Lakit Ridge Restoration Burn

Out and About with Stewart

As spring warms up, the sight and sound of birds, their songs and activities becomes a source of pleasure for many.   The handsome plumage of the Northern Flicker is especially bright when seen against a bright blue sky.  These woodpeckers however, can often be spotted on the ground digging up beetles and other bugs.

photos Stewart Wilson

Wonderful turnout to hear Dr. Richard Hebda

Guy Santucci introduces Dr. Richard Hebda

What's under our feet is obviously important to many local residents as approximately 120 people attended the Dr. Richard Hebda lecture, in the Alexandra Hall last evening.

As we know, Canada and this area in particular, is rich in the history provided by what lies literally, beneath our feet in the form of preserved flora and fauna.  Unlike many parts of the world that have been cultivated for centuries, many of the fossil beds in Canada and BC in particular, remain relatively unexplored.  The excitement of discovering these ancient pieces of our history is very special to many fossil hounds in the area.

Dr, Hebda reminded us all that these ancient pieces of our history belong to the crown i.e. us all, and that, when loose or vunerable fossils are removed from a location, they need to be documented as to their original location and date of removal.  They need to be taken to an expert as soon as possible for accurate identification and documentation.

This informative lecture was the first of a series planned by the Cranbrook Museum of History.  It was hinted that we can look forward to more information and announcements regarding this wonderful resource and educational attraction in the future.

Dr. Richard Hebda

East Hill Zoning Referral

March 26, 20016

Re:  East Hill Zoning Referral

For clarification, Council discussions on the East Hill zoning referral reported in the Thursday, March 24 Townsman are correct in saying that RR-60 zoning designation on the property would not be changed. However, adding “solar energy facility” to the list of permitted uses for that zone would allow a utility scale “solar energy facility” to be constructed over some or all of the 6,600 acre property. To suggest that Cranbrook resident’s interests would not be affected by such a potentially massive and visually intrusive development overlooking the east side of the City is misleading.  

This item will be discussed at the RDEK Planning Committee meeting on April 7th (meeting time to be posted Apr. 1 after 5PM on RDEK website - www.rdek.bc.ca), in the RDEK Board Room.   The public are able to attend as an observer, in addition to the RDEK Board meeting on April 8th at 9 AM in the RDEK Board Room. 

Respectfully submitted,

Sharon Cross

Editorial Comment,

While it is doubtful anyone would question promotion of alternative energy, carte blanche to situate it anywhere on on a large track of forested property within a huge view scape of a city proud of its vistas, would seem curious.  There are within the surrounding area, closed waste facilities, which are very limited in permissible uses and which might be much more suited to such a valuable facility.  Is this application really about a solar energy facility, when no details are provided and why would our municipal council have no problem giving such broad approval to the RDEK by indicating Cranbrook would not be affected?

What would a Trump presidency mean for Canada? by Gerry Warner

What would a Trump presidency mean for Canada?

Perceptions by Gerry Warner

So let’s think the unthinkable. Donald Trump wins the election in November and becomes the 45^th President of the United States. What might that mean for Canada? More to the point, what would it mean for B.C.?

Perish the thought!

Think, Columbia River Treaty. As you may know, this historic treaty could be renegotiated within a decade and officials on both sides of the border are

feverishly preparing for these negotiations now. The 52-year-old treaty could be left the way it is, but a lot has happened since the treaty was signed in 1964 and as the old saying goes, time waits for no man, or woman.

In fact, it’s pretty well a given that the treaty will be renegotiated once either side gives the required 10 years notice and the countdown begins. And what should interest East Kootenay residents the most is that these will primarily be federal negotiations carried on in Ottawa and Washington D.C. even though the mighty Columbia rises less than a two-hour drive north of Cranbrook. 

When the treaty was originally negotiated, I doubt if any of the negotiators could have found Cranbrook on the map. Or would have bothered. Instead, they drew lines on a map and presto! More than 2,000 residents in small communities along the Arrow Lakes in the West Kootenay were ordered to leave their homes and relocate on higher ground. Less than a decade later, the same fate was visited on several hundred farmers and ranchers in the East Kootenay when thousands of acres of the best agricultural land in southeastern BC was flooded under 40 feet of water by the Libby Dam.

Some of those residents are bitter about the man-made flood to this day. Productive farming communities like Waldo, Krag and Renata simply disappeared. The people of these now largely forgotten communities had to stand and watch while their homes were burned and their pasture land flooded for a pittance of compensation. Yes, the BC government was paid $254 million and half the downstream power benefits in compensation too. But that’s awfully cold comfort for what was lost – our land, our homes our very patrimony – so that our southern neighbours could reuse our stored water over and over again through a string of dams downstream and build their economy at the expense of ours. Yes, there were flood control benefits too, but I don’t think the floods on the Columbia took the life of a single Canadian and precious few Americans either.

So what now?

You can expect soon that one government or the other will give renegotiation notice. Noises drifting north of the border indicate the Americans are the most likely to do this because they want the entire treaty renegotiated, in their favour instead of ours while Canada is just interested in tweaking the treaty a bit to make it more fair. But it’s hard to say for sure because both sides are reluctant to show their hand in case it would help the other so the real planning is going on behind closed doors with a minimum of public consultation to keep people on both sides of the border happy.

All things considered, the process is going as well as could be expected, but – and  this is a big BUT – the election this fall could entirely upset the apple cart if the “unthinkable” mentioned at the beginning of this piece becomes president. Keep in mind the Columbia River Treaty is an international treaty signed by the heads of state of both governments. What this means, of course, is if The Donald is elected president in November the American negotiators will be reporting to him and that should set the alarm bells ringing.

Trump, after all, is the presidential candidate that calls Mexicans “rapists,” says he’ll ban Muslims from the U.S. and wants to make America “great” again. Makes you wonder what he thinks about Canadians and all our water while the US is running out.

Gerry Warner is a retired journalist who switches stations when Trump speaks.

    

Easter Sunday at Fort Steele

Little bit of snow, little bit of rain, little bit of cold wind but the bakery, egg hunts, tug of war and sack races made up for that.  Huge crowds attended the popular family fun day at Fort Steele on Easter Sunday.

Happy Easter

Sagebrush Buttercups

Garden Crocus

 

Simnel Cake

What's Happening.....

Saturday March 26th

Cranbrook Farmer's Market
Ktunaxa Gym
10:00am - 1:oopm


The Gallery
1013 Baker St
Members Photography Exhibit until March 30th
Also a wider selection of local artist's work for sale

Sunday March 27th

Great Easter Egg Hunt

Sunday, March 27, 2016 at 10:00am - 2:00pm

Come and spend Easter Sunday out at Fort Steele!

This is a fun filled day with so much going on!

• Enjoy Easter Brunch at the International Hotel, 10 - 3pm
• Easter Egg Hunt
• Cookie Decorating 
• Easter Parade - 12pm -  be sure and bring your decorated bike or wagon! 
• Church Service - 1 pm
• Plant a Seed
• Live music
• Decorated Egg Contest
• Wagon Rides 
• Movies - 11 - 2 pm
• And much more!

$6/person (Members and kids 2 and under are free) 

Tickets available at the door.

Wednesday March 30th

What is Under Our Feet
Free lecture at the Cranbrook History Centre

Friday April 1st 4:00 -7:00pm members only
Saturday April 2nd everyonr welcome
Mini Book saleManual Training Building
Friends of the Cranbrook Library

Heritage BC Annual Conference

Heritage BC Annual Conference Registration Now Open!

Two provincial organizations, one giant 2016 conference.

Registration is now open for PlaceMaking: Where Arts and Heritage Collide. Join us on Granville Island, May 5-7, for a beautiful collision of arts and heritage speakers, workshops, tours, networking, and special events. Keep an eye on our website as more workshops are announced!

Get involved:

Spread the Word! Download and print our conference poster to display or share the online version on your social media platforms.

» Conference Poster for Download and Print

Volunteer! Donate some of your time at the conference to receive reduced registration rates.

Billeting! Help out-of-town delegates by billeting your spare room.

Sponsorship! Why not sponsor student or nonprofit attendance? Or put your company in front of B.C's arts and heritage professionals with one of our sponsorship packages?

Member Reports! Heritage BC members have the opportunity to present member reports at our AGM. Register your interest using our online form today!

» Register now PlaceMaking: Where Arts & Heritage Collide

Iqaluit's Arctic Winter Games arena complex gets solar panels

Iqaluit's Arctic Winter Games arena complex gets solar panels
40 solar panels have been installed at the Arctic Winter Games Complex

CBC News Posted: Mar 21, 2016 

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/iqaluit-arena-has-new-solar-panels-1.3499877

The city of Iqaluit has a new way to save on the power bill at its Arctic Winter Games arena, at least when the sun is shining.

The hockey rink – also home to Iqaluit's Youth Centre – recently had 40 solar panels installed on its back wall. And it didn't cost the city a dime.

The panels had a $100,000 price tag and were funded by the federal government's ecoENERGY program through the Department of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada.

"The city is in a deficit position and we're looking at all buildings, programs, services and trying to find ways to reduce costs," said Amy Elgersma, Iqaluit's director of recreation.

"Using solar power is one way of reducing our energy costs." 

She estimates the panels will generate enough power to save the city at least $6,000 per year.

Elgersma says the annual power bill is about $170,000.

East Hill Zoning Change Application

Revised post March 23rd. Note additional information regarding meeting time.

EAST HILL ZONING CHANGE:

The Regional district of East Kootenay has received an application for a utility scale solar energy facility from Ross Priest, representing the owners of a 6600 acre property adjacent to the Cranbrook Community Forest.

If approved, the amendment would apply to the entire parcel.  No details are available since the applicants indicate they do not have a specific project in mind.

The application appears to be in conflict with the official Community Plan, which only supports industrial development in the City of Cranbrook and Lumberton.

This item will be discussed at the RDEK Advisory Planning Committee meeting on April 7th  (meeting time to be posted Apr. 1 after 5PM on RDEK website - www.rdek.bc.ca)), at the RDEK Board Room.   You are able to attend as an observer.  You can also attend the RDEK Board meeting on April 8th at 9 AM in the RDEK Board Room.  If this application is to proceed the Regional District of East Kootenay will hold a public meeting, which will be advertised.

The item is also included in the City of Cranbrook Council meeting of today Monday March 21st.

https://cranbrook.civicweb.net/filepro/documents/6117

Welcome to Spring

Who is the most deserving female candidate to be on our new $10 bill? Gerry Warner

Who is the most deserving female candidate to be on our new $10 bill?

Perceptions by Gerry Warner

So who’s face do you think should grace the new $10 bill?

Not the easiest question in the world, but, hey, the government is trying to make it easier for us by eliminating half the Canadian population, the male half that is. Sorry guys, but as our new prime minister smugly said when announcing that half his new cabinet would be women “because it’s 2015,” the wind has obviously changed direction and is not filling the sails of men anymore, at least in Canada

And maybe that’s not a bad thing.

So in the spirit of the new zeitgeist now filling the land, I got to thinking what deserving female rates the honour of having her image on the most numerous monetary note circulating in the land? Where does one begin?

Well, once again the government has made it easier for us with the Bank of Canada decreeing that the woman on the next issue of polymer, $10 bills cannot be alive today. Dead that is.

Darn! There goes Shania Twain. I’ve always been kinda partial to her and I’m not even a big country music fan. Or Sophie Gregoire, the dazzling wife of our new dazzling prime minister? Do we have to wait 60 years or so for Canada’s new First Lady to pass from this vale of tears? I guess so. Then there’s Christine Sinclair, probably the best female soccer player in the world or for that matter Hayley Wickenheiser, who holds the same exulted position in women’s hockey?

I could go on, but I guess we’re going to have to look into the past. Deep into the past and I can play that game too.

You want a a famous Canadian woman from the past? What about the actress Fay Wray. King Kong was so smitten with her he took her hostage on top of the Empire State Building and dared the US Air Force to stop him? Or Yvonne De Carlo, far before my time, but considered one of Hollywood’s elite for her role as a  torch dancer in Salome, one of tinsel town’s naughtier flicks and her more elevated part  as Moses’ wife in Cecil B DeMille’s, The 10 Commandments.  

But to be a little more serious now, Canadian women aren’t only famous as entertainers. Throughout history, our ladies have achieved in any field you can name and none of them needed a man to help. How about Emily Murphy? She was the first female judge in Canada and the British Empire and a member of the “Famous Five,” an illustrious group of female social activists that won the famous “Persons Case” in 1929 that led the Supreme Court of Canada to declare that women were legal persons in their own right and were entitled, in theory at least, to do anything a man could do including vote. Many women today would say that battle is far from over.

Going further back there’s Lady Ishbel Gordon Aberdeen, a social reformer, who founded the National Council for Women and the Victorian Order of Nurses. And what about our famous female authors like Lucy Maud Montgomery of Anne of Green Gables fame? Hard to beat that!  Or Pauline Johnson, the great aboriginal poet? Margaret Laurence, the author of Stone Angel and the greatest short story writer we’ve ever produced? Then there’s singer, song-writer and social activist Buffy Sainte-Marie? She’s my favourite, but she’s far from dead.

Let’s face it. This is a very subjective list. Everyone will have their own favourites and I’m no different. In fact, if I had to name a deceased lady that would do a $10 note proud, my choice would boil down to three. Drum roll please!

I have to admit my favourite would be Emily Carr, by far Canada’s greatest artist in my unprofessional opinion and an incredible eccentric to boot. But I also think Lotta Hitschmanova, founder of the Canadian Unitarian Service League would be an excellent choice as would Rosemary Brown, the first black Canadian woman to be elected to a Canadian legislature right here in BC.

What do you think?

Gerry Warner is a retired journalist and an occasional feminist.

  

Earth Hour - Turn it off 8:30-9:30pm

Earth Hour:One hour is a small token but it raises awareness

https://www.earthhour.org/

What's Happening....

The Gallery

1013, Baker St
'Through the Lens', members photography exhibit
also much varied art work from local artists in the retail side of the shop

Key City Theatre Gallery

"Exposed"
Body Art
March 16 to April 16
Body Art Cat Walk, April 1st

Saturday March 19th and 26th

Easter Egg decorating
Ukranian Easter Egg Demo
Marysville Artisans
12 - 4:00pm

Saturday March 19th

Locals Coffee House
Studio Stage Door, Cranbrook
7:30pm
Tickets Lotus Books

St Patrick's Tea and Bake Sale
1-3:00pm
Seniors Hall
125, 17th Av. Cranbrook

Cranbrook Arts on Baker St.

The Cranbrook and District Arts Council Gallery is loving the space on Baker St.  While members would love a much larger space for classes and workshops, this downtown location has been fun and rewarding.  In the last month alone the Gallery has seen visitors from all over the country who were attending conventions in Kimberley, local school classes and many locals who have just discovered the space.

What's Under Our Feet? A lecture to inform about and describe the wealth of fossils under the feet of Kootenay residents.

A lecture to inform and describe the wealth of fossils under the feet of Kootenay residents.

It's the Dogs' Lucky Day Too; Cranbrook Dog Park Nears Completion

Gate installation 

It may be St Patrick's Day but luck is with Cranbrook's canine population as well, for the long awaited Dog Park is almost complete.  Planning for the park began several councils ago after the demand was realized.  After much to and fro over the best location and discussion on various committees, the plan to utilize the central site of the old Muriel Baxter School was accepted by both School Board and Council.

Not only is the site centrally located but it is easily accessible and alternate playing fields are close by in Kinsmen Park.

While initial work began last year, the park is now nearing completion. The School Board still owns the site but through a joint agreement for maintenance and tenure,  this project has been made possible.

area to left, large dog area which extends in an L shape

A secure fenced area that is safe for dogs and owners of all ages will be a welcome addition to Cranbrook amenities.  The park features shaded areas, in ground irrigation, a water supply, great parking and will be equipped with the essential doggie waste bags and disposal containers.

Janna Jacobson of JR and J Fencing, who owns dogs herself was busy watching over the installation of gates on Wednesday March 16th. Thanks to the expertise of people like Janna and the fencing expertise of JR and J Fencing,  Cranbrook will soon boast one of the biggest fenced dog parks around.

While all dogs will be welcome in the large area of the park, small dogs and their owners can feel safe in the small area designed just for them.  A separate entrance will mean no intimidating encounters at the door.  This space will provide a great place for socialization of both dogs and owners, knowing their pets are safe off leash.  All existing fencing will be dropped to ground level for security and extra fencing has been added to provide separate but connecting areas.

To see this project finally come to fruition is great news.

Entrances

Area for small dogs

Cornelia Oberlander: Someone to Aspire To

Margolese Prize Winner Cornelia Oberlander on Landscapes, Cities and Healing Souls

For 70 years, lauded architect has brought nature to urban design.

By Adele Weder, 14 Mar 2016, TheTyee.ca

http://thetyee.ca/Presents/2016/03/14/Margolese-Prize-Winner-Cornelia-Oberlander/

Excerpts:

Whether they know it or not, almost every Vancouverite -- along with many others around the world -- has experienced the work of Cornelia Hahn Oberlander.

In collaboration with Arthur Erickson, Louis Kahn, Dan Riley, Sharp & Diamond, Hank White, KPMB and many other prominent architects and designers, the German-born, Harvard-trained, Vancouver-based Oberlander is responsible for the landscape architecture of Robson Square/Provincial Court, the Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia, the Canadian Embassy in Berlin, the Chancery in Washington, D.C., the tree-filled atrium of architect Renzo Piano's New York Times building, and much more.

On why landscape architecture, despite championing everything we belatedly see as important for cities, still gets short shrift:

It's because people don't understand how important landscape architecture is. Since I started practicing here, I can see that there is a growing commitment to have landscape architects involved in all development. For years, the Museum of Anthropology's reflecting pool wasn't completed, but it is now; it's an inlet into the sea, so it's like a park -- people come there for recreation. However, the funding for good landscape architecture and good plant material is so minimal that people don't see it. If the landscape is part of nature, and if the landscape is to fit a building into nature, they don't see it. The first thing that gets cut is the budget for landscape, and yet today, especially with the population pressures, you need every bit of nature. But when you drive down Seymour Street with all those highrises, where do you see nature? Nowhere!

On why at age 94, she continues to practice, speak and advocate:

It's my passion. I'm still working on major projects in collaboration with well-known architects. In New York, for instance, at the New York Times building atrium, we have a problem with maintenance. We have to work on replacing the birch trees. I have never deviated from my dictum to bring nature into the city, and make people enjoy nature. And the passion is what drives me to keep going -- just to make the world a little greener. 

Out and About with Stewart

Beneath the Bluffs

Michael's Musings; Mr Fife Goes to Washington

Mr Fife Goes to Washington: Watch Out Mr President as Bob is on the Premises

By Michael J Morris

As the official visit of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau  was getting underway, Alexander Panetta, the Washington correspondent of the Canadian Press issued a "warning" to President Barack Obama on Twitter.

It read: "Warning, Mr. President - @RobertFife is on the premises." Gerald Butts, the principal secretary to the prime minister "liked" it.

Actually it was high praise for Bob, and a mark of respect for his reporting abilities from one of his fellow journalists. Bob, as Chapleau folks know him, was in Washington as Ottawa Bureau Chief of The Globe and Mail to report on the prime minister's visit. Bob joined the Globe in January this year but remains host of CTV's Question Period.

Mr. Panetta was likely warning Mr. Obama that he best watch out as he may be in danger of getting "Fifed" by Bob -- a term I was not aware of until now, even though I have followed Bob's journalism career since 1978 when it began.

Although others may have used the term, I discovered an article on Buzzfeed by Craig Silverman, the Founding Editor Canada, in August 2015 entitled "Why Getting Fifed by CTV Reporter Robert Fife is the Worst Thing That Can Happen to You".

Mr. Silverman also provides a definition: "Fifed. (v.) to strike terror into the hearts of Canadian politicians by Robert Fife." He goes on to provide examples mostly centred on the Senate scandal surrounding Senator Mike Duffy.

It was Bob who broke the scandal wide open, and when I saw the tweet that once again Robert Fife had proven why he is simply the best, it immediately captured my attention. Kevin Newman, was retweeting a comment by Rosa Hwang, senior broadcast producer with CTV National News. "Once again Robert Fife proves why he's simply the best." Bob has received several awards for his reporting.

"What had Fife done now?",  I wrote in my Cranbrook Guardian column that Bob had broken the story that Nigel Wright, the chief of staff to Stephen Harper, then the prime minister, had written a personal cheque to Mike Duffy, the senator appointed by Harper,  for $90,172 to pay back expenses to which the senator was not entitled. 

The Duffy scandal was placed squarely in the office of the prime minister by Bob Fife,

In November 2008, Deborah Howell, the ombudsperson at the Washington Post wrote that "good reporters are the heart of news gathering. If it's news, they have to know it. Without them, the public wouldn't have the news and information essential to running a democracy -- or our lives. Whether the story is local, national or foreign, it has to be gathered on the ground by a reporter." 

Ms Powell added in answering the question about what makes a good reporter, "Endless curiosity and a deep need to know what is happening. Then, the ability to hear a small clue and follow it."

That's Bob.

Bob is one of those reporters who certainly fits the comment by former Washington Post Post executive editor Ben Bradlee who thought that a reporter's most important quality is energy: "They've got to love what they're doing; they've got to be serious about turning over rocks, opening doors. The story drives you. It's part of your soul."

In the interests of full disclosure Bob was in Grade Nine when I arrived  to teach at Chapleau High School in 1969, and once he learned I had been a daily newspaper reporter, he never stopped asking me questions throughout his high school years. And when he was attending the University of Toronto, he challenged me on every issue when he came home on vacation or to spend the summers. Maybe I was one of  the first people to to be "Fifed". 

Happy St. Patrick's Day. My email is mj.morris@live.ca

Trudeau’s day in the sun won’t last forever, Gerry Warner

Trudeau’s day in the sun won’t last forever

Perceptions by Gerry Warner

“He haunts us still” was the first line of Stephen Clarkson and Christina McCall’s critically acclaimed best seller “Trudeau and our Times” about Pierre Elliot Trudeau, Canada’s 15tth Prime Minister and often considered one of our greatest PM’s, though not without controversy.

Now his son, Justin Trudeau, appears to be doing the same if anything can be gleaned from the rapturous welcome he received from Americans of all stripes at the glittering state dinner held in Washington DC Thursday.

“I have to say I’ve never seen so many Americans so excited about the visit of a Canadian Prime Minister,” gushed US President Barack Obama. Rebecca Ostriker, a columnist with the Academy Award winning Boston Globe, described Trudeau as “Canada’s famously dreamy Prime Minister.” “Justin fever” has hit Washington,” said John Ivison of the National Post. Some of the gaga reaction even fell on Sophie Trudeau, who was described as a “soul mate” by Michelle Obama no less.   

Phew! Would someone pass the smelling salts, please.

But once you get past the glitter, is there any substance to all this? Certainly it doesn’t hurt to have a Canadian prime minister lauded in the most powerful city in the world, especially one that just finished pulling our jet fighters out of Syria. But what happens when Canada and the US go mano-a-mano in the next round of softwood lumber negotiations? Will if give us any cred when the Columbia River Treaty is renegotiated or when we sell our commodities into the American market? I doubt it.

But for now you’d have to be an awfully grouchy and unpatriotic Canadian not to feel at least a little tingle of delight to hear the words Trudeau and Canada on the lips of so many American power brokers and celebrities. And so what if Obama chided us for the Stanley Cup not residing in Canada this year. He could have pointed out that it’s not likely a Canadian team will even make the Stanley Cup playoffs this season.

The fact of the matter is we in Canada have good reason to do a little bit of gloating over the current political situation in Canada vis-à-vis the US with the American primary contests having turned into a race to the bottom for the Republicans and a “revolt” against the “establishment” in both parties with ugly strains of racism and fascism in some of the rhetoric.

Don’t kid yourself for a minute. Most Americans, regardless of party, are green with envy at the sight of our new prime minister and his lovely wife. How can they be any other way when day in and day out they are subjected to Donald Trump’s orange hair bobbing up and down as he fulminates against Muslims, Mexicans and whomever happens to be on his hate list at the moment or Ted Cruise proselytizing   like a fundamentalist preacher against the “establishment” of his own party or Hillary Clinton boring everyone to tears in yet another dreary speech?

It ain’t pretty now in the Excited States of America. So called “moderate Republicans” are playing a desperate game of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde trying to euthanize the monster they created themselves by harboring extremists, racists and hate-mongers in their midst for years. Purveyors of hate and fear like Rush Limbaugh and Michael Savage have dominated the AM radio waves for years with their fulminations about “Islamo-fascism” and hatred of immigrants in general while “fair and balanced Fox News has never met a fundamentalist, evangelical, right-wing extremist it didn’t like.

What goes around comes around, eh. And what is coming around in the Home of the Brave and Land of the Free is nothing short of scary. Fights are starting to break out at Trump rallies and even when he cozies up to the Ku Klux Klan his acolytes cheer.

One can only hope that the fundamental decency and common sense of most Americans will come out of the closet where it’s been hiding the past several months and assert itself. Otherwise the next great wave of refugees to cross the Canadian border will be coming from the South.

And I don’t mean Mexico.

Gerry Warner is a retired journalist

Treeconomics

Kelowna 

http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2015/aug/15/treeconomics-street-trees-cities-sheffield-itree

Whitehorse, Yukon

In Toronto, researchers recently found that people living on tree-lined streetsreported health benefits equivalent to being seven years younger or receiving a $10,000 salary rise. As well as studies revealing benefits from everything from improved mental health to reduced asthma, US scientists have even identified a correlation between an increase in tree-canopy cover and fewer low-weight births. And economic studies show what any estate agent swears by: leafy streets sell houses. Street trees in Portland, Oregon, yielded an increase in house pricesof $1.35bn, potentially increasing annual property tax revenues by $15.3m.

Williams Lake

In London, an innovative survey will reveal the economic value of the capital’s “urban forest” – its estimated 8m trees. A suite of open-source software developed in the US called i-Tree maps city trees and calculates the financial value of the “ecosystem services” they provide. While street trees are a visible green stamp on a city, 70% of the “urban forest” is found in private gardens and places such as railway embankments, cemeteries and golf courses. i-Tree measures them all and, crucially, calculates tree canopy cover. It’s all then given a hard-headed financial value based on the carbon they store, the air pollution they remove, the rainwater they hold (allowing it to be re-evaporated by the sun rather than disappearing into drains and sewers) and how they ameliorate extreme temperatures. Trees that are close to buildings reduce air conditioning in summer, and even heating bills in winter – small effects that become extremely valuable in a big city.

The software has been deployed in European cities including Edinburgh, Barcelona and Strasbourg. Torbay in Devon was the first British council to trial it: the English Riviera resort famed for its palms discovered that its trees (mostly ash) stored 98,000 tonnes of carbon and removed 50 tonnes of air pollution each year - the equivalent of taking 52,000 family cars off the road. i-Tree showed that Torbay trees’ carbon storage was worth £1.5m, their pollution removal £1.3m, and the cost to replace them would be £280m. These facts helped the council’s tree officer win more funding for planting and maintaining its trees.

Cranbrook

Chetwynd

i_Tree

https://www.itreetools.org/

What is i-Tree?

i-Tree is a state-of-the-art, peer-reviewed software suite from the USDA Forest Service that provides urban forestry analysis and benefits assessment tools. The i-Tree Tools help communities of all sizes to strengthen their urban forest management and advocacy efforts by quantifying the structure of community trees and the environmental services that trees provide.

Since the initial release of the i-Tree Tools in August 2006, numerous communities, non-profit organizations, consultants, volunteers and students have used i-Tree to report on individual trees, parcels, neighborhoods, cities, and even entire states. By understanding the local, tangible ecosystem services that trees provide, i-Tree users can link urban forest management activities with environmental quality and community livability. Whether your interest is a single tree or an entire forest, i-Tree provides baseline data that you can use to demonstrate value and set priorities for more effective decision-making.

i-Tree Tools are in the public domain and are freely accessible. We invite you to explore this site to learn more about how i-Tree can make a difference in your community.