on the dinner table. Their daughter, when told they were eating Lambert, said, “He’s good.” They start most of their own seeds, 12 flats of them, which begin life under lights in the shop and then are moved to a basement room with plenty of windows, for hardening off. They like the corn to be 8” tall before planting out. If they plant seeds the crows will eat them,
Top: Doug and Cheryl Perdue’s raspberries, herbs, and rhubarb in mid-May. Bottom: Doug Perdue adding in more compost. Photos: Cheryl Perdue and if the seedlings are smaller, the blasted crows will pull up the plants to get to the seeds. They keep saying they’ll downsize, but whenever they look at a possible house, the first question becomes, “Where would the garden go?” So, for now, they’ll stay where they are. Their children, who saw the garden as a chore while growing up, now grow herbs and veggies on their apartment balconies. Colleen Gatenby is a retired teacher and avid food gardener. Along with the members of the Quesnel Community Garden she works towards mastering the skills of food production, preservation, and seed collection. She hopes to encourage others to garden by writing articles about local food producers and conducting 'Food Garden Tours' in the summertime.
Skywatch with Bill Irwin There will be a total eclipse of the moon on the night of April 14 and 15. We haven’t had one for a while and the timing of this one is excellent, with mideclipse at 12:45 a.m. local time. The total phase will last for over an hour, with the moon taking on a deep coppery colour and the stars magically reappearing. The earth’s shadow is visible starting at 10:58 p.m. and leaves at 2:33 a.m. Mars will be at opposition that night—the closest it will be for another 2 1/4 years. Jupiter and Saturn will also be well placed. We will have an open house at the Bells Lake Observatory that night. There is a heated clubhouse tent and the observatory has a warm room, since some comforts are necessary to be out at night. For more information contact Bill Irwin at250-620-0596 or irwin8sound@gmail.com. Of course, there is no guarantee of the weather, but the birds will be putting on a show as well here at that time of year.
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Youth Perspective: Geo-thermal and Solar Energy Options at Toosey The Road to Salvage-Salvation By Cael Geier
By LeRae Haynes
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n e w health unit and administration building is nearing completion at Tl'esqox - Toosey Indian Band just west of Williams Lake. The beautiful new facility will provide space for community Toosey band receptionist Angela Solomon watches as Marty activities and will seat Lauren guides a beam in place at the new'green energy' band 70 people in the large administration office/health unit. Marty and his brother Dale common area, which from Lauren Brothers Construction in Williams Lake are the can also be divided contractors for the project. Photo: LeRae Haynes for smaller meetings. The building will not only be a true estry program for economic development ‘hub’ of the community; it will also reflect would be huge for us.” the band’s traditional respect for the enviHe says the choice to include naturonment and for the land. “From the beginral power and heating sources in the plans ning the band has planned natural heating for the new building was an easy one. for the new health unit,” says Tl’esqox “Protecting the Earth matters to me: using chief Francis Laceese. “A geo-thermal syssomething from the Earth and the sky. I tem has been built into the plans. It will be want this to be something we can use to able to convert to air-conditioning in the make things easier for people in the fusummer using heat and cool from the ture—something feasible and sustainable ground. We’re also exploring solar energy that might make things easier for people as a power source.” financially,” he says. The contractor is Lauren Brothers in Wil“We also want to explore putting liams Lake and the architect, based in Vannatural power in our local homes and busicouver, has done several Chilcotin projects nesses, including future economic venin communities like Anaham and Stone tures, such as greenhouses. This new Indian Bands. building will be a test to see how it goes. Chief Laceese says the project, “The decision and commitment to which employs several Toosey residents, use natural power sources reflects the way has been in the works for a while and he is we look at the land,” he says. “It’s there, excited it is now near completion. and if you look after it, it will look after “It will include a working health unit you. We’re connected to it in a lot of difwith exam rooms; there will be rotating ferent ways. Geo-thermal energy is clean nurses and doctors—a nice facility for treatenergy and that’s big for us. It doesn’t ment,” he explains. “One of the benefits for harm the environment, which is our bigthe people who live here is that they won’t gest concern.” have to travel for medical treatment. It will He adds that the band is interested save them travelling to Williams Lake, in economic growth that doesn’t poison Kamloops, and Vancouver.” anything, especially the water. “Our surHe adds that video-conferencing will vival depends on the water and everything also be available for specialist appointthat uses that water, particularly the ments. “We’re looking into expanding its salmon and the trout. We’ve depended on use to include education and training,” he them for thousands of years. says. “We will protect the land and the “The existing band office will be water from any project that threatens it, available for more activities. The youth are and Prosperity Mine has always been one already talking about it—there will be more of those. It was a threat to us from the beroom here for them. Kids come here every ginning. Building that mine in the headwaday after school and can get help with their ter of our lakes and rivers was always been homework. There is a monthly calendar a bad idea. posted with youth activities every evening.” “From the beginning we have stood The band’s forestry division is also in defence to project the land. We’ve been expanding, according to Chief Laceese, arrested and charged as criminals on our who adds that change and possibility are in own land,” he explains. “Fish Lake was the air. “We also have a school building at the wrong place for so big a footprint. Toosey, and our forestry department may There have always been too many ‘ifs,’ too expand to the school, or a temporary school many unknowns and too much riding on could be set up at the old band office. There it.” are possibilities and expansion options all He says the Toosey project is on around us here,” he says. target for progress and that it may be com“This is all about strengthening our pleted as early as May. “When the doors community. As well as opening a school, open at our new health unit and band ofwe also want to build more houses on the fice I will feel good because that building reserve to bring back some of our families. will be there to support our families and Having a school here and having our forour elders.”
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t is well known that automobiles contribute greatly to the greenhouse gas emissions that currently eat away at our ozone layer. Each year more cars are built, and currently the number of cars on Earth is estimated at over one billion. Have you even given thought, though, to how your car continues to affect the environment after its road life has ended? Have you ever crashed a car and sent it to the wrecker? There is much within old cars that damage the environment, including mercury, brake fluid, Engine prep-work must be done before proceeding oil, and refrigerant. In ?o- with the installation such as extracting a broken bolt. vember, 2013, I crashed my Photo: Khali Pelletier car, writing it off in the eyes of ICBC. My accident was the beginning Don’t let rust eat away old cars of a journey for me, and I have yet to see sitting in your driveway. Follow the the end of it. proper avenues for car decommissioning. It was a sad day for me, when I Recycling facilities can properly remove crashed my 1990 Plymouth Laser. I felt plastic, heavy metal, toxins, brake fluid, not only the shock of physically being in and oil from cars. Scrap yards, on the an accident, but worst of all I knew the other hand, use shredders to salvage steel crumpled front end of my car was nearly and send the shredder residue to landfills. unfixable. Being a high school student The build-up of shredder residue is of with minimal income, the loss of my car growing concern, and both public and presented a devastating setback in more privately funded research is underway than one way. I lacked the funds to purconcerning recovery of these waste matechase a new car, and doubted I could find rials. a deal as good as the Plymouth. I had My recycling project was very borrowed the money to buy my car, and hands-on. Firstly, I sniffed out and bought had just paid it off. Therefore, it would a car that was of a mechanical match to take a long time to save as much again. mine. I had damaged the exterior of my Lastly, I had no alternative transportation Laser, but the engine was in mint condias winter was setting in, and the road tion. The new car, a 1991 Eagle Talon, banks were no longer negotiable for walkhad a blown motor. The game plan was to ing or riding. remove the motor from the Laser and Soon after the accident I learned drop it into the Talon. It is a job easier what it is like to deal with a large insursaid than done. With a goal in mind to ance company—an unwelcomed experifund the project with my ICBC settleence from which I learned a great deal. As ment, I poured my time into the project. many people know, if the damage done to Quickly I filled up my father’s garage a car is worth more than its value, you with duplicate car parts from both cars, will be offered a settlement, as was my re-using whichever were in healthier concase. What some people may not know is dition. By salvaging what parts I could, I that there is a buy back option in which prevented the needless scraping of parts. you keep your damaged car, and receive Also, I have spare parts for future potenyour settlement minus the junk-yard value tial projects, such as spare starters, alterof said car. Instead of sending my Plynators, and fuel pumps. mouth Laser to the scrap yard, I, with Through my project I have come little to no experience with car mechanics, to understand why people love fixing and decided to buy back my car, and thus enbuilding cars—for some people it’s a passued my salvaging project. sion. There is a feeling of pride that is Mechanics isn’t for everyone, but earned when you build something useful, lately the knowledge of how to fix and from scrap, with your own hands. In the work on cars has become easily accessiend for me, I couldn’t be happier with the ble. Forget textbooks; the Internet is a sea results of my first car crash. of forums and how-to websites with detailed pictures and instructions. Instead of Cael Geier is a BC youth who loves to ending a car’s life, consider getting your live an active life. He also relishes time hands dirty and making use of available spent with family and friends. Cael is an repair databases on the world web. You avid member of the biking and skiing may be surprised by how simple or cheap communities and cannot wait to graduate some of your vehicle repairs are. so he can explore the world.
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April/May 2014
TheGreenGazette
Featured Green Business
It Pays to be Green at Williams Lake Scrap Metal By LeRae Haynes
Tyler Flett, Williams Lake Scrap Metal manager, is pictured here beside an excavator with a shear head operated by Ian Webster. Photo: LeRae Haynes
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ecycling is a growing concern in the Cariboo and one local business has taken it to an allnew level, making it easy and convenient to recycle and to put some dollars in your pocket in the process. Williams Lake Scrap Metal accepts a wide range of metal, from refrigerators to curling irons and from hubcaps to Christmas lights. Williams Lake Scrap Metal manager Tyler Flett, who has been in the scrap metal recycling business for four years, says the company recycles steel and metal, diverting them from landfill, and that it purchases certain metals. “We buy non-ferrous metals by the pound and steel by the ton,” says Flett. “These metals come from vehicles and building, such as when you’re having plumbing or wiring replaced. We’ll even take Christmas lights. You can bring automotive batteries in for cash, as well as aluminum automotive rims, electric motors, starters, and alternators.” The company also purchases heavy steel, tin, aluminum, and copper and has a bin on the side of the driveway open 24 hours a day where people can drop off things like household appliances, including refrigerators, freezers, hair driers, curling irons, drills, and power tools at their convenience and at no charge. Williams Lake Scrap Metal has a baler that comes to the site, and the bales are shipped to a shredder where they recover all metals possible. Central Salvage north of Kamloops is the ‘sister company’ to Williams Lake Scrap Metal. The new owners took over in August, 2013. Flett explains that they cover both residential and commercial projects, and that people are often surprised at the range of services they offer. “We’ll go out and pick up burnt equipment, dismantle it, and haul it away,” he says. “We’ll take down structures and pull the steel out, and even do the occasional farm clean-up—things like machinery, vehicles, and equipment. “We look after vehicles. We’ll purchase them, drain the fluids and bale them
April/May 2014
for shipping like we do the tin. The stewardship around vehicles is becoming very environmentally friendly when it comes to recycling yards. The BC Ministry of Environment has really pushed for this, creating an atmosphere that better encourages recycling.” He says the environmental breakdown of vehicles is significant, adding that when they pile up in people’s yards exposed to the elements, rain and moisture go through them and oil and fuel gets carried into nearby ditches and on to water sources. They also have bin services at local mills and auto body shops. “The services we offer are perfect for someone who has had stuff piled up for 20 or 30 years on a property and want to clean it up for the least cost,” says Flett. For Williams Lake Scrap Metal customer service is number one. “In any industry your clients and your community are your major assets,” says Flett. “Your customers, neighbours, and friends.” There is a real opportunity for an entrepreneurial person to haul metals to the yard, according to Flett, who also says Williams Lake Scrap Metal is interested in expanding to local mines and to local landfill projects. “We’ll have our vehicle draining system set up this spring and within the next year we plan to have our freondrainage system up and running,” he says. “We’re in the process of setting up a program for charities so that people can donate a ‘junker’ or some scrap metal and it goes to a specific charity. We also have donated metal items to non-profits for specific purposes. If we can help, we will. “We’re a local company who lives here, too,” he says. “This is our focus and this is what we do.” Williams Lake Scrap Metal is located at 4105 Frizzi Road. For more info phone 250-398-5797 or 250-457-7401. LeRae Haynes is a freelance writer, songwriter, co-producer of “Pursicles,” and the community co-ordinator for Success by 6. She is also the instigator of a lot of musical shenanigans in Williams Lake including “Borderband” with kids and is a member of the “Perfect Match” dance band.
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TheGreenGazette
Pat’s Basic Pizza using a Biga
By Pat Teti
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o, that’s not a special kitchen accessory. It’s a wet mixture of water, flour, and a pinch of yeast, allowed to ferment slowly. This “pre-ferment” is called a “biga” in Italian. The advantage is that the dough develops more flavour and it doesn’t have to be kept at a tropical temperature, which is hard to do here for 11 months of the year anyway. Matzoh, tortilla, and chapati are just a few of the diverse and delicious traditional flatbreads of the world. Pizza is a relatively recent variation resulting from the introduction of tomatoes to Europe from South America. I always make two pizzas at a time because they are only slightly more work than one and leftovers are even better than the original. Recipe for two large thin-crust pizzas
Thin crust pizza with chopped kale. Photo: Pat Teti
First day • 1-½ cups water in a large bowl (preferably glass or ceramic) • 1/8 tsp or a pinch of instant yeast • ½ cup whole wheat flour • ½ cup all purpose flour • Mix, cover, and let rise at cool room temperature (15-18 degrees C). • Later, you’ll need: • 2 cups all-purpose flour • 28 oz. can crushed plum tomatoes (see note) • a few cloves of garlic • 1/8 to ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil • salt, pepper, dried oregano to taste • 2 pounds mozzarella cheese (see note)
The sauce – any time before the dough is ready • Add several tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil to a large pan on medium heat. • Add 2-4 crushed or minced garlic cloves. • As soon as the garlic starts to sizzle and before it starts to darken, add the crushed plum tomatoes. Utopia brand organic tomatoes from Save On Foods are totally worth the extra cost. Top quality ingredients are critical for the best pizza! • Add dried oregano and black pepper to taste. When the sauce starts to simmer, it’s ready and you can turn the heat off.
Second day There should be a very small amount of foam on the top of the biga but other than peeking, there’s nothing for you to do until tomorrow.
Final steps Set an oven shelf about halfway up and pre-heat to 450 degrees F. Your oven might give off some burnt food smells or trigger your smoke alarm but as long as the thermostat goes up to 450, your oven is designed for it. However, I suggest staying around your kitchen when your oven is that hot. Divide the dough in two and place half onto a floured surface. Without further kneading, work the dough into the approximate shape of your pan, but a little smaller, by poking, pushing, and pulling with your fingers and then a rolling pin. You’ll need to flip it and dust it with flour a few times as you roll it out. If you’re using a cookie sheet or pizza pan with a solid bottom, dust it with flour or cornmeal. Fold the rolled out dough in half and then half again. Pick it up, plop it onto the sheet, and unfold it. Tease it out to its final shape. Spread a thin layer of sauce on the dough (about 1 cup), sprinkle with a little salt (note that there has been no salt so far), and cover with shredded mozzarella cheese. I use pretty close to a full pound of mozzarella per pizza. My favourite is smoked mozzarella (caciocavallo) from the Save On Foods deli section. Bake until cheese starts to brown,
Morning or early afternoon of the third day – The dough The top of the biga should be foamier. At this point, you could store it in an airtight container for days or weeks in the refrigerator or freezer but more likely, you’ll want to proceed with making dough. Gradually add all-purpose flour, mixing with a wooden spoon or heavyduty spatula, until you can get it away from the sides of the bowl and onto a floured surface. Dust it with flour to keep it from sticking to everything. Slowly work more flour in with your bare hands, kneading until it’s more doughy than sticky. Pizza dough does not require as much kneading as other bread dough because the gluten development is not as important. When it feels smooth, dust it with flour and place it back into the generously oiled bowl. Cover and let rise at cool room temperature. The amount of flour added will be about 2 cups but don’t add it by measure. Add it by feel. The volume of water you start with determines the flour required and the volume of the finished dough.
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which should be 10 to 15 minutes. Repeat for the second pizza and enjoy! I use all-purpose flour instead of bread flour because pizza and other flatbreads don’t need the higher gluten content. Extra virgin olive oil can be drizzled on top of the pizza after baking to make it a little richer and moister. If you don’t know your oven, I recommend getting an over thermometer— either an old-fashioned dial thermometer that hangs from a shelf or a digital thermometer with an in-oven probe. There are endless possible variations and add-ons such as feta cheese, anchovies, olives, fresh basil added after baking, etc. but don’t load up the pizza! One of my
favourite additions to basic pizza is basil or kale pesto after baking. An excellent TexMex pizza can be made with cheddar and jalapenos. I like a crispy crust, which is very hard to achieve in my gas oven. I’ve tried a pizza stone but it doesn’t work as well as baking the pizza on a fine wire mesh pizza screen (no longer available in Williams Lake, to my knowledge). A solid pizza pan or cookie sheets can be used but when the top is done, the bottom will still be soft. The next step will fix that though. To make pizza crust crispy on the bottom, re-heat it on a hot surface—not in a microwave. You can use a skillet but my favourite method is a large rectangular steel camping griddle that covers two burners. I got a heavy duty steel one at Surplus Herbie’s and it’s great on campfires as well as the range. Low heat for 30 minutes or so works. Another good pizza reheating method is to place cold pieces upside down on a cookie sheet under an oven broiler until the crust starts to toast slightly, then flip them over to heat the top. With a little luck, the bottom will get a toasty before the cheese sticks to the cookie sheet! I’ll end by pointing out that in my previous article I carelessly said “bacteria” when I meant “yeast”! My biologist friends would remind me that yeast is less like bacteria than Joe Oliver is like David Suzuki! Here’s to the yeasts, who give us beer, wine, cheese, and bread! Pat Teti was a research scientist with the BC government for 18 years and has always enjoyed making things.
Keeping our Forests Public and Sustainable Long time conservation activist Vicky Husband and Anthony Britneff, a retired registered professional forester and policy analyst, will be in Williams Lake Monday, April 14 to discuss keeping our forests public and sustainable. All residents are invited to participate in this discussion on how we can move forestry forward in BC. The speakers will focus on the need for forest tenure and licensing that works for all sectors of the forest industry and all British Columbians, and on bringing our forests back to health and sustainability. The meeting will be held at the Cariboo Central Arts Centre at 7 p.m. Admission is free. Sponsors are the Cariboo Chilcotin Conservation Society, Council of Canadians, United Steelworkers Local 425, the WL Field Naturalists, and SUFN. For more info on this evening event call (250) 392-7058. Anthony has a 40-year career with the BC Forest Service in most areas of the province. He held senior professional positions in forest inventory, strategic planning, silviculture, and forest health and he brings a wealth of experience and expertise to the forums. Vicky has worked on forest protection and management issues in BC for over 30 years, including land use planning, wildlife and fishery issues, and the creation of protected areas. She has received both the Order of Canada and the Order of BC for her work. Both speakers will be in Prince George on April 12 (College of New Caledonia) and in Mackenzie (Recreation Centre) on April 13 at forums addressing these issues, sponsored by Stand Up For the North. For more information on those events, phone (250) 562-0015 or email peter.ewart@shaw.ca.
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April/May 2014
TheGreenGazette
Keep Your Electrical Fluid Dry and Your Grid Tied By Ron Young
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n 1789 Benjamin Franklin coined the phrase “nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” Ben, a true renaissance man, is considered by some the father of electricity. In Franklin’s experiments he tapped electricity at the end of a kite string during an electrical storm and was able to demonstrate that it had certain properties that no one had previously understood. Since then electricity generation has become one of the most important commodities of the civilized world. But if Ben were alive today maybe he would have said: nothing can be certain but death, taxes, and the steady increase in your electric utility bill. Back in Ben Franklin’s day electricity was referred to as electrical fluid and that description is still appropriate when you think of how electricity infiltrates and nurtures every aspect of our lives just as blood courses through our arteries, veins, and capillaries. Electrons in the streams of electrical fluid light up our computer screens and deliver the packages of information we send to each other in the form of emails and texts and photos. Even this article was sent on an incredible journey along a river of electrical fluid that travelled invisibly through the air and was transmitted by a satellite dish to a contrivance miles above Earth and back to a receiving dish into the electronic arteries of the Internet. It arrived at the publisher’s computer where it was arranged on her computer in an electrical state known as a page layout and then sent on to a printing press where every process from press negative to press motor was activated by electrical fluid resulting in these words etched on a page. Really is it any wonder that the electric utility company can hold us hostage to price increases? How would we ever do without electrical fluid? BC Hydro rates are projected to rise 28 per cent over the next five years, but that isn’t the whole story. I haven’t seen it announced or discussed but I don’t doubt that BC Hydro will implement “time of use” charges not long after the
smart meters are completely activated province wide. Time of use charges, such as they now have in Ontario, will charge different rates based on three separate time periods called off-peak, mid-peak and onpeak. So if you use electricity during the on-peak period, typically from mid-day to mid-evening, you will pay more. This can result in a much higher than a 28 per cent increase in your bill over the next five years if you use most of your power during onpeak periods. There are many small measures you can take that can add up to a large reduction in your utility bill over time but in this article I want to talk about the large thing you can do that will make a permanent and significant reduction in your utility bill. If you have reasonable south-facing exposure to the sun and roof space or ground space at your home you can install a grid-tied solar system that uses what is called net-metering to reduce or eliminate your bill. Not too many years ago this used to be a very challenging task involving special meters and elaborate applications but that’s all changed. BC Hydro has streamlined their application process and stepped out of the way of homeowners wanting to generate their own power. Net-metering lends itself to a distributed power model where electricity, instead of being generated at one central location, can be generated at many smaller points and distributed much more efficiently. This is being done on a large scale in places like Germany, Japan, California, and now Ontario. When you have a net-metering system all the power produced by your solar panels when the sun shines is sent back to the hydro grid. The new smart meters that have been installed in most locations in BC can understand when power is being sent backwards and essentially stop or reverse the operation of the meter when there is a surplus. In simple terms if you make ten dollars worth of electricity and use only nine dollars then you are credited for one dollar. A net-metering system can consist of a single solar panel and a device called an inverter that turns the electrical current of the solar panel into suitable current for the grid.
Stuart Kohut, economic development officer at Yunesit'in Community, showing off the school's new grid-tied solar system. Photo: Ron Young To understand how many solar panels would be appropriate for your needs you have to understand how much electricity you use at present. Look at your BC Hydro bill; it neatly summarizes the average kilowatt-hours or kWh used each day during the period of the bill. With this information and a little math it’s easy to determine how many solar panels it will take to offset or eliminate your electricity cost. Making this an even more attractive option is the fact that solar panels have come way down in price in the last three years to at least half of their previous cost. One consideration worth mentioning is that a grid-tied solar system usually does not have any way to store energy as all that it generates is fed directly into the grid. In the event of a power failure from BC Hydro the grid-tied system will also shut down for safety reasons. There are many reasons why this is done but in just one example: you don’t want to be sending power down the hydro lines from your system when a lineman is trying to fix a problem with downed lines. You may find it a little disappointing if you have a bunch of solar panels capable of generating electricity and you don’t have any power in your home during a power
outage. This can be remedied with the addition of a back up storage battery and the size of the battery will be determined by you deciding how much stored power you think you need. In other words, do you want to have power for extended periods to power all your household loads or just for critical loads for a few hours. earthRightSolar recently installed a 10 kW grid-tied net-metering system at the Yunesit’in Community school (Stone Reserve) near Hanceville. That system has generated an impressive 3.18 MWh. That’s over three million watt hours since it was activated in late November. That’s especially notable considering we have just passed through three months of the darkest days of the year. In layman’s terms that electricity could power about 105 average houses for one day and it has saved roughly 56 trees in carbon offsets in just over three months! Copyright Ron Young. Ron Young a Renewable Energy specialist owns the earthRight store in Williams Lake established in 1993. A series of articles on the basics of solar energy can be found at his website: www.solareagle.com
Natural History Presentation at the Scout Island Nature House 2014 Fundraising Banquet, April 11 The natural history presentation, “Ocean Wonders” by The Marine Detective is coming up on April 11 at the 2014 Scout Island Fundraising Banquet. Jackie Hildering is The Marine Detective—a biology teacher, cold-water diver, underwater photographer, and whale researcher living on NE Vancouver Island. She will present on some of the highlights of what she has learned about the astounding and diverse life of the cold, dark waters of the Northeast Pacific Ocean. From humpback whale feeding strategies to stunningly colourful nudibranchs, she will share her passion and photography, emphasizing how little is known about our life-sustaining oceans and how easily they are impacted by our daily actions, even when we live 100s of kilometres from the ocean. Recognition includes being the 2010 winner of the Vancouver Aquarium’s Murray A. Newman Award for Excellence
April/May 2014
in Aquatic Conservation and recent on-camera experience includes being featured on Animal Planet’s Wild Obsession series in “Whales: Giants of the Deep.” For more on The Marine Detective visit: www.themarinedetective.ca or www.facebook.com/ the.marine.detective Don’t miss this great event at the St. Andrews United Church Hall in Williams Lake. Doors open at 6:00 p.m. and dinner is at 6:30 p.m. Tickets are available through the Williams Lake Field Naturalists, The Open Book, and Scout Island Nature House. Adults: $35, 16 and Under: $15. For more information contact Sue at shemphill@netbistro.com, 250 398 8532, or 250 620 3498 or visit www.scoutislandnaturecentre.ca or www.williamslakefieldnaturalists.ca.
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www.themarinedetective.ca Humpback whale “KC” (BCY0291) breaching. Jackie Hildering has known KC since his birth in 2002 due to her research efforts to understand these giants that have returned from the brink of extinction www.mersociety.org. Photo: Jackie Hildering
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April/May 2014
The Horsefly Green Team - Youth Healthy Inquiry Project: Reducing our carbon footprint
TheGreenGazette
By Calvin Dubray and the Horsefly Green Team
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his endeavour started with adult mentors posing a challenge to the Student Leadership Team at Horsefly Elementary Junior Secondary. The challenge was to propose a question that would form the foundation of a Youth Healthy Inquiry Project. Students came up with the following: What is your question? How much can we reduce our school’s carbon footprint in one year? What plans do you have to answer your question? (What steps will you take?) 1. We will set up recycling stations in each classroom (including Strong Start) and other high-use areas such as the staff room and school kitchen. Recycling stations consist of one returnable/refundable bin, one plastics bin, one paper bin, one cardboard bin, and one composting bin. 2. There will be a “kick-off” assembly and student council students will do a demonstration for each class explaining what items are to be put in the different categorized bins. 3. Student helpers from each class will be responsible for emptying the bins into our compost barrels outside and to the central (big bins) for delivery to town. Before they empty the bins, students will weigh the recyclables (in kg) and transfer the data to a classroom graph. 4. Coinciding with recycling, we have a Green Team monitoring power use and opportunities for reduction such as lights on in areas not being occupied, heat thermostats way above normal, computers on that are not in use, and other items that consume hydro or propane. We obtained a printout of last year’s month by month energy consumption from our manager of facilities and transportation to give us a baseline. We will compare this year’s figures with last year’s totals to see if our measures have been effective. 5. Monthly incentives/challenges will be provided to classrooms via Student Council What do you hope to achieve? We hope to reduce our school’s footprint over the year and increase student and staff knowledge of recycling and power consumption reduction with the hope this will translate into discussion for creating carbon footprint reduction strategies at home. How will you know? In student groups weighing recyclable materials, we will use those weights to total how much material has been removed from the landfill. We will also use last year’s month by month energy consumption report from our manager of facilities and transportation as a baseline and compare it to this year’s consumption to see if our Green Team strategies are effective. Outcome To date, each month we have reduced our power consumption compared to the same month in a previous year. We have removed over 40,000 returnable containers that were destined for the landfill. Students have reduced the amount of waste from recycling as indicated by our custodian from three bags to one bag at the end of the day. All recycled items are brought to the main drop off area in the Foods Room for tallying and weighing and then further bagged and transported by the principal to the town recycling station. We have expanded our program to include paper towel in the bathrooms for “brown material” usage in our compost bins. We have now included metal to be recycled in the classrooms. Our compost will be used for soil in our Spuds in Tubs program and we will have two compost boxes built outside the school in the spring. Students are actively involved in this program and are aware we are making a difference. It has sparked interest in our Parent Advisory Committee and community members communicating with the Cariboo Regional District regarding recycling drop off bins at the local landfill. The Horsefly Elementary Junior Secondary Green Team includes efforts of the entire school and came about as the result of our student leadership led inquiry based on reducing Horsefly Elementary Junior Secondary School’s carbon footprint with start-up funding assistance from Dash BC and the Healthy Schools Network. Each classroom assigns two students per week to be responsible for weighing and charting the amount of recyclable material (plastic, paper, cardboard, aluminum, returnable items, and compost) and then transferring it to our central location to be transported into town by the principal.
April/May 2014
Mr. Kowalski's Grade 7-9 class standing next to the recycling and composting containers at Horsefly Elementary Junior Secondary School. The students also produced a video and submitted it to the BC Green Games competition. From left to right: Cody Mack, Jacob Helminger, Katie Isaac, Leanna Gasser, Teala Sumner, Cristian Pena Angulo, Jessica Alcock, Rob Kowlaski, and Kylie Lacey.
This has inspired local community members to look at engaging in discussions with the Cariboo Regional District for possible installation of recycling containers at the local refuse transfer station. Using energy consumption data from previous school years, students monitor and compare light, heat, and other electrical usage in efforts to reduce. So far the methods have been successful. Additionally, Horsefly Elementary Junior Secondary’s senior class, the 3 Rs Team (Reuse, Reduce, Recycle), produced a video highlighting the classic example of recycling bin misuse. The video, called, “The Green Team Strikes Again!”, was submitted into Science World’s BC Green Games, an annual contest designed to encourage K–12 students to document and share their environmental action stories on topics such as energy conservation, transportation, schoolyard greening, recycling, composting, and community stewardship. BC Green Games is a province-wide competition for students designed to motivate action, enable sharing, and reward and celebrate the green efforts of schools in BC. Submissions to the BC Green Games use creative media such as videos and photo-essays to document BC students’ current eco-actions. “Viewer’s Choice” contest voting took place from March 1 to March 31 with four winners collecting $500 and the judging for the top 10 elementary and top 10 secondary entries receiving $1000. Horsefly Elementary Junior Secondary hopes to be one of the schools chosen, as the students worked hard on this project. In fact, Fortis BC, a major sponsor of the BC Green Games, has asked the students’ permission to use their photo on their website and possibly in their promotional material. This is a great recognition of the work the students have done and they are looking forward to seeing themselves in the spotlight. Calvin Dubray has been the principal of Horsefly Elementary Junior Secondary School for two years and was previously at Alexis Creek Elementary Junior Secondary as Principal for four years. He has a passion for making a difference in education and in particular “hands-on” experiential learning that allows students to be immersed in global concerns. The school’s Recycling Project was inspired by his own passion for recycling and the opportunity for the students to lead an inquiry based on their methods of reducing their carbon footprint.
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TheGreenGazette
At Road’s End: Farming by Numbers
By Terri Smith
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s spring starts to feel like it actually is just around the corner, I realize that I know a lot more now than I did at the end of last season; and thank goodness for that since the following is an only somewhat embellished account of where I was at in December … Statistics Canada called this morning before I’d even had my coffee. They wanted to know about my yields of vegetables for the previous year. To begin, what crops did I plant? Sheesh! I planted at least fifty different crops, but fine, I’ll list them: carrots, potatoes, salad greens, peas, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, turnips (okay, I didn’t really have any, but I’m annoyed so I’m including them anyway), peas, fennel, tomatoes, zucchini, peppers, cucumbers, onions, green onions, leeks, garlic, beets, um… I can’t think of any others when there’s a foot and a half of snow outside and did I mention I haven’t had my coffee yet? Okay, that’s fine. Did you say you grew cabbage? Yes. Chinese or regular? Both. Ok. And how many pounds of beets did you produce? (Damn!) Um, maybe 300 lbs (I have no idea. Why don’t I know? This shouldn’t be a difficult question). I don’t really know, not without any numbers in front of me (Damn it! How come I don’t just know this?!). That’s alright, ma’am, estimates will be just fine… (But that’s not an estimate. I have no idea… probably more. I planted way more. The mice probably ate 300lbs!!! Why am I so useless at numbers!?!) …And is that how many pounds you sold? (How the heck should I know? If I say no you’re going to want to know what I did with the rest aren’t you?) Yes. …And how much did you make per pound? $2.50/lb! (Yay, I knew an answer!) How many pounds of broccoli did you produce? (Here we go again… Chris would have known these numbers. Why did my eyes glaze over every time he started talking about yields?! I should have paid more attention …) Ma’am? Yeah, um, maybe 500 lbs. (Is that a lot? Is it nothing much? Why don’t these numbers make any sense to me?) And is that how much you sold? (Well, I didn’t mention what the deer and goats and root maggot ate so …) Yeah. And what did you make per pound? $2.50! (Oh, oops, no. That’s wrong.) Sorry, actually $5/lb. I sold them in 8 oz bags. (Phew, that was close.) O-kay, (I don’t think she believes me) and how many pounds of carrots did you produce? (Carrots! Damn. Well, if Mackin Creek sold 2,000 lbs in a morning at the Medieval Market in Jovember I had to have had more than that at least, and I brought at least 40 (or 80 ?) bags to market each week plus the box-a-week carrots… and I just read that the average American eats 8.8 lbs of carrots a year, but apparently looking at my own numbers I gave all my shareholders 36
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lbs each season, um …) um, 3,000 lbs, give or take a thousand. Ma’am? 3,000 lbs (Give or take a couple thousand) And is that how many you sold? Yep (Just tell me I didn’t. Go on, I dare you!) And what was your price per pound? $2.50! Except bulk, then it was $1.50… Oh yeah, and in the spring when no one else has carrots I sell them for $3.00/lb… So can I just say $2.00? Sure. (Do I care? Who is using this information anyway? I’m not comfortable with these questions. I need an adult. Sucks that I am the adult. I always thought adults knew these kinds of things.) Ok, how many pounds of cabbage did you grow? (Damn cabbage, deer ate what the root maggot left, how much f***ing cabbage did I grow? Stall…) Well, a deer ate most of it. Did you say a bear ate most of your cabbage? No, a deer. Or maybe several deer. One of my friends shot one of the deer, but the cabbage was still being eaten so I don’t think it was just the one unless he just got the wrong deer. It was his first deer. I didn’t know that or I never would have let him hunt here. He shot his first bear this year, too. But that was somewhere else. And it wasn’t eating my cabbages. I don’t think bear eat cabbage. I’ve never heard of anyone having a bear problem in their cabbage … So how many pounds of cabbage did you produce? 300? Is that a question? Would you tell me if it’s the right answer? Ma’am? Sorry, yes. 300 lbs. And is that how much you sold? Fine, 200 lbs. I sold 200 lbs! And what happened to the other 100? The deer ate it. And how many pounds of turnips did you produce? (Oh, damn it! I forgot I lied about the turnips. Why did I lie about the turnips? I did plant a few rows of turnips… Well, if I pulled out five bins worth and two of the five were okay to sell and each bin is about 20 lbs then I don’t know…) 100 lbs (20x2 is not 100! Where did I learn math? I guess I didn’t really. It bored me. Someone should have told me I would be needing it one day.) And is that how much you sold? Sure, why not? Are you asking? Sorry, yes, yes. I sold 100 lbs of turnips (I’m a liar. Or maybe I’m not. I forgot all about the salad turnips. Actually it might have been 500 lbs for all I know). And how much per pound do you sell your turnips for? $2.50/lb! Alright, and how many pounds of salad greens did you produce? (Seriously? Pounds of salad?!? Who weighs their salad by the pound? Oh yeah, me. This would all be a lot easier if I had had a proper scale instead of that little kitchen scale.) Well, I sell salad mix in 6 oz bags for $5/bag and I probably brought an average of 20 bags each week to market since sometimes I had 40 and sometimes I had none so yeah, maybe 20 bags a week for 20 weeks at $5/bag and then heads of lettuce on top of that. Let’s see … 40 heads a week for the
"It's difficult to get an accurate count on the crops when Amadeus keeps eating them." Photo: Terri Smith
"Photo evidence that I really did grow some great vegetables." Photo: 0oemie Vallelian box-a-week and then 5-10 for the market for about 15 weeks at $2/head… (This feels too much like those math questions I always hated: If Joe and Jane meet at the train station in Italy and take different trains and Joe’s train travels at 50 km/hour going west and Jane’s travels at 80 km/hour going north and then she catches a bus that travels 60 km/hour going southwest and they meet in Paris, how many pounds of turnips will they have produced in the meantime?) So you made about $2,000 on 6 oz bags of salad mix and about $1350 on heads of lettuce if we say you sold 45 heads each week? (Wow, she’s good) Sure! And is that all you produced? Sure. And was this all your farming income for this year? Sad isn’t it? That’s not for me to say. It’s still pretty sad. And can I
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share your answers with the Ministry of Agriculture? Much good may it do them. Ma’am? Sure. Have a good day ma’am. You too. Terri and Amadeus the goat, run Road's End Vegetable Company and at least one of them can be found each week from June-October at the Oliver Street Market and during the winter at Cariboo Growers' Co-op. Email her at roads.end.csa@gmail.com or for more about the farm and Amadeus like Road's End Vege-
table Company on facebook.
April/May 2014
TheGreenGazette
Integrative Health
Five Healing Plants to Gather and Four to Grow in the Cariboo-Chilcotin this Spring
By Ciel Patenaude
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e are lucky to be surrounded by plants that can have profound effects on our well-being, though for the last few months they have mostly been sleeping patiently beneath the cold and snow. As spring approaches in the Cariboo-Chilcotin area, however, we will have access to a bounty of healing allies, should we know where to look. Wildcrafting plants and herbs— gathering them from their natural settings—is a wonderful way to connect with our environments and invigorate our knowledge and appreciation for what these plants offer us. It can be challenging sometimes to identify or source some medicinal herbs, however, so here is a brief exploration of five easily-found (though sometimes not so easily gathered) healing plants that will be available to us in the coming months. 1. Dandelion Greens: With a particular affinity with the liver system, which is activated and ‘moving’ in the spring season, Dandelion greens are a wonderful bitter tonic to stimulate detoxification, bile movement, and fluid release. Be sure to pick the greens away from a roadside to prevent exhaust pollution, and gather them early in the spring when they’re not so bitter they’re inedible. Enjoy them in salads, steamed, or juiced. 2. Stinging Nettle: Should you find yourself in a damp or swampy area in early to mid-spring, keep an eye out for this well-known potent healer. High in minerals, supportive for the kidneys, liver, and lymphatic system, and alkalizing for the entire body, Nettles—steamed as greens, or made into soups and teas—are the perfect balancing food and medicine for springtime. Just an obvious recommendation, though: make sure that you wear long sleeves and gloves when you gather and process. 3. Chickweed: This beautiful little flower seems quite plain and unassuming, but it contains a bounty of minerals and blood-cleansing components that can stimulate detoxification and weight loss in the spring season. Use chickweed in teas
April/May 2014
and salads to boost nutritional value. 4. Spruce Tips: For a very small window in the springtime you will find bright green new growth on the end of the spruce boughs, and these are a potent source of vitamin C and other antioxidants. Gather the buds and boil them gently in spring water to turn into jellies or syrups, or just drink the tea straight with honey. 5. Cottonwood Buds: We can actually begin to gather the new buds of these trees in the winter, though their season will continue briefly into the spring and generally lasts only a week or two before opening fully. Soaked in olive oil for several weeks, Cottonwood buds will release a sap that is excellent for topical treatment of inflammation, helping skin regeneration, and supporting antibacterial needs. Now, it is well-known by herbalists that utilizing herbs indigenous to one’s region results in far more potent healing effects. So my first recommendation would be to go out and try to find these (and other) healers nearby. However, should you be more of the green thumb inclination and want to create a long-term relationship with your plants, growing herbs at home is a great idea, too. Thankfully, there are many herbs that flourish in our gardens here. The potent healing abilities of culinary herbs are often only matched by their abundance of flavour, so it’s likely that you’ve been using these herbs for cooking without fully realizing what it is that they offer you as medicine. Here are four easy to grow herbs that are fantastic for both flavour and therapy, are easily added to salads and dishes, and can be brewed as potent teas: 1. Cilantro (Coriander leaves): A potent heavy metal detoxifier, Cilantro assists the entire body in getting rid of toxins through its high content of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. Cilantro is also one of the highest known plant sources of vitamin K, which is excellent for anyone experiencing bone loss or tooth decay. 2. Basil: One of my favourite herbs for both flavour and healing, Basil is a powerful anti-inflammatory, neuroprotective (helps to prevent age-related memory
Stinging nettle, Urtica dioica. Photo: Júlio Reis challenges), antioxidant, and ‘cooling’ herb. Basil is also known to have an affinity with the lung system, and can be a wonderful healer for asthma or persistent cough. 3. Parsley: This delicious and vibrant herb contains volatile oils that have been found to diminish or reverse tumour growth while also protecting the body from free radical damage. High in antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals as well, Parsley is considered an excellent herb to support the heart, kidneys, and eyes. 4. Thyme: The penetrating flavour of this herb comes from a constituent volatile oil called Thymol, which has been found to protect the fat molecules in our cells from damage. This translates to longterm memory protection and brain health, as well as slower aging throughout the body. Thyme is also great for the lungs, for chronic coughing, and is a potent antibacterial. Whether you choose to gather or grow this spring season, just make sure you
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take advantage of all the natural world has to offer. This is but a tiny sample of the medicine (and beauty) available in this incredible area of the world. And just in closing, we may focus on the chemical constituents and mineral density of these herbs as their primary mode of healing, but what they offer us in terms of relationship to nature and the experience of awe could never be quantified. This is their real magic, and a source of healing that surpasses any other. Ciel Patenaude is an Integrative Health & Shamanic Practitioner based in Williams Lake, BC. A highly trained and naturally gifted intuitive healer, Ciel holds a BSc in Biology, an MA in Integrative Healing, and is a certified Yoga Teacher & Wellness Coach.
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TheGreenGazette
Extended Producer Responsibility: Part of the Cariboo Regional District’s Solid Waste Info Series—Becoming Waste Wise By Tera Grady
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xtended what? Most of us are unaware of what Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) or product stewardship is, even though we’ve probably used several EPR programs. In continuing with January’s topic of resolving to become waste wise, this month’s topic will help you understand what EPR is and how you can make it a success. EPR is an environmental management strategy guided by the principle that whoever designs, produces, sells, or uses a product takes responsibility for minimizing that product's environmental impact at the end of its life. The idea behind EPR is sensible: the businesses that make products, and the users of these products, should pay for recovering and recycling materials. In British Columbia, industry’s response to EPR is product stewardship. The product stewardship model is com-
prised of several key players – manufacturers, retailers, governments, and consumers – working together, ultimately with the goal of diverting products from landfills and ensuring they are responsibly recycled at their end-of-life. “The intention of EPR strategy is to promote the integration of environmental costs associated with goods throughout their life cycles into the market price of the products, thereby motivating producers to make and sell products that are more durable, contain fewer toxins, and never become waste at the end of their life,” says Craig Wisehart, chair of Stewardship Agencies of British Columbia (SABC). This is why “eco fees” or “advanced disposal fees” are charged on items like tires, batteries, motor oil, and beverage containers, to name a few. In June’s article we’ll discuss the newest EPR program for packaging and printed papers and how the
cost of recycling these products will be shifting from the taxpayer to the consumer. What can you do to make sure EPR programs succeed at diverting products from landfills? It’s really quite simple; don’t throw away EPR products. Not sure if an item is covered by an EPR program? Not sure where your local EPR drop off location is? Call the Recycling Council of BC’s (RCBC) hotline at 1-800-667-4321, download the Recyclepedia App and have the info at your fingertips, or check online at www.rcbc.ca or www.cariboord.bc.ca for your local recycling guide. To date there are over 15 industry stewardship programs in the province ranging from pharmaceuticals, outdoor power equipment, appliances, pesticides, electronics, antifreeze, thermostats, and cellphones. Did you know… there are over 300 power tools and small appliances included in the stewardship program, including an
The Unlikely Pipeline By Ray Grigg
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he approval of Enbridge's ?orthern Gateway pipeline by the ?ational Energy Board’s Joint Review Panel (JRP) landed with a dismal and predictable thud. It is a view that needs to be reviewed, an assessment that needs to be reassessed, a decision that still needs multiple other decisions. “After weighing the evidence,” the JRP announced with an unconvincing finality, “we concluded that Canada and Canadians would be better off with the ?orthern Gateway Project than without it.” The pronouncement is filled with ambiguities, uncertainties, and deficiencies. What evidence was weighed that supported the JRP’s conclusion? Of 1,179 oral submissions, 1,159 were opposed to the pipeline and the resulting supertankers. As noted by Stephen Hume in The Vancouver Sun, “Scientists and environmentalists who wanted to address the hearings were excluded from the process by NEB fiat” (Dec. 20/13). The hearings did not consider “upstream” or “downstream” effects, except as economic factors—but even these were only conjectural or “likely.” As for being beneficial to “Canada,” it is a land mass, a geographical territory endowed with natural features that don’t need scarring by pipelines, inevitable oil spills, threats to species and ecologies, wholesale removal of a non-renewable resource, and massive environmental trauma from the tar sands development, not to mention additional greenhouse gases that are exacerbating climate change. As for the benefit of the Northern Gateway pipeline to “Canadians,” this is both conjectural and questionable. The evolution of Canadians toward oil as their single, dominant, economic driver moves us toward the status of a petro-state with all the accompanying financial instabili-
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gle saws, heat guns, grease guns, planers, sewing machines, clothing irons, fans, bathroom scales, blenders, coffee grinders, and the list goes on and on. Go to electrorecycle.ca for the complete list. Waste wise education is delivered to students within the CRD, but the Regional District would like to make waste education available to everyone, and help change our waste handling habits for the better. Please join the Cariboo Regional District to become waste wise and make a difference. For direct access to our monthly topics “Like” us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/caribooregion, visit the CRD website at www.cariboord.bc.ca, or look for our articles in your local paper.
photo: http://globe-net.com/
ties, budgetary uncertainties, and democratic corrosion. Although the JRP finds, “the project, if constructed, would likely deliver economic benefits by expanding and diversifying the markets available for western Canadian crude oil exports,” it also acknowledges that it is, “difficult to determine, with certainty, the effect the Northern Gateway Project may have on broader market prices once it is placed in service....” In other words, the addition of Alberta dilbit to the international market may lower the price of oil, reduce Canadian royalties, and challenge the viability of the pipeline itself. Alternately, “new pipelines connecting producing regions with consuming regions change market dynamics in ways that cannot easily be predicted,” so “if constructed, the project would significantly expand and diversify the market options for western Canadian crude oil supply, which would contribute to the realization of full market value pricing over the long term.” This means Canadians could pay more for their own oil. All these uncertainties are compounded in a country that has no coherent energy policy, is producing dilbit by furiously burning limited supplies of natural gas, is still importing “unethical” oil for its eastern needs, and is alienating itself from a global community becoming increasingly desperate to wrestle down carbon dioxide emissions. Indeed, as the world’s climate situation continues to worsens during the next decades, the pressure to reduce oil production and consumption will only intensify. A global tax on carbon is almost inevitable, “dirty” oil from the tar sands will almost certainly be subject to increasing censure, and Canada could even be confronted with trade sanctions as it promotes a product that is deemed unacceptable by international judgment. And this doesn’t even address an
other profoundly important environmental issue. The JRP acknowledges that no studies have been done to assess the impact of dilbit on river or marine ecologies. Nonetheless, in a leap of blind faith and an expression of amazing understatement (despite finding “there is some uncertainty regarding the behaviour of dilbit spilled in water”) the Panel finds that the weight of evidence indicates that dilbit is “no more likely to sink to the bottom than other heavier oils with similar physical and chemical properties.” So, uncertainty about the impact of dilbit on marine ecologies is dismissed by the Panel as inconsequential because it may not be worse than any other spill of “similar” crude. To reassure everyone that all will be well if the Northern Gateway is built, the Panel recommends “a scientific advisory committee to study what happens to diluted bitumen when released into the environment.” Good idea. But this is essential information, required before the pipeline is approved, not after. Besides, the Panel’s adroit use of words focuses attention on the bitumen and not the environment—surely the issue is not “what happens to the diluted bitumen” but its impact on ecologies into which it is spilled. But this evasive language is common in the JRP’s report. Uncertain environmental impacts are disguised in verbal obscurity. Consider the following sentence: “The type and duration of effects would be highly variable and would depend on the type and volume of product spilled, location of the spill, exposure of
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living and non-living ecosystem components to the product spilled, and environmental conditions.” This is a wonderful example of linguistic nonsense. It simply admits, that given a spill of “product” – a much more benign term than diluted bitumen – neither the Panel nor anyone else knows what will happen. Nonetheless, despite the long-term damage to Prince William Sound from the Exxon Valdez disaster more than 20 years ago, the Panel is able to conclude from no substantial information or studies “that the adverse [environmental] effects would not be permanent and widespread.” Approval of the Northern Gateway by the JRP is little more than a routine formality wrapped in a symbolic gesture. Recent legislation passed by the federal government has radically altered the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act and the National Energy Board Act, transferring decision-making power to the federal cabinet. Given its political, economic, and environmental ideology, final approval of the Northern Gateway is inevitable. But a host of other obstructions lie between approval and completion. Building the actual pipeline is more unlikely than it seems. Ray Grigg is a weekly environmental columnist for the Campbell River CourierIslander. He is the author of seven internationally published books on Oriental philosophy, specifically Zen and Taoism.
April/May 2014
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Canadian Tire: In tune with recycling
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t’s time to celebrate recycling! One local business that has been the life of the party for years is Canadian Tire. The company’s innovative recycling programs for in-store operations and for customers have helped set the standard in the Cariboo. Store owner Brian Stefan says providing recycling programs for the community is about more than setting out bins. “We are committed to recycling,” he says. “You can trust our ‘family’ to do the right thing with your family’s recycling and see it through. We will re-sort if necessary. I care about this. We all do.” He adds that it pays to recycle both for the environment and for employment. “All our recycling efforts are employmentdriven,” he says. “The items we recycle are shipped from here, creating jobs for people.”
April/May 2014
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Besides providing recycling bins for a wide range of items, besides extensive recycling programs in the store itself, Canadian Tire also sells and promotes ‘green’ products. “Our staff me mbe r s ma ke product knowledge and the customer a priority and look for opportunities to showcase our new innovative items,” he says. “They can answer questions about them and show you how to use them.” Green products at Canadian Tire include a 48volt lithium ion lawnmower with 0% emissions, cleaners and degreasers, garden supplies including compost support, household items, light bulbs, solar energy systems, and more. “It’s more than what we sell,” he says. “It’s what we do.”
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What’s in your Well? Part 2: Testing your well water By A. K. (Sandy) Amy
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egular testing of your well water is important. Testing will identify existing problems, ensure the water is suitable for the intended use (especially if used for drinking by humans and animals), track changes in the water, and determine the effectiveness of any treatment systems. The quality of a water source may change over time, even suddenly. Changes can go unnoticed as the water may look, smell, and taste the same. The only way to tell if your drinking water is safe is by having it tested. Harmful bacteria, parasites, and viruses are invisible to the naked eye, so water which looks and tastes good may not necessarily be safe to drink. These microbes can exist in surface and groundwater supplies, and can cause immediate or long-term illnesses in humans if not properly treated. Certain chemical contaminants that are sometimes found in a water source can cause long-term health problems that take years to develop. Frequent water testing will identify unsafe water and ensure that any installed treatment systems are treating the water to a satisfactory level. What tests should I have done? Microbiological tests: new wells are usually disinfected by the well driller at the time of construction to eliminate any microbiological contamination that may have occurred during drilling. Wells should be tested for bacteria annually after construction. The presence of total coliform bacteria in well water is a result of surface water infiltration or seepage from a septic system. E. coli bacteria appear in water samples recently contaminated by fecal matter; thus, they indicate the possible presence of disease-causing bacteria, viruses, or protozoa. The best time to sample your well water is when the probability of contamination is greatest. This is likely to be in early spring just after the thaw, after an extended dry spell, following heavy rains, or after lengthy periods of non-use. However, testing at any time is better than no testing at all. Chemical contaminants: wells should be tested for a variety of possible mineral and chemical contaminants. A minimum of tests would include pH (a measure of the acidity or alkalinity of the water), Total Dissolved Solids or TDS (measurement of the amount of dissolved minerals, or “hardness”), nitrates and nitrites (indication of impact from agricultural operations or on-site septic systems), and a heavy metals analysis (these would include copper, mercury, cobalt, manganese, etc.). These tests would be a minimum requirement to assure water quality, and would only address the most common factors. Some of these factors occur naturally, while others are from human activity. Identification of sources of specific problems with your water (odours, staining of laundry or fixtures, corrosion or scale formation) require more specialized testing. Although water testing “do-it-yourself kits” are available, these should only be used as an indicator of well conditions. Accurate assessment of the safety of your water can only be performed by laboratories accredited by the Public Health Officer for drinking water certification. Your local Public Health representatives, realtors, or bank’s mortgage specialists may guide you to find someone to help you with your testing requirements.
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What do my test results mean? You have had your well water sampled and tested, either by a well water testing service or by a certified laboratory (or both), and now you have received your report (or reports) with the test results. There will generally be much information in these reports regarding the physical, chemical, mineral, bacteriological, and radiological tests that may have been performed. But what does all this information really mean? Well water testing (sometimes called “potability testing”) is usually comprised of three main parts: the physical parameters tested (pH, hardness, turbidity, etc.), the bacteriological parameters (including but not limited to Total Coliforms and E. coli bacteria), and the chemical and mineral components tested (nitrites and/or nitrates, chlorides, fluorides, and metals such as iron, manganese, uranium, arsenic, etc.). Although explaining all of these potential test results would take much more space than allowed here, an introductory explanation of these three main report parts will follow. Your well testing service provider or laboratory can provide clarification of any specific results on your test report. Physical parameters • pH: a determination of the acidity or alkalinity of your water. A pH of 7.0 is considered neutral, below 7.0 is “acidic,” and above 7.0 is “alkaline.” Acidic water can cause premature wear of appliances, and can leach copper or lead (in soldered joints) from pipes. Alkaline water is an indicator of minerals in the water. Well water in the region is generally somewhat alkaline. • Total Dissolved Solids (or TDS): a measure of the dissolved minerals (especially calcium) in the water. TDS is an indicator of the “hardness” of the water. Well water TDS results above 200 are considered “moderately hard” and 500 or above “very hard.” Hard water can cause scale formation in kettles, hot water tanks, and on faucets. Well water in the region is usually moderately hard. • Turbidity: a measure of the cloudiness or haziness of water due to individual particles (usually dissolved solids) generally invisible to the naked eye. Excessive turbidity is aesthetically unappealing, and may indicate a health concern. It is an optical characteristic of water, and is an expression of the amount of light that is scattered by material in the water when light is shone through it. Turbid water can be caused by clay, silt, organic and inorganic material, algae, plankton, or other microscopic organisms. Turbidity is measured in “nephelometric turbidity units” (NTU), where the higher the number, the higher the turbidity. Canadian Drinking Water Standards maximum acceptable concentration (MAC) for turbidity is 1.0. Turbidity is not generally an issue in local area wells. Reports generally show turbidity in the 0.2 to 0.4 NTU range. These are only three of the most commonly tested physical parameters of drinking water. Depending on the level your personal analysis, your report could also show results for electrical conductivity, colour, total alkalinity, and many other parameters. A. K. (Sandy) Amy has over 40 years of laboratory experience in analytical chemistry and trace analysis. As the proprietor of Safe Well Water Consulting, he provides well water quality, well performance testing, and water treatment consulting services to private well owners in the South Cariboo region.
April/May 2014
Changes to Park Act Pave the Way for Industrial Development in BC Parks—Controversial Bill 4 becomes law
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ill 4 (the Park Amendment Act) became law in late March despite widespread opposition from the BC public and a consortium of leading environmental organizations and notable park advocates. Changes to the Act allow poorly-defined industrial “research” to be conducted within provincial parks, facilitating removal of park land to allow for industrial activity, including pipelines, logging roads, and resource extraction. “The Minister has received thousands of letters opposing this bill since it was introduced last month, but the public’s concerns have been ignored,” said Peter Wood, Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society. “There has been absolutely zero public consultation, and the pace at which this was pushed through suggests this was never a consideration.” “This Bill undermines the very definition of what a ‘park’ is, given that our protected areas will now be open to industrial activity, ” said Gwen Barlee of the Wilderness Committee. “This is a black day for BC Parks—the provincial government is ensuring that none of our parks are now safe from industrial development.” Previously, a park use permit could not be issued unless the applicant could prove that the activity was “necessary for the preservation or maintenance of the recreational values of the park involved.” Bill 4 removes this safeguard, allowing the Minister to grant a permit if it is de-
April/May 2014
Love Lake, Strathcona Provincial Park, BC. Photo: Rob Dabal
termined that the research relates to “an environmental assessment or a feasibility study,” or is “necessary to inform decision making around changing the boundaries.” A government document obtained in late 2013 via a Freedom of Information request revealed that the BC government is already considering boundary changes to over 30 parks, for projects including LNG pipelines and the expansion of the Kinder Morgan pipeline. The Bill also removes certain protections from smaller parks.
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“The government has sent a clear signal that it is open to having pipelines cut through our globally renowned protected areas,” said Al Martin, BC Wildlife Federation. “The Act will now allow industrial exploration in some of BC’s most beloved parks, placing them at risk.” “If Bill 4 passes, 2014 will be the year that BC Parks changed forever,” said Darryl Walker, BC Government and Service Employees’ Union. “This legislation opens the door to pipelines, oil and gas drilling, and industrial activities that are counter to the values that created our parks system.” “This Bill is confusing and raises suspicion, it does not provide the clarity that Minister Polak claims,” says Bob Peart, Sierra Club BC. “Rather than opening up our parks to special economic interests we should be emphasizing their critical role in providing enjoyment to families and for the protection of nature.” “These changes are deeply unfair to the British Columbians who participated in the land use planning processes that established many of these parks,” said Stephanie Goodwin, Greenpeace. “We call upon the BC government to cancel Bill 4 immediately and develop alternative legislation that will safeguard the integrity of our parks against industrial activity.” See more at http://www.sierraclub.bc.ca/ media-centre/press-releases/changes-to-parkact-pave-the-way-for-industrialdevelopment-in-bcparks#sthash.2w1eXvcb.dpuf
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Inviting Wild Mushrooms into your Kitchen By Bill Chapman
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s the snow of another stubborn winter finally recedes, one cry that won’t be heard across the Cariboo is, “Time to watch for the snowbank mushrooms,” or “Hark, morel mushroom season fast approaches; find the baskets!” Sadly these are not common thoughts in spring in the Cariboo and more is the pity because the Cariboo is rich in mushroom bounty. It is hard to say why some communities are mushroom-mad and others are indifferent. Some blame it on the British Isles. Only the people from the British Isles are singularly mushroomindifferent. However, the Quebecois seem to have very little indigenous longing for fungi while their compatriots in France have become quite mushroom-mad. On the other hand, populations rich in Ukrainians, Italians, Chinese, or Germans are all likely to have a thriving subculture of mushroom devotees. So what are mushrooms anyway? For a long time they were considered nonphotosynthetic, though clearly very strange, plants. Modern genetic research shows fungi are more closely related to animals than plants and most scientists now consider them to belong to a kingdom all of their own. We only think of mushrooms when we see them dancing on our lawns; but in fact, they have very rich, complex, other lives that go on mainly out of sight. In a typical Cariboo forest there will be many more species of fungi at work or play than there will be plants and animals put together. The shy fungus spends most of its life in the ground or in some other hidden place and the mushrooms we see are like the apples on a tree, a structure for the most part designed to be eaten to ensure the propagation of the species. So, shouldn’t we oblige? What do fungi do in their secret places? Fungi have a bad rap for causing diseases, but that is only the first (and least) of the three major roles they play. Their second role is as decomposers. While bacteria also decompose, fungi are masters at worming their way into hard places to break down the toughest of customers. Without fungi, it is safe to say we would be up to our eyeballs in leaves, branches, and much of the other detritus that finds its way to the ground. By decomposing, fungi not only keep us from drowning in litter, but they free up nutrients to allow plants to continue the cycle of life. The third role of fungi is the one for which they get critical acclaim, but alas, it is a role of which the public is scarcely aware. Almost all the plants we see around us, including those we eat, are dependent upon fungi to take up nutrients and water to help the plant grow. The fungi are connected into plant roots through special structures called mycorrhizae, which just means fungus root. Fossil records show that fungi have been working with plants ever since the first plants appeared on land. In return for nutrients and moisture, the
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plant feeds the fungus with carbohydrates. Some of our biggest and best eating mushrooms are so called mycorrhizal fungi and they grow so big because the tree under which they are growing is probably feeding them to make sure they are fat and healthy. So, the mushroom is much like the Shmoo of L’il Abner fame (Google it), a creature who wants to be eaten. I have to qualify that by saying while most mushrooms want to be eaten, not all of them want to be eaten by you. Therefore, it is really important to know which mushroom you are eating and whether or not it is compatible with your digestive tract. So, if the mushrooms want to be eaten, how do they attract their customers? Well, for one thing, many mushrooms are delicious. If you have only eaten storebought mushrooms you might be forgiven for thinking that delicious is an overstatement. However, the wild mushroom is to the store mushroom as the huckleberry is to the cultivated blueberry. While both are good, the wild one is by far the richer cousin. Mushrooms are particularly rich in the newest taste sensation that is called umami. Umami refers to the taste of amino acids (protein). There are people who crave sweets and others who crave salt or fat. Those people out picking mushrooms are likely to be the sort who can rhapsodize equally over a good chicken stock as much as a basket of May mushrooms. Both are rich in umami. Mushrooms are also good for us. As the umami flavour would suggest, they are high in protein. They are also high in various vitamins and carbohydrates, but not in fat. There has been a vicious rumour going around for years that mushrooms are low in food value, which is categorically not true. Somebody just made that up to justify their fungophobia. However, saying mushrooms are good for you is like saying plants are good for you: some are more so than others, and maybe some are not so at all. Remember, there are more kinds of mushrooms out there than there are plants and it would be a bit much to expect that they are all designed for you. There is one obscure kind of mushroom that grows in the Cariboo called the truffle, which epitomizes this duality. Truffles are funny little underground mushrooms that are specifically designed to be eaten by squirrels and other creatures who don’t mind a little dirt on their food. The thing about truffles is that they tend to be overpowering in their aromas. Those aromas take some people to culinary heaven while they remind others of the sneakers on their teenage son. There is no accounting for taste. Mushroom season is fast approaching. There is a world of wild culinary delight waiting for those willing to learn some of the secrets of mushrooming. In the past the Scout Island Nature Centre has hosted mushroom forays and the Williams Lake Recreation Centre is sponsoring a foray this summer. Denise Skarra has the
When the morel picking is good, there is plenty for all. Photo: Bill Chapman
The waterfall mushroom - one of the most delicious and beautiful of our local delicacies. Photo Bill Chapman de tail s. Email her at dskarra@williamslake.ca. If you are interested in exploring the intriguing and delicious world of mushrooms, find a mentor to set you safely on this lifelong journey of discovery. Bill and his family have lived in Williams Lake since 1992. They are frequently the only mushrooms pickers to be seen on the vast landscapes of the Cariboo-Chilcotin. Bill learned to pick mushrooms at his mother’s knee and Bill and Louisa’s kids all started picking mushrooms while still in diapers.
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April/May 2014
Rivershed Society of BC By Fin Donnelly
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hree RSBC initiatives to keep an eye on: Riversheds Forum 14th Annual Riversheds Forum, April 11 - 13, 2014 in Yale, BC The Riversheds Forum offers an opportunity to reunite with friends, share ideas and stories, learn how to get more people involved in your local activities, and to immerse yourself in hands-on activities transferable to your own community within the Fraser River Basin. Forum Agenda - This year’s agenda features Anna Warwick Sears, the executive director of the Okanagan Basin Water Board, as the keynote speaker. Raised in BC, she received a PhD in population biology at the University of California - Davis. Before returning to Canada in 2006, Dr. Sears was research director of a watershed NGO in Sonoma County, California. Dr. Sears is passionate about using science to solve realworld problems and building bridges with community stakeholders. Rivershed Stories - The Forum offers participants an opportunity to share information about their rivershed. Presenters tell “Rivershed Stories” making use of maps, posters, and photographs. Rivershed Stories provide brief descriptions of the watershed and the work of an organization. The stories highlight the work of stewardship groups from around the Fraser River Basin. Forum Registration - The registration fee is $150 and includes two nights accommodation at the Fraser River Raft Expeditions campus, meals, a field trip, and involvement in the weekend program. Sustainable Living Leadership Program Travel 1,400 km down the mighty Fraser River, one of the world’s greatest salmon rivers, by canoe, raft, shuttle van, and on foot. Evenings are spent camping under the stars along the banks of the river, while days are spent learning about stewardship and designing your own sustainability project to implement in your community. Travelling through 10 of BC’s 14 biogeoclimatic zones, you study watersheds, salmon, resource management, and how to lower your ecological footprint. You discuss what it means to live sustainably; you learn about food security, voluntary simplicity, and green economics. Engaging with peers, facilitators, and the RSBC’s extensive network of community leaders, you learn from and get inspired by their experiences and knowledge as you meet them in their communities. Team building, conflict resolution, communication, and critical thinking are also part of this dynamic program. Each day you are surrounded by breathtaking scenery, from ancient rainforests, deserts, and grasslands to sage brush and floodplain. By the time you reach the Pacific Ocean, you will have designed your own sustainability project suited to your community, and will have gained the skills and confidence to make a difference in your community. We are seeking applicants with the skills and qualities to become future capable leaders that can successfully advocate for and implement initiatives with the intention of
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increasing the quality of life and well-being of their communities. We are building a network of stewards who can speak to the sustainable management of rivers, wilderness areas, wild animals, and natural resources. Taking on this challenge requires bravery, co-operation, integrity, time, a willingness to step into the unknown, and enthusiasm. It is the experience of a lifetime. Visit www.rivershed.com for details. 2015 Fraser River Swim Relay - Inspiring Change! “We must begin thinking like a river if we are to leave a legacy of beauty and life for future generations.” ― David Brower, Founder Sierra Club, Friends of the Earth Rivers are vital, but these sources of freshwater continue to be negatively impacted by pollution, development, industrial projects, resource extraction, and climate change. For decades, Canadians have been living disconnected from the riversheds in which they live, work, and play. We urgently need to engage individuals in conversations about rivers, riversheds, and the environment they depend on. The time to act is now. On the 20th anniversary of Fin Donnelly’s First Fraser River swim, a team of passionate women will follow in his swim strokes 1,400 km down the mighty Fraser. Along the way, they will educate people, especially young people, about the issues our rivers face and encourage a vision for change. They aim to inspire action, raise awareness about environmental threats and solutions, and engage communities in public education and community outreach. By swimming the 1,400 km length of the Fraser River, they will inspire Canadians to protect and care for their local watersheds. They will focus on increasing river stewardship by working with community groups and schools across BC and Canada, engaging audiences in public education, curriculum, and community outreach. They will do this in five ways: Swim the Fraser. Get the river in the media and start the conversation—get people talking about the health of their rivershed. Hold community events along the banks of the Fraser during the three-week swim relay. Connect with communities and school groups along the way—draw people outside to the river’s edge and encourage them to think about their local watershed. Schools can also participate both virtually and in real time in the swim by learning about issues, solutions, and singing songs for family audiences in events hosted online, through a smart phone app, and by Google Earth tracking. Create a music-based online learning resource called Up Your Watershed! that will be available for free download by teachers, as a legacy that can be left in communities. Increase the profile of the Rivershed Society of BC. Create increased exposure to interest groups along the Fraser corridor through a documentary film of the swim. Provide communities participating in Up Your Watershed! events with grants to restore local streams, leaving another legacy that helps to protect the riversheds of the Fraser. Visit www.rivershed.com to follow the development of this exciting journey!
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April/May 2014
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National Wildlife Week: Seeking the Soul in Nature By Ciel Patenaude
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hat is often seen as the “childlike” tendency to attribute human qualities to animals and the rest of the nonhuman world has long been criticized as undeveloped thinking by many socalled sophisticated realists and philosophers. Viewed as a process of immature “psychological projection”—the process through which a person unconsciously rejects his or her own unacceptable attributes by ascribing them to objects or persons in the outside world—connecting with other species and even non-living objects in this way has been denigrated as a lower form of relation, and an expression of an undeveloped perspective on existence. The brilliant psychologist and philosopher Carl Jung, in contrast, saw that it was in fact the immature understanding and use of our own access to consciousness that prevented us from forming truly connected relationships to other animals and the rest of the ecological and material world. He understood that being able to relate to and anthropomorphize animals and the phenomenal world was not a sign of naïve youthfulness, but suggested that a person had come to understand their own existence and relationship to consciousness in a truly mature manner. Jung presented the idea that we are collectively unsure of how to utilize our gift of consciousness fully—being as we are, a “young” species, behaving on this Earth like a teenager does when just driving a car for the first time—and so, in fear, we create a kind of boundary between us and the rest of the world in order to shore up our fragile consciousness and create a sense of self that we believe we can rely on. Therefore, one who has come to understand their existence fully would have no need for such fear and segregation, and would dissolve these boundaries with ease. Jung saw our capacity to connect with other species as an innate instinct borne of our shared history, and this truth is exemplified in the actions of every child that comes into this world. We are born desiring connection with the animal, plant, and mineral kingdom, and only learn later to create arbitrary and illogical boundaries between “us” and “them.” Jung suggested—as most indigenous peoples around the world have always maintained—that we must see ourselves as but a part of an enormous family, and while we may appear on some levels to live at an apex point of the evolutionary process, we can be considered mature and developed only to the extent that we are able to see ourselves as part of the larger system. To quote, Jung said: “We need to project ourselves into the things around us. My self is not confined to my body. It extends into all the things I have made and all the things around me. Without these things, I would not be myself; I would not be a human being. I would merely be a human ape, a primate.” April 6-12 this year is National Wildlife Week in Canada, designated to acknowledge the birthday of ecobiologist Jack
April/May 2014
Miner. Miner is credited with being the largest influence in saving the Canadian goose from extinction in the 20th century, an act of conservation and attention that has been celebrated in the week of April 10 since 1985. The point of National Wildlife Week is to celebrate the natural heritage of Canada, bringing attention and awareness to the conservation of other species and habitats throughout our country. It is a noble cause, most certainly, and one that deserves our full attention. And by full attention I mean full attention—the whole of our understanding in body, mind, and spirit. Introducing Carl Jung’s philosophies about conservation is inspiring and opens us up to thinking about our relationship to all that is from an angle not often presented. Secondly, I believe that it lays the groundwork for acts of conservation that speak to the heart of all our challenges as human beings, and awakens our ability to be fully present to both our individual experience and to the manner in which we interact with the whole. Why do we seek to conserve? Is it because we feel that it is our duty as some kind of superior beings on this planet to make sure that the lesser beings—all the other species below us on the evolutionary ladder—are taken care of or at least not wiped out completely? Is it because we want to preserve the balance and perfection of the natural world as best we can, not upsetting the whole picture as much as we have been with our industry and development? Both of these motivations are valid, certainly, but what of an aspiration of conservation based upon these Jungian philosophies? What if we conserved because we saw ourselves in the natural world, and felt such deep connection to all that is that we would feel as wounded by its loss as we would by the loss of a family member, close friend, or even one of our own limbs? It may seem like a stretch to some, but as James Lovelock asserted in his Gaia Hypothesis and as Carl Jung spoke to in his philosophies, we are all truly just parts or cells within a larger body on this planet, and the extent to which we are able to understand and live honestly within this fact will determine the level happiness, health, and maturity we experience. Therefore, during this National Wildlife Week, when pondering the experience, pain, or plight of another species—be they animal, plant, or even the larger phenomenal material world as a whole—I would ask that you seek to dissolve the boundaries that we have all created between ourselves and “the rest,” and desire not to conserve nor to save, but to relate, connect, and commiserate. This is our family. We must learn to treat them as such, and in doing so we will find the healing we all desire and need. Ciel Patenaude is an Integrative Health & Shamanic Practitioner based in Williams Lake, BC. A highly trained and naturally gifted intuitive healer, Ciel holds a BSc in Biology, an MA in Integrative Healing, and is a certified Yoga Teacher & Wellness Coach.
"“Morning on Teztan Biny."
“Sechanalyagh” to everyone who supported the Tsilhqot'in to protect our precious headwaters and homelands. Photo:Tsilhqot’in 0ational Government
First Nations Respond to Judicial Review of Federal Rejection of New Prosperity: “Enough is Enough” Tsilhqot’in Territory, BC—The Tsilhqot’in Nation will continue to defend its rights and interests in the face of a second judicial review initiated by Taseko Mines Ltd. (TML) against the federal rejection of the New Prosperity gold-copper mine. “The latest legal action is a desperate attempt by a desperate company to distract everyone from the facts,” said Chief Joe Alphonse, Tribal Chair for the Tsilhqot’in National Government. “The bottom line is that TML and both levels of government must end this direct threat to our culture and values once and for all. Two independent federal panel reviews have now found severe environmental problems and threats to First Nations culture and rights that simply cannot be mitigated. The project is so fundamentally flawed that even the generally pro-resource development federal Conservative government and the Prime Minister himself have concluded that the problems are so “scathing” and “damning” that it has rejected the Project twice in four years. “After all of this, TML is still insisting on pursuing a project that clearly cannot and will not be built, and is engaging in various legal actions that put their shareholders, the Tsilhqot’in and taxpayers to further wasteful expense,” said Chief Roger William of the Xeni Gwet’in First Nations government. “All this despite the fact that the project lies inside one of the only areas in Canada subject to court-proven Aboriginal rights—the law of the land as of September 2012.” “We are equally disappointed that the BC government, and in particular Mines Minister Bennett, continue to talk and act as if this project has been wrongly rejected and still has a chance of proceeding,” said Chief Russell Myers Ross of the Yunesit’in Government. “We know from the elections records that the Liberal government and Mr. Bennett have received political funding from TML. We also know that under Mr. Bennett in 2010 the province became the only regulatory authority to approve the mine and claim that it posed no problems of major concern. Neither fact justifies the government continuing to blindly support this project, providing the company’s investors with false hope, and generating more stress for our communities. The conduct of the Province on this file calls into question the honour of the Crown, considering the BC environmental assessment amendment process is incomplete.” “Enough is enough. It is time to end the pointless pursuit of a bad mine and move forward,\’ said Chief Alphonse. “That’s why the Tsilhqot’in will fight this second lawsuit, and why we are about to introduce our own Mining Policy, so that we never have to go through such a fight again.” Chief William added, “For the Tsilhqot’in, after all these years spent under the oppressive shadow of this proposed project, it is time for us to finally be set free to work with other communities and companies in the area on economic projects that will truly benefit this region, without destroying the land and waters on which we all depend. We have not struggled for 20 years in the courts, all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada, simply to have our Aboriginal rights mean nothing at the end of the day.”
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Blue Listed Species: Sharp-tailed grouse By Jim Sims
R
ecently there have been a couple of interesting sightings of Sharp-tailed grouse. This one comes to us from Chilco Choate at Gaspard Lake in the South Chilcotin: “Something I forgot to mention last week, about 2 wks. ago a flock of about 100+ Sharp-tails flew thru the yard. That was the biggest flock I have ever seen here. I hope it means something. Such flocks used to be common at the Maindley Ranch J. of Alexis Creek in the '50's.” There was this one from Sandy Proulx: “Rita and I have a snowshoe trail out at Riske Cr. and we walked by about a dozen of them the first two times out, looked like they were feeding on the Juniper berries and hanging out under the cover of Douglas Fir where the heavy branches come down close to the ground. We had some wheat and corn mix seed at home so we took it out and spread it around a few of the D-fir that the where hanging out and when we went back a couple days later the seed was gone, there was a fresh skiff of new snow and fresh grouse tracks around the trees where we put out the seed, we put out more seed and every time we went back the seed would be gone, maybe 5 or 6 times in a span of about a month. We did see the grouse a few times but they are very wild and we didn't get close, so no pictures of them actually feeding.” During the winter several Sharptailed grouse families will gather together in larger flocks like the ones Chilco reported,
forward. Purple neck sacs are inflated and deflated during display. The males use “cooing” calls also to attract and compete for females. When I heard these cooing calls for the first time at Chilanko Marsh I went off in the opposite direction looking for the cooing owl. The female will make up to 10 visits to the lek and will pick a mate from the dominant males Displaying male Sharp-tailed grouse that usually display at the (Tympanuchusphasianellus) Photo: Jared Hobbs centre of the lek. Occasionally a less dominant male although usually not this large. Normally, will sneak into the centre of the lek and get they do not move far from their nesting lucky by acting like a female. This helps the territory in winter (perhaps less than a few gene pool to diversify. The lek, if not diskilometres) in spite of the fact that they are turbed, will be used over again for several capable of relatively long flight. During years. The males will tolerate a fair level of winter they will reside in habitat similar to disturbance; however, the females will that described by Sandi: deciduous shrub avoid disturbed leks so it is very important and tree species that provide berries and that we do not disturb these sites. The female will make her nest close palatable catkins and twigs. Sharp-tails will to the lek and does all the nest building, also roost in snow to conserve energy. The Sharp-tailed grouse is the only incubating, and raising of the young. She British Columbia grouse that makes use of can lay up to a dozen eggs almost all of “leks” or dancing grounds. In the spring which will be fertile. If a nest fails she may males congregate at these breeding sites. lay new nests. Almost all of the females that The leks are located in open areas to enable visit a lek will lay eggs. The nest is located detection of predators and in attracting on the ground in the grassland so protection grouse to the lek by seeing and hearing dis- by taller grasses is essential for brood sucplaying males. The males display on the lek cess. Grazing practices can impact available by stamping their feet rapidly, about 20 nest sites. The young leave the nest shortly times per second, and rattling their tail after hatching and the female will lead her feathers while turning in circles or dancing chicks to food where they will feed them-
selves. Fall counts of family groups indicate great variability in brood success. The Checklist of Cariboo-Chilcotin Birds designates the Sharp-tailed grouse as an uncommon species with one to six individuals per day, per locality. Sharp-tailed grouse are Blue Listed in British Columbia. The population in the southern part of the province has decreased considerably and they have been extirpated in the Okanogan for the past 50 years. The largest concentrations are now found in the central interior. Lek counts in grasslands of the Cariboo Basin and Chilcotin Plateau from 1993 through 2000 showed a decline in numbers. Counts at seven leks fell from an average of 18 birds/lek in 1993 to 10 birds/lek in 2000, representing a 44 per cent decline. However, of eight leks known in 1993 and revisited in 2000, all remained active. New leks are being found each year in clearcuts that usually border riparian zones with willow and birch shrubs. Urban and agricultural development, as well as forest encroachment into grasslands, continues to degrade Sharp-tails’ habitat. Sources: Checklist of CaribooChilcotin Birds, Birds of British Columbia Vol. 2 and http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/wld/ fr p a /i w ms / d oc ume nts / B i r d s/ b_columbiansharptailedgrouse.pdf Jim Sims is editor of Muskrat Express, the newsletter of the Williams Lake Field Jaturalists. To view copies of the newsletter and read more similar articles you can download them from the clubs website at http://www.williamslakefieldnaturalists.ca. Reprinted with permission from Williams Lake Field Naturalists’ newsletter, Muskrat Express, January 2014
Welcoming in Spring with the Williams Lake Food Policy Council By Michelle Daymond
T
he days are getting longer, and the smell of spring is definitely in the air. With the warm sun and the melting snow, excitement for the upcoming growing season is definitely building. The Williams Lake Food Policy Council has been hard at work over the winter organizing events for the 2014 season and securing funding to ensure our current projects can continue to grow and new projects can blossom. Seedy Saturday Kick off the 2014 growing season at our 6th Annual Seedy Saturday Event, to be held Saturday, May 10 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in a new location: the Memory Garden Community Garden at the bottom of the Carson Drive Hill. Come buy your locally grown seedlings, swap seeds you’ve been saving from your own plants, and participate in free hands-on demonstrations and mini-gardening workshops. Members of the Williams Lake Garden Club will be available throughout the morning to answer your gardening questions as well as local farmers and gardeners, and there will be many other related information booths. Also, we are excited to host free kids art in the garden activities, so bring your entire family with you for a morning of local seedy goodness.
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There are still garden beds available for use by community members and/or organizations. If you are interested in securing a spot for yourself, please attend Seedy Saturday and sign up there. Spots are free, although we are requesting a small donation to help with the costs associated with running the Community Gardens. Seedy Saturdays are annual events that happen around the world. They are celebrations of local seeds, foods, gardening, and education that support healthy, strong communities. The Williams Lake Food Policy Council invites everyone to attend May 10. Sharing a Meal: Celebrate community, being social, and amazing food Have you ever experienced communal dining with strangers? We have all experienced eating with our families, or eating with friends at some point, and the importance of family members eating together cannot be over emphasized. However, let’s imagine a different scenario: You arrive at a local farm, maybe one you have purchased food from in the past, but have never visited. Upon your arrival, you are escorted to a wide-open space where a beautiful Long Table is set up, decorated with linens, wineglasses, and seasonal centerpieces. There are 50-60 other people in
attendance, some you may be familiar with and others who may be strangers at the beginning of the evening, but will most likely become new friends. Everyone sits at the outdoor Long Table together, where experienced gourmet chefs have prepared an elegant fourcourse farm-to-table meal, complete with local wine pairings. This communal form of onfarm dining can shift our focus from what we are eating towards how we eating. Sharing a meal with a large group of people encourages social engagement and a feeling of togetherness that brings a whole new realm of excitement to the typically mundane task of daily mealtime. This way of dining is becoming increasingly popular in the Seedlings grown by Columneetza High School for sale at larger centres around North Amer- the Oliver Street Market in 2012, and will be for sale this ica, and the Williams Lake Food year at Seedy Saturday. Photo: Michelle Daymond Policy Council is very excited to be planning such an event for Williams Lake The Food Policy Council is concerned with this summer. Please stay tuned for our an- food security for Williams Lake and the Cariboo Region.. To be added to the Food Policy nouncements as details become available. Council email list, or for more information, Michelle Daymond is a Food Action Co- email foodpolicycouncil@hotmail.com, follow ordinator with the Williams Lake Food Pol- us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ icy Council, a sub-committee of the Cari- WLFPC, or call 250-302-5010. boo-Chilcotin Child Development Centre.
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NOURISHING OUR CHILDREN By Jasmin Schellenberg HEALTHY S0ACKS A0D WHY Apricot Almond Bars These highly nutritious apricot almond bars are easy to make. They pack well for picnics and hiking, and are a great snack or dessert. Ingredients: • 2 cups blanched almond meal • 1/2 cup flax meal • 1/2 cup roasted almond butter • 1/2 cup dried unsweetened coconut • 1/2 cup dried apricots • 1/2 cup coconut oil, melted, plus extra for greasing the baking dish • 1/2 tsp. unrefined sea salt Method: Toss all ingredients into a food processor and process until smooth. Grease a baking dish and spread mixture evenly into the baking dish. Allow the almond apricot bars to harden overnight. Cut with a sharp knife. Enjoy. 0UTRIE0T DE0SE MEAL Beef Strudel (serves 6) Dough: • 1 ½ cups flour • 3/4 tsp salt • 1 egg • 3 Tbsp olive oil • 5 Tbsp warm water Mix all together until smooth and let rest in warm area for an hour. Filling: • 1 Tbsp olive oil (heat up in frying pan) • 1 lb ground beef (fry until light brown, reduce heat) • 1/2 cup red wine • 1 lb or 1 can cubed tomatoes • 3 cloves of garlic, pressed • 1 tsp rosemary (add all to meat and simmer) • 1 tsp salt • 1 pinch cayenne (add, and let cool down) • 1 Tbsp olive oil (heat up in separate pan) • 2 each red and yellow peppers (quartered) • 3 big onions (quartered and separate the leaves) • 1/2 cup water • 1/2 tsp salt (simmer all in frying pan until limp) • 2 oz (50 grams) parmesan • egg yolk Roll out dough on clean dish cloth (tape down corners) in a rectangular shape, as large as possible (see through). Place dough short side to the table’s edge. Don’t put any filling on the top 1/3 of dough. Use 2-3 Tbsp olive oil to brush on the dough. Spread 2 oz (50 grams) parmesan evenly on the dough, but leave the edges and top third free (2 inches). Spread meat filling evenly, then the pepperoni and onions, too. Brush some oil again on the free part of dough. Roll dough up by lifting the dish cloth. Press sides down and place on cookie sheet covered with parchment paper. Brush dough with 1 egg yolk. Bake at 200 degrees C for 40-45 minutes.
April/May 2014
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MYTHS U0VEILED (Synopsis of an article from the Wise Traditions magazine, winter 2013) Cancer: Genetic or not? Research says cancer is often genetically passed on. Surprisingly, 90-95 per cent of cancer cases have their roots in environmental and lifestyle factors. We are exposed in our daily lives to a host of chemical carcinogens. These include toxic fumes from automobile exhaust, toxic pesticides applied to our foods, toxic agents in the vaccines our children are subjected to, and various pharmaceutical drugs with carcinogenic potential. One thing you can do to avoid cancer, don’t use sunscreen! Sunlight is one of the best protective agents against cancer, and is also excellent treatment therapy after a cancer diagnosis. Although we are encouraged to stay out of the sun or lather on sunscreen for fear of getting skin cancer, the truth is that skin cancer has been on the rise by 2 per cent per year while sunscreen usage has increased thirty-fold. Sunscreen interferes with vitamin D3 synthesis in the skin and this effect may more than negatively compensate for any protection from UV exposure. Cholesterol sulfate is the same molecule that is synthesized in the skin upon sunlight exposure. Thus, a plausible way in which sunlight exposure might protect from cancer is by leading to the production of a molecule—cholesterol sulfate—that is sorely needed to maintain the stability of the blood and the general health of the body. Lack of sulfate causes sugar to pile up in the blood stream because the cells are unable to utilize it as fuel, leading to an inability to manufacture insulin. Dr. Seneff’s concludes that it’s an excellent policy for breast cancer management, that mammograms are never a good idea, and that the best way to protect yourself from cancer is to optimize for the supply of sulfate to the blood and to the tissues. This means, first and foremost, getting as much sun exposure to the skin as you can manage. This would yield high payoffs in terms of protection not only from cancer but also from many other modern diseases. The second cancer-preventative strategy is to choose a diet that will support both sulfate synthesis and sulfate transport. The first part of this is to eat foods that are rich in sulfur. This includes meat, seafood, eggs, milk, and milk products, as well as garlic, onions, and cruciferous vegetables. The second part is to eat foods that contain “sulfate transporters.” These include polyphenols and flavonoids, as well as vitamin C and cholesterol. She believes that the health benefits of buckwheat, ginger, virgin coconut oil, brightly coloured fruits and vegetables, resveratrol (in wine), and curcumin (such as turmeric in curry powder) have more to do with the fact that they transport sulfate than the fact that they have antioxidant properties. Also try to choose only organic foods. A WALK THROUGH YOUR PA0TRY: GET RID OF: White table salt. Salt is important for our metabolism. Salt does not, as from the medical system claimed, change your blood pressure ((Dr. Morton Satin, Wise Traditions, spring 2012). REPLACE WITH: Redmond sea salt or Himalayan sea salt. Both have a huge amount of minerals the white one is stripped of. Both salts are mined and are no longer exposed to environmental hazards that happen in today’s seas. Brought to you by Jasmin Schellenberg. Inspired by and resourced from “Jourishing Traditions” by Sally Fallon; and: www.westonaprice.org. For “Jourishing our Children” newsletters of the past visit: www.pasturetoplate.ca or www.thegreengazette.ca.
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April - May Event Listings
April 3,10,17, 24, and May 1. Soul Dance ~ Elements. An intuitive dance experience working with the different elements of Fire, Water, Earth, and Air each week. A moving meditation beginning with a centering sound meditation. 7:20 p.m. - 8:35 p.m. at Satya Yoga Studio in Williams Lake. Contact Chanti at (250) 620-3592 or cariboochanti@care2.com, or visit our Facebook page, Soul Dance ~ Elements to register. April 4-26. The Station House Gallery presents, “What to Wear?” Where fashion, art, and storytelling collide. Featuring Beth Holden, Jane Wellburn, Liliana Dragowska and special guests. 1 Mackenzie Ave. North, Williams Lake. Call (250) 392-6113 for more information. April 5. Spring Equinox Detox Workshop 2:00 p.m.-5:00 p.m. Satya Yoga Studio. Visit www.satyayogastudio.ca or contact (778) 412-9020 or info@satyayogastudio.ca for more information. April 11. 2014 Scout Island Fundraising Banquet. 6:00 p.m. Dinner at 6:30 p.m. St. Andrews United Church Hall, Williams Lake. Featuring “Ocean Wonders” with Jackie Hildering, the Marine Detective, teacher, diver, underwater photographer, whale researcher. Tickets for sale at The Open Book and Scout Island Nature House. Call 250398-8532, email shemphill@netbistro.com or visit www.scoutislandnaturecentre.ca for more info. April 13. Full Moon Meditation & Yin Yoga. Great for students of all levels. Satya Yoga Studio 7-9 p.m. $25. Visit www.satyayogastudio.ca or contact (778) 412-9020 or info@satyayogastudio.ca for more information. April 14. Keeping our Forests Public and Sustainable meeting with conservation activist Vicky Husband and Anthony Britneff, retired professional forester and policy analyst. Cariboo Central Arts Centre at 7 p.m. Free Admission. For more info call (250) 392-7058. April 14. Total Eclipse of the Moon Viewing at Bells Lake Observatory, hosted by the Belles Lake Resort and Wellness Center, Bells Lake Rd, Horsefly. Starting at 9 p.m., with the eclipse occurring from 11 p.m. to 3 a.m. Bring a bedroll, food to share, warm clothing, a blanket, and binoculars. Tea and coffee provided. Contact Bill or Maggie at (250) 620-0596 or irwin8sound@gmail.com for more information. April 17. South Cariboo Sustainability Annual General Meeting, 100 Mile House. South Cariboo Ag Centre Office, 6:30 p.m. (far right of the historic Lodge building directly behind the Red Coach Inn). Come see what we’re about. We have a wealth of information to share, and everyone is welcome! We’d love to hear new ideas and discuss potential projects and events for the coming year. For more information call (250) 791-7284.
May 10. WL Food Policy Council’s 6th Annual Seedy Saturday. 10 a.m.-2 p.m. in a NEW LOCATION: Memory Garden Community Garden, bottom of Carson Drive Hill, Williams Lake. Learn about seed saving, growing food, gardening, and composting, and trade or purchase heritage seeds and local grown seedlings. Free kids art activities, music, and special appearance with Amadeus, the goat. For more info call (250) 302-5010 or email foodpolicycouncil@hotmail.com. May 10. Wonder ~ Us Wanderings. A joyful exploration of music, dance, yoga, and awareness for kids and their big people! Beginning Sat 11:30 a.m. -12:30 p.m. at Satya Yoga Studio. $15/session for kid and big person. Contact Chanti at (250) 620-3592 or cariboochanti@care2.com to register. May 11. Full Moon Meditation & Yin Yoga. Great for students of all levels. Satya Yoga Studio 7-9 p.m. $25. Visit www.satyayogastudio.ca or contact (778) 412-9020 or info@satyayogastudio.ca for more information May 17. Information Meeting and Open House for Chickadee Early Childhood and Learning Centre. To explore the possibility of a Waldorf-inspired education for your child call (250) 296-3265 or email cwestmatt@gmail.com. May 26-30. Bike to Work & School Week, brought to you by Williams Lake Air Quality Roundtable. Improve the air and your health by cycling to work, school, and where ever you need to go! Whether you are a first time or avid commuter, find out more and register online for your chance to win. Categories for child, youth, and adult at www.breatheasywilliamslake.org. May 26. Transition Town Group Hosts Film and Discussion. Fat, Sick, and 0early Dead (97 min). Part road trip, part wellness manifesto, this feature length documentary is the uplifting story of two men whose chance meeting and struggle to overcome the same rare autoimmune disease saves one life, and changes another for good. Across two continents and 9,000 miles, it is an inspiring tale of healing and human connection. Central Cariboo Arts Center (Old Fire Hall) in Williams Lake. Film starts at 6:30 p.m. doors open at 6:00 p.m. Email rcase@laketown.net for more info. May 30. Oliver St. Farmer’s Market. Fridays 3 p.m – 8 p.m. at the Old Courthouse Square (1st and Oliver) in Williams Lake. Your downtown source for local fresh veggies, baked goods, coffee, soaps, jewellery, entertainment, and great people. For more info or to become a vendor contact Kim at (250) 303-1311.
April 21. Transition Town Group Hosts Film and Discussion. GROW! (60 min) looks at the new generation of sustainable farmers through the eyes, hearts, and minds of 20 passionate, idealistic and fiercely independent young growers, speaking of both the joys and the challenges involved in tending the land. Central Cariboo Arts Center (Old Fire Hall) in Williams Lake. Film starts at 6:30 p.m. doors open at 6:00 p.m. Email rcase@laketown.net for more info. April 26th. Information Meeting and Open House for Chickadee Early Childhood and Learning Centre. To explore the possibility of a Waldorf-inspired education for your child call (250) 296-3265 or e-mail cwestmatt@gmail.com. April 29. Documentary Film, “Surviving Progress.” Free monthly film hosted by the South Cariboo Sustainability Society. The film focuses on the present-day impact of civilization, including the impact of concentrated wealth. 7:00 p.m. in 100 Mile House at the Community Employment Centre/Horton Ventures, 808 Alpine, off Hwy 97. Contact (250) 791-1901 or info@southcariboosustainability.com for more info. May 2-31. The Station House Main Gallery presents ‘Sea to Sky’ - Artist Al-Lisa Tresierra McKay will transform your imagination full circle from the ocean to the sky. Upper Gallery: ‘Making Connections’ – School District 27 Program will explore their interpretations of art and expressions with the community. 1 Mackenzie Ave. North, Williams Lake. Call (250) 392-6113 for more information. May 3. Bike Rodeo. Free Community Event. Saturday 11 a.m.-2 p.m. in the Canadian Tire parking lot, Williams Lake. Bring your bike and helmet! For more info contact the Cariboo Memorial Recreational Complex at (250) 398-7665. May 3. May Day celebrations. Labyrinth exploration & meditation, food sharing, barter circle and music. 4:00 p.m. in Williams Lake. Location TBA. For more information Contact Chanti at (250) 620-3592 or cariboochanti@care2.com. May 9. Cariboo Direct Farmer’s Market. Fridays 9 a.m.- 2 p.m., Boitanio Park, behind Save-on Foods, Williams Lake. Fresh local produce, crafts, music, baked goods, bedding plants, and more. Contact Vonny at (250) 392-3577 for more info.
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April/May 2014
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Your Green Shopping Directory
Distribution Details
The Green Collective “Thinks, Creates, or Sells Eco-Friendly Products.” Bean Counter Bistro & Coffee Bar, 250 3052326 180B 3rd Ave. North, Williams Lake Organic Coffee, Fair Trade, Local Foods Body Health 4 All, 250-297-0089 0ola Carter njretrac@gmail.com www.bodyhealth4all.com Better health by balancing body PH. Independent Distributor of LiPH Products Canadian Tire, 250 392-3303 1050 South Lakeside Dr., Williams Lake Recycling Initiatives, Renewable Energy Solutions, Organic Cleaning Products: Blue Planet, Green Works, Method, Jature Clean, Seventh Generation Cariboo Growers Coop, 778 412-2667 3rd & Oliver St., Williams Lake. 100% Jatural & Organic Foods, Jon-Profit Farmer’s Coop Cleanway Supply, 1-800-663-5181 275 South MacKenzie Ave., Williams Lake Organic Cleaning Products Dandelion Living, 778-412-9100 271 Oliver St., Williams Lake Local & Original, Reclaimed & Repurposed, Jatural & Organic Products Day Spa Champagne, 250 305-1249 124A North Second Ave., Williams Lake Quiet, relaxing, personalized atmosphere. A Zen experience. Four Types Massage, Reflexology, Manicures/Pedicures & More. Products: Aubrey Organics SoapWorks/SpaRitual. Local feather & semi-precious stone jewelry. Debbie Irvine B.Sc. (Agr.) RH0 Registered Holistic Nutritionist 250-392-9418 or dirvine@thelakebc.ca EATI?G YOUR WAY TO EXCELLE?T HEALTH! Presenting nutritional seminars which inspire and educate to address health concerns.
Halls Organics, 250 398-2899 107 Falcon Rd. (North Lakeside), Williams Lake Indoor and Outdoor Organic Gardening Products, Alternative Traditional Products, Teas anHerbs, Hemp Body Products The Hobbit House, 250 392-7599 71 First Ave. South, Williams Lake Juice Bar, Jatural Products, Essential Oils, Teas, Crystals, Gemstones, and more. Potato House Sustainable Community Society 250 855-8443 or spuds@potatohouseproject.com In an age of apathy and a sense that change is all talk and no action, The Potato House Project is a friendly bastion of doing, sharing, learning and playing. Call us with your ideas and to find out ways to get involved. Rona Home Centre, 250 392-7767 298 Proctor Street, Williams Lake "ECO" cleaning & gardening products, LED bulbs & energy-efficient building products. Responsible disposal available for recycling of paint, stain, CFLs, batteries, saw blades & more. San Jose Cattle Company, 250 296-4592 Clint and Karen Thompson Sustainable Agriculture, Raised Jaturally/Local Beef, Jo antibiotics, hormones, chemical fertilizers or herbicides. Scout Island 0ature Centre & Williams Lake Field 0aturalists, 250 398-8532 www.scoutislandnaturecentre.ca www.williamslakefieldnaturalists.ca 1305A Borland Rd, Williams Lake Jature on the city’s doorstep. Bird sanctuary, arboretum, trails, Jature House, natural history programs for children and adults. Smashin’ Smoothies, 778-412-2112 102-41, 7th Ave North, Williams Lake Juice, Smoothies & Expresso Bar Fresh, Organic, Whole Food.
Sta-Well Health Foods, 250 392-7022 earthRight Solar, 1 877 925-2929 79D 3rd Ave. North, Williams Lake 3rd & Borland, Williams Lake Organic Foods, Water Distillers, Jatural MediRenewable Energy Solutions, Eco-Friendly Prodcines, Emergency Freeze Dried Foods. ucts, Composting Toilets Flying Coyote Ranch, 250 296-4755 Ingrid Kallman and Troy Forcier Grass-fed Angus beef No shots, no hormones, organic fertilizer By the quarter or side, hamburger . The Gecko Tree, 250 398-8983 54 N. MacKenzie Ave. Williams Lake Serving healthy, local foods
The Williams Lake Water Factory, 250 3985201 Pure Bottled Water. Home & Office Delivery. 955 S. Mackenzie Ave, Williams Lake, BC. Come see us on Toonie Tuesday! Zed-Tech Electric, 250-267-4868 For all your residential and commercial needs. Joe Zombori zedtechelectric26@gmail.com Zirnhelt Ranch, 250 243-2243 www.zirnheltranch.ca or susanzirnhelt@yahoo.com Producers of Grassfed/Finished Beef. Pasture Raised Pork.
Contact us today to list your Green business - info@thegreengazette.ca or 250 620-3419
April/May 2014
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Green Locations TheGreenGazette can be found in print at the fine locations below, as well as online, or by subscription . 100 Mile House Donex Chartreuse Moose Higher Ground Nat. Foods Nuthatch Books One Another Coffee House Save-On-Foods A&W 108 Mile House 108 Mile Esso 108 Mile Mall 108 Mile Supermarket Hills Health & Guest Ranch 150 Mile House 150 Mile Mall Husky Station Marshall’s 150 Mile Store Alexis Creek Alexis Creek General Store Anahim Lake Anahim Lake Trading Mclean Trading Bella Coola Coast Mountain Lodge Kopas Store Moore’s Organic Market Valley Inn & Restaurant Big Lake Big Lake General Store Clinton Clinton Grocery & Gas Clinton Coffee House Dog Creek Mount View Handy Mart Red Dog Pub/Liquor Store Hanceville Lee’s Corner Store Horsefly Clarke’s General Store Post Office Horsefly Service Station LacLaHache Race Trac Gas & Convenience Red Crow Cafe Likely Lakeside Service Valley General Store McLeese Lake Deep Creek Service Station Oasis Pub The Oasis Motel Cafe 0impo Lake Nimpo Lake General Store Prince George Ava Maria Gifts and Health Foods Books and Co. University of Northern BC College of New Caledonia Quesnel The Green Tree Booster Juice Carryall Books Good For You Market Holistic Health Care Clinic Karin’s European Deli Granville’s Coffee Shop Quiznos Safeway Redstone Kinikinik
Wildwood RaceTrac Gas & Store Williams Lake A& W All-ways Travel Amanda Enterprises Barking Spider Mountain Bikes Bean Counter Bistro Beaver Valley Feeds The Book Bin CanWest Propane Cariboo Growers Coop Cariboo Ski Cleanway Supply Concrete Fitness Conservation Society CJ’s Restaurant CRD Library Creative Scissor Dairy Queen Dandelion Living Day Spa Champagne earthRight Elaine’s Natural Foods Factory Direct Furniture Flavours & More Good Guys Gardening Greyhound Bus Stop Haines Office World Handi-Mart Joey’s Grill KFC Halls Organics The Hobbit House Husky Restaurant Karamia’s Donairs Kornak & Hamm Pharmacy
The Laughing Loon The Legion Margetts Meats McDonalds Mohawk New World Coffee Oliver’s Bar & Grill PetroCanada Porky’s Deli Quality Tax Solutions Red Shred’s Bike & Board Shed Rona Home Centre Safeway Save-on-Foods SBL Liquor Store Scout Island Nature Center Senior Citizens ActivityCenter
Shopper’s Drug Mart Sight & Sound Spa Bella Staples Station House Gallery Sta-Well Health Foods Subway Sutton Cariboo Realty The Gecko Tree The Open Book Tim Hortons Tourism Info Center Trattoria Pasta Shoppe TRU Tsilhqot'in National Gov`t Two Doors Down Walmart WL Veterinary Hospital Williams Lake Water Factory *please note that we are in the process of revamping our distribution process to better serve our clients. If TheGreenGazette is not being displayed at any of the above locations give us a call so that we may rectify the situation.
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