Image Credit: CFJC Today / Kent Simmonds

By Daniela Ginta

The Way I See It

GINTA: Let’s fall in love with our province this summer — and be reminded that we need to protect it

Jun 15, 2020 | 12:05 PM

I’LL START WITH A CONFESSION: I have never been to a tropical place for a vacation. Maybe I will one day, but I’m not in a hurry. It’s not that I don’t like white sandy beaches, luscious green forests and all the perks tropical destinations come with. I do, but truth is, I cannot forgo summertime in British Columbia and especially vacations spent in the Gulf Islands which have now become a beloved family staple.

Our family has collected countless memories from many road trips around the province, from crazy rainy camping trips in Wells Gray which did not send us running home but only added to the adventure, to discovering ghost towns in the Kootenays and some wickedly well-hidden wild hot springs on our way there. The boys were too young to remember it all, but photographic proof helps revive their memories and the side effect is that they are planning their own road trips as soon as they are able to do it.

Many local businesses are opening up, proper social distancing rules in place, and we’re being told that the B.C. tourism industry is counting on us residents to plan for vacations in the province. I have heard some bemoan that, but seriously, according to the rightful brag found on each B.C. license plate, we’re in the perfect place for ‘staycations’.

The array of landscape we can choose from in this province is dizzying, and so is the history you’ll encounter along the way. We’re not confined to spending our vacation time in the province, but we are rather reminded of what a privilege it is to have all this beauty at your fingertips.

What I personally hope to see as the ‘staycations’ unfold around the province is an increased and much needed appreciation for everything nature.

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‘Beautiful British Columbia’ is not an exaggeration. But being stretched over almost 950,000 square kilometers and having natural resources which are plentiful but not infinite, our province has seen some massive resource exploitation that is perhaps not visible to many of us. Still, it is underway and that translates into losses that we might or might not recover from.

Hence the need to get out there, learn about the land and its stories, grow our love for it and do whatever it takes to keep things in balance.

As I am writing this, the provincial government is considering the proposal for a new coal mine in the Peace region. It’s a big and risky undertaking at a time when we should take a look at what would get affected. The main concern are the caribou, the Quintette herd which had dropped to 74 animals in 2018 and that means the number could be lower yet.

Wolves are being killed to keep the herd alive and that’s yet another unfair way we are hoping to balance things in nature once we push it too far.

Also, as you are reading this, logging is being planned for some forests on the Sunshine Coast, site of an unofficial black bear sanctuary and home to old growth trees, some more than 1,000 years old. It feels surreal even typing that, hence the wrongness of logging them. One tree that was logged in 1980 was 1,835 years old! How amazing would it be to have such areas protected against logging so we can see the wonder of it? How logical, too.

And this is not the only place where old growth forests are found to be at risk. A recent independent study found that B.C.’s remaining old-growth forests cover about 35,000 hectares, which is a far, far cry from the government’s estimates of 13 million hectares.

And I have not even mentioned the 312 recently government-approved clearcuts in endangered spotted owl territory.

Let’s remember that every critter that lives in our forests has a well-defined role in the big circle of life. We see them drop in numbers and then vanish, and we want to believe in the resilience of nature. But it is our loss, and not an insignificant one, when our actions end up changing the landscape, its flora and fauna, right in front of our eyes. Or, as it happens, far for us to see.

Hence the goodness and necessity of vacationing in the province and discovering its magic and all that can affect it; the urgency of rediscovering the immutable truth that ‘you can only protect what you love,’ and this is our chance to discover how amazing and lovable, and worthy of being protected, our beautiful British Columbia is.

(A final note: Whatever adventures you are planning for, please make sure ahead of time that the communities you are planning to visit are agreeing to having visitors. Here’s hoping that no one will venture on the road if they are ill or are at risk of developing COVID-19. We are in this together, having fun but keeping each other safe as well.)

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Editor’s Note: This opinion piece reflects the views of its author, and does not necessarily represent the views of CFJC Today or the Jim Pattison Broadcast Group.