Every Second Thursday & Online ‘24/7’ at Uniting The ~ From Coast to Coast to Coast islandtides.com Canadian Publications Mail Product Volume 21 Number 21 October 22-November 4, 2009 $1 at Selected Retailers Sales Agreement Nº 40020421 Tide tables 2 Live jazz 2 Saturna 3 1,000 year trees 3 RTI 6 Tomatopia 9 Bats 9 Bulletin board 11 Photo: Henny Schnare, www.henny.ca Mount Maxwell, Sustainable horticulture labs open Hornby trustees were in the right, says judge More Island View State-of-the-art labs for research into ways to reduce pesticide use opened The BC Supreme Court has dismissed Joan Council and two trustees of the Friday, October 16 at Kwantlen Costello’s legal action against the Islands Trust HILTC at the time, Penny Griggs and Tony Beach to stroll on Most Southern Islanders with time to spare from town Polytechnic University. The research will regarding a number of claims and allegations Law. Her claims included abuse of public office, chores have turned off the Pat Bay Highway to buy explore beneficial insects, fungi and negligence, breach of trust and mental distress related to her Hornby Island property. In her farm stand vegetables and to stroll along Island View viruses to control pests in greenhouses, due to actions related to the over-height Reasons for Judgment released September 30, Beach. Looking at the spread of islands of the strait gardens and farmers’ fields. The labs and 2009, the Honourable Madam Justice building and a variety of proposed uses of the from the Saanich Peninsula gives another, rather research are supported by the BC Stromberg-Stein confirms the unique role the Costello property. In a lengthy court case, Ms peaceful, perspective. There will soon be more of it to Knowledge Development Fund and a Islands Trust plays in preserving and protecting Costello sought $1.7 million from the Islands enjoy. CRD Regional Parks has purchased a parcel of new Leading Edge Endowment Fund the Islands Trust Area through its land use Trust for damages related to her claims. land with important natural and recreational values to (LEEF) chair in sustainable horticulture. regulations and states that Ms Costello’s claims Madame Justice Stromberg-Stein concludes add to Island View Beach Regional Park. ‘We’re building BC’s reputation for are ‘without any legitimate foundation.’ that trustees and staff of the Islands Trust acted ‘More than thirty years ago, the CRD identified this leadership in environmental protection The lawsuit arose after Ms Costello failed to properly in their dealings with Ms Costello, who land as a priority for our parks system,’ said and the green economy by investing in obtain proper permits for a building and to was responsible for obtaining proper permits Christopher Causton, CRD Regional Parks Committee first-rate researchers and top-notch labs ensure it was within the height limits in Hornby and complying with the Hornby Island bylaw. Chair. ‘The new parcel offers additional public access for them to work in,’ said Iain Black, Island’s zoning bylaw. In March 1999, she ‘The actions of all of the defendants, elected to the shoreline along Haro Strait and forms a natural Minister of Small Business, Technology purchased a Department of National Defence and non-elected, were performed to execute the buffer between the strait as well as adjacent agriculture and Economic Development. ‘By building that was slated for immediate required duties imposed by the Islands Trust and rural residential land uses.’ funding a LEEF chair in sustainable Act and Hornby Island bylaws. In all instances, demolition and had it barged to her property on The CRD has purchased 25.7 hectares of land, horticulture, and the Institute for I find the defendants executed these duties. The Sustainable Horticulture’s new facilities, Hornby Island. Before barging the building to which completes the park as one contiguous area. 9.9 evidence does not support Ms Costello’s claim,’ hectares of the parcel are deemed to have regional park we’re supporting innovations that will her property, Ms Costello did not review the she wrote. value; the remaining 15.8 hectares are currently for give our growers a green edge.’ height restrictions outlined in Hornby Island’s Madame Justice Stromberg-Stein goes on to sale. The appointment of Deborah zoning bylaw or measure the actual height of state that the trustees ‘exhibited no bias, and ‘The municipalities and electoral areas gave Henderson, director of the Institute for her newly-acquired building. She did obtain a they properly exercised their discretion taking unanimous authorization to the CRD to borrow $4.75 Sustainable Horticulture, as LEEF chair permit for the building shortly after its arrival care not to pre-judge the issues, keeping an million for the land purchase,’ said Central Saanich was also announced. Henderson has on Hornby Island, but the permit was based on open mind throughout and trying to find a Mayor Jack Mar. ‘This benefits not only Central worked closely with private companies, erroneous information that she provided to means to accommodate Ms Costello and the Saanich, but all residents of the Capital Regional growers associations and government Islands Trust staff about the building’s height. interests of the community ... (Ms Costello) is, District.’ agencies on integrated pest management Following unsuccessful attempts to obtain plain and simple, the author of her own The future use of the RV campground and tenting for several years and will build on this variance permits for the over-height building, misfortune.’ area within the land parcel will be determined through hands-on experience. Ms Costello advanced a number of claims The Costello court case involved extended a planning process starting this fall and will include ‘We will develop new biocontrol against the Hornby Island Local Trust consultation with the public and the District of Central products from our native strains of Committee (HILTC), the Islands Trust, the HORNBY, please turn to page 11 Saanich. A decision is expected in spring 2010. viruses and fungi which will target pests Island View Beach Regional Park is a 67.73 hectare in our major crops and landscapes,’ Commentary by Kenneth Green park with an expansive beach along the Haro Strait Henderson said. ‘Food production is shoreline of the Saanich Peninsula. It features a changing, and the mass importation of Carbon capture and storage a pipe dream ISLAND VIEW, please turn to page 8 LABS, please turn to page 9 Alberta is under fire from environmentalists generated by the oil sands industry, hoping to at and foreign governments over its tar sand least take the greenhouse gas issue off the list of operations—perhaps with good reason. grievances. Producing oil from tar sand produces three However, in many ways, carbon capture and times more greenhouse gas emissions than storage (CCS) is, both literally and figuratively, does conventional oil production, and its a pipe dream. Rather than producing a viable byproducts are not just unsightly, they’re lethal greenhouse gas control technique, the to wildlife, especially migratory birds. taxpayers $2 billion ‘investment’ will be little Tar sand production despoils large areas of more than a free PR campaign for the tar sand wilderness in Canada’s Boreal Forests, and the industry. Syncrude company’s tailing pond is currently Let’s review the problems with the idea of the second largest dam on Earth, only exceeded carbon capture and storage (CCS), which make it unlikely as an environmental savior. Land- in size by China’s Three-Gorges Dam. Tar sand based CCS consists of three primary activities: operations also consume large amounts of capturing carbon dioxide out of an emissions freshwater and natural gas. There’s no question stream, compressing it into a liquid, and then that Alberta’s environmental image has been piping that liquid over land, and down into the given a large black eye over its tar sands. Earth where, in theory, it will be retained in In an effort to blunt some of the criticism of geological formations for hundreds or the tar sand industry, Premier Ed Stelmach has thousands of years. It sounds quite simple, until pledged to spend $2 billion to help fund you dig into the details. Photo: Susan Banjavich deployment of technologies to capture and With all that rain there had to be a rainbow. Travelling from Tsawwassen to Duke store carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions CARBON CAPTURE, please turn to page 2 Point, looking north.

is available at these SERIOUS COFFEE locations — look for the ‘Island Tides’ yellow boxes or racks inside! Sidney—Beacon Avenue Mill Bay—Island Highway @ Frayne Rd Parksville—Heritage Centre Mall Nanaimo—Across from the Hospital South Duncan—Sun Valley Mall Courtenay—Southgate Centre, Cliffe Ave Nanaimo—Hammond Bay Rd Duncan—Cowichan Commons Mall Port Alberni—Shoppers Drugmart Plaza, 10th Ave Nanaimo—South Parkway Plaza good reading, great coffee — it’s time to get SERIOUS! Campbell River—Island Highway @ Village Willow Point Bats ~ Pricilla Ewbank ISLAND TIDES, Oct 22, 2009, page 9 his summer we have had more starlit Breeding females congregate in nursery Tomatopia ~ Good Life Gardening by Brian Crumblehulme nights than I can ever remember so I was colonies, liking warmth for maternity roosts as Tvery aware of bats. Led by Athena George the warmth helps maintain high body hanksgiving saw Mary and I on the ferry various colours. Saturna’s local park interpreter, one of Parks temperatures necessary for rapid fetal growth heading to the continent for a family This was the year of the experiment. The Canada’s ‘last of summer’ natural history events and high milk production. Adult males nest Tcelebration and since our daughter was first batch of plants were ensconced in a ten- was Mammals of the Night. away from the females during reproduction in part of the gathering this seemed an opportune foot-long raised bed surrounded by a plastic Renowned BC bat researcher, David cooler places. Haggis Farm has one maternity time to bestow part of the largess of our garden tent. Batch two were placed in another plastic Nagorsen talked about Chiroptera, the order to roost and two locations with one bat each— in her unsuspecting lap. tent located over freshly dug clay, and the All the usual vegetables returned her gaze as remainder were unceremoniously clumped in a which bats belong. Chiroptera translates as must be males! she peered into the cornucopia but it was the twenty-foot open bed to fend as they might. ‘handwing’. A bat’s wings are skin that stretches Bats have one pup a year which they keep waft of fresh basil that really brought her to life. Batch the first produced ripe fruit in early between elongated fingers, arms, legs and tail, with them for several weeks, sometimes flying Wrapped in a damp towel, cradled on a nest of July. The size and yield was modest, consistent providing excellent maneuverability. Bats are to another roost with the pup clinging to the perfect tomatoes the basil savoured the moment. and still thriving in the middle of October. the only mammals that fly better than birds. mother’s undersides. A mother bat can pick her Then, as she plunged ever-deeper, her Batch two was two weeks later with a similar They are most closely related to shrews. baby out of the nursery by smell and sound. hands uncovered a hidden cache—green yield. While batch three, which received little or BC has 16 species of the 20 that inhabit In summer, bats have daytime roosts for tomatoes. Eyes narrowed. The smile froze. ‘Oh,’ no water and no support, grew into a jungle Canada. All bats are protected in BC, several are sleeping and night roosts for digesting their species at risk or blue listed. Bats vary greatly in she cried, frantically searching for the right which covered all the ground in which they food and resting. word, ‘Thank you...’ One gets such a surge of were planted, plus the paths on both sides. their habits from the dry interior and to dense During winter they go into a torpor and forests. warmth after bestowing that special gift the The resulting fruit was large and green with lower their body temperature and metabolic Our most common Gulf Island bat is the recipient didn’t know they needed. a few over-ripe specimens that fell onto the rate. Unlike bears and other hibernating Little Brown Bat (LBB)—which is truly its name Two days before the rains I had harvested. ground and required forays on hands and knees mammals they have no fat supply to feed and distinguishes it from the Big Brown Bat For those with water and fertile earth this has beneath the vines before the slug stampede got themselves so they must emerge whenever it is (BBB). It weighs as much as two nickels or 6 been a magnificent year and one of the bounties to them. warm enough and the bugs are flying for an grams and a lactating mother bat will eat her is tomatoes. Batch three explains why it is that twenty- instant energy revitalization. weight in insects each night. LBBs use At this end of the beach the serious tomato five kilos of green tomatoes are arranged like a A favorite local winter roosting place is in echolocation to feed on the abundant insects grower will use a greenhouse but this tool is carpet on the floor of our living room. between the sloughing bark and the tree of old over water bodies at night, dawn,and dusk. Bats redundant perhaps one year in five. Thanks in We chopped and froze a few for green drink on the fly opening their mouths and alder snags. When logging was done WCB used part to the oil patch and all that C02, 2009 was tomato chutney, pasta sauce and what have scooping up water. to demand that snags be taken down in logging such a year. (Which is just as well because only you. Most of the rest are scrutinized daily for According to Nagorsen, very little bat work areas. That view has now changed completely now am I laying the foundations for my telltale signs of blushing, and a token few are has been done in the . He reported and the requirement is to leave snags and a greenhouse.) given away to those most in need of a one three-day study done on Salt Spring. small area around them. Bats thrown out of I sowed my tomato seeds in early March, in conversation piece. naturalists Harvey Janszen and their winter roosting areas have little chance for pots, in the house. For the first few weeks I had My daughter has not returned phone calls Pam Brown have a cat that catches bats, these survival as they have nothing to eat and no body to cover each pot to keep the cats off. The five since our visit but I am sure the green tomatoes they have dried and identified. They have one reserves. varieties including a wild one from somewhere glowed brilliantly as the centerpiece of a post- sighting of a migrating species, Western Red Bats are most at risk from habitat in Central America that will grow ten feet tall, if Thanksgiving dinner given to urban friends Bat, several LBB and one Yuma bat. destruction. Their slow rate of reproduction I let it, and produces small cherry-sized fruits of soon after. 0 Nagorsen brought a pamphlet about how makes it difficult for recovery from devastation and where to locate bat houses. From the of nesting sites and draining of natural LIVE JAZZ from page 2 audience response it became evident that my watercourses and sloughs. notated as tones, and some half-tones, with Jazz presentations come and go, often in 3- cedar board-and-batten house is not the only Nagorsen went off to catch a ferry with a some notes sung in consonance, for very good hour bursts, with each hour having 40 minutes one on Saturna that houses bats in the summer. hearty round of applause ringing in his ears. 0 reason. And it was done that way because it of play and 20 minutes of rest. sounded good! Enjoyment of each number—a rollicking SMART ISLANDS from page 8 There’s always a place for physics in stomp, a soul-stretching blues, a popular ditty, ‘Land use and development patterns are endorsed in 2007, joining 175 other BC local ‘analysis’ but written rules were drawn to record a new treatment of a ‘swing era’ tune—can be critical in reducing GHG emissions,’ governments in a collective commitment to: pleasant notes and eventually sequences of palpable. A trumpet player friend of mine once commented Malcolmson. ‘The design and move to carbon neutral operations for the notes with different tonal intervals as ‘keys,’ and referred to 4/4 syncopated music as ‘that finger physical arrangement of roads, buildings, and organization; measure and report community notes were modulated from key to key as a tune snapping thing.’ It certainly is! land use patterns directly influence greenhouse gas emissions (GHG); and promote progressed, because it pleased the ear and Emotion flows back and forth between transportation emissions and building energy- sustainable, energy efficient communities. didn’t jar it. The sounds dealt with emotion in players and listeners. It rarely tires, and often use.’ Detailed information on this initiative is very special ways which were nowhere more inspires. Live jazz is a thing of beauty and a joy The initiative supports the BC Climate available on a new climate change section of the evident than in classic jazz, where pleasure in which stands in permanence. It is played by Action Charter, which the Islands Trust Islands Trust website. 0 sound is paramount. skilled artisans because it sounds good! 0 GDP from page 5 It is strange we hear so little of this. Had we off without knowing if our resource base is been duped by Casino Capitalism; an economy healthy, whether our children are informed, running for ever-higher ROI, bubbles, hedge engaged and empowered, whether we have funds, pyramid schemes, ponzi schemes? healthy food, or whether we live in a secure and Most governments are busy in stimulus sustainable world. Measuring the exchange of spending, often rebuilding the very institutions cash is not without meaning, but, by itself, it in the financial sector whose recklessness tells us nothing of value. brought down such misery on so many. Are we If you are interested, you can find more rebuilding in the same model? Do our systems detail at www.greenparty.ca in Vision Green of accounts give us any meaningful sense of and at the website of an excellent organization, how well we are doing? GPI-Atlantic: http://www.gpiatlantic.org. Now is the time to join Sarkozy’s call for a sensible measurement of genuine progress. Elizabeth E. May is the leader of the Green We cannot value what we do not measure. Party of Canada, candidate in Saanich–Gulf We have no real sense of whether we are better Islands and Officer of the Order of Canada. 0

SATURNA from page 3 because so many officers have been called out of Joey Smith and rhythm guitarist, Michael their detachments for two months around the Hamilton. Much of the music played was Olympics and cannot testify in judicial cases, written by Marc and arranged by Smith who did that there will be less work for our remaining arrangements for the likes of Glenn Miller. Island officers overall, although they will have Innovative, lots of vitality—Atkinsons music no leave time during this interval. sounds as if you have heard it and loved it Concert before but it evolves as you listen. The acoustics On October 3 for the third time, Saturna Arts in the Community Hall is always marvelous for and Concerts hosted the Marc Atkinson Trio at live music. the Community Hall; each time has been Thanks to all of the people in the Arts and memorable. Marc Atkinson, originally from Concert Society who bring us such good live Quadra Island and now residing on Hornby, is music for $20 a concert. You can drive home masterful on the guitar, as a band leader and as and be in your cozy bed within twenty minutes a writer of music. New to the trio are bass player of thanking the artists and stacking chairs! 0

LABS from page 1 cheap produce from far-away places may not through its School of Horticulture,’ says David survive global warming and the increasing cost Atkinson, Kwantlen Polytechnic University of transportation. To have the security of president. ‘With the addition of the Institute for healthy food and a healthy environment, we Sustainable Horticulture, Kwantlen now has need to support our local growers and food further opportunity to work with local industry systems with the products and markets they on the critical issues of sustainability, urban need to stay vibrant and viable.’ agriculture and agri-food security.’ Government’s $1.25-million endowment for The $7.1-million research facility, the LEEF regional innovation chair was Kwantlen’s first, will have climate-controlled matched by the Kwantlen Polytechnic rooms for rearing insects, specialized rooms for University Foundation with funds from private production of beneficial fungi and viruses, a donors. molecular diagnostic lab, and two research labs The Province also invested $2.2 million in for study of the insects and microbial the Institute for Sustainable Horticulture’s new biocontrols. The adjacent greenhouse, as well facilities; 450 square metres of research labs on as being used to test alternate energy options the Langley campus, and a 700-square-metre such as geothermal heating and cooling research greenhouse to study the potential for systems, will provide 500 square metres of geothermal heat as a clean energy source. growing space to study production systems for ‘Kwantlen has long served the agricultural new indoor crops. 0 community of southern