the
Acorn
The Newsletter of the Salt Spring Island Conservancy
TWO New
School Program Coordinators
Hired
In the last issue of the Acorn we announced, in an article
entitled, “They Need More of This”, we had received funding
that would allow us to continue with the Stewards in
Training School Program for 2007 thanks to the BC Gaming
Commission and a wonderful Conservancy member/donor.
This program takes students one class at a time, on full day,
hands-on field experiences and teaches them about different
Salt Spring ecosystems. We are pleased to announce that we
have hired not one but two wonderfully talented women to
coordinate our successful school program. We feel extremely
lucky to be able to welcome them “on board”.
The Conservancy is pleased to introduce you to Sarah
Bateman and Cate McEwen:
http://saltspringconservancy.ca
Number 34, Spring 2007
Sarah is well suited for this position because two of
her passions are teaching children and learning about our
natural world. She moved to Salt Spring in 1988 from Nova
Scotia. She spent her childhood in Ontario playing outdoors
in the fields and streams near her home with a family that
was very focused on experiencing and appreciating nature.
She has degrees in Anthropology/Psychology and Education
from the University of Victoria and she has enjoyed traveling
with her family in North America, Europe and Africa. Sarah
is a BC certified teacher who is well known in our elementary
schools -- she has taught grades K – 8 as a teacher on call
while raising her two children who are now 9 and 11. Sarah
loves working in the classroom and out in the field. She also
Continued on page 13
Inside:
President’s Page .................2
Director’s Desk ..................3
Natural History
Sustainability ..................4
Events
Calendar..........................6
Event Notes.....................6
Features
Mt Erskine Prov Park.......7
Islands, Harbours .........11
Inside SSIC
Cusheon Lake..................8
Dorothy Cutting..............8
Nominating...................12
Imagine Salt Spring........13
Stewardship
NAPTEP........................10
Essential Details...............15
President’s Page
Strong Wind Blowing
Mom’s at her computer when the curtains in the den flap
inward. She closes the window. Melissa, age 8, pins down a
wayward painting with her felt pen when a lion-sized cats-
paw blows through patio screens. She tugs the sliding glass
door shut. Dozing over an open book, Dad coughs as a fist of
air pummels down the chimney. He closes the damper.
Same wind. Same house. Different perceptions. Different
responses. Other doors and windows are still open. The
storm still rises.
Shift image. Earth is the house. It is getting too hot.
What’s the problem?
That – the question – is the first problem.
In the 1980s colleagues of mine at the University
of Alaska mulled over new evidence of a changing world
climate. What they knew worried them, but mainly they
focused on our ignorance. It was a research problem.
As a biologist I agreed, but as an environmental activist
disappearing ice packs, increasing wildfire and melting of
ancient permafrost translated into an environmental problem.
Nature was going to suffer more than we were.
A British economist gained instant fame recently by
telling us how many trillions of dollars would have to be
spent on protection against coastal flooding, frequent
droughts, all sorts of extreme weather: you know the drill.
Now we have an economic problem.
Current politicos are hooked into big business, the
Alberta tar sands boom, and the petro-economy generally.
They have their careers (and elections) to lose if they don’t
deliver on promises made in traditional priorities like health
care, jobs, child poverty and education. Proposals to act on
global warming scare everybody whose ox would be gored or
whose share of tax revenues is threatened. The clear course
is to sit tight – except that so many people oppose doing
nothing. It is a political problem.
It is really a problem in social justice, others say. Rich
and poor both live by the sea, but history suggests that
money will be spent to protect the rich and the works that
they profit from. The poor, it is to be hoped, will have time
to move.
Or is it an issue of basic human behaviour, channelled
for 200 years toward individual achievement, materialism
and self-maximising market behaviour?
Enough already!
The real problem (now I’m in the cellar listening to the
wind whistling through cracks in the foundation) is the way
we think about problems. We see them as chains of cause
and effect, short chains truncated by our disinterest in the
past and by our content with an agreeable next step rather
than a long trek to a more distant goal.
Here’s an exercise to show a more realistic model. Stand
over a big sheet of white paper. Shake flakes of pepper on it.
 The Acorn - Newsletter of the Salt Spring Island Conservancy
With a pencil connect all nearest-neighbour flakes, then all
neighbours once removed. Drop a dart onto the paper. The
nearest flake is global warming. (Call it effect or cause, it’s all
the same.) Tell me what causes it. You still pass even if you
don’t travel as far as the Amazonian butterfly sneezing from
excess pepper.
We think in chains far more often than nets. It’s simpler,
more practical. Someone often is rewarded in the short run.
Review the sequence for global warming. In the 1980s
scientists talked about what little they knew and what they
wanted money to find out. Leaders tittered. More was learned
but apprehension within “the establishment” strengthened
to denial in the ‘90s. Scientists became more confident,
described the consequences in increasingly painful terms.
Today most folks would say the problem is real, caused by
too much atmospheric CO2; the excess is partly caused by
petroleum-fuelled engines and bad coal-burning methods;
we should invent ways to reduce emissions. Scrub carbon
out of smokestacks. Replace diesel and gasoline engines with
electric, hydrogen or hybrid power sources in cars. After a
while the air will be cleaner.
Technoproblem, technofix.
Who’s surprised? We are surrounded by and imbedded
in technology. We earn money to buy it and make a living
from inventing, building and selling it. We occasionally
wince at its failures but are confident that new designs
will correct them. Our biggest fear is an inconvenient and
possibly expensive transition. (We made it from quarter-
horse to hundred-horse a century ago, but to abandon
private gas-guzzlers? Horrors!) The corporate sector usually
protests change but knows from experience that they could,
if nimble, come out ahead.
Looking a bit deeper, we see that the technofix strategy
leaves economic and political power right where it is. The
public stays hooked, investors still gamble, money is still
made. A few political dinosaurs lose at the ballot box and
some channels of campaign support dry up but the mutually
beneficial understandings that bind politics, business and
consumers remain.
Trouble is, narrow actions yield narrow gains. They
leave most of the networked complex of elements in “the
problem” completely untouched. The net gain may prove to
be zero or less.
Take the no-emissions car, for example. I’d love to see
the world’s fleet comprised of clean vehicles. Compared to the
tiny gains from the tussle for better mileage between 1970 and
2006, it would be party time. However, it might be prudent to
plan a few wakes as well. No-emissions vehicles would leave
unshaken our self-granted right to zip around Earth’s surface
at will on our errands of convenience. We would continue
Continued on page 14

Busy Year Ahead
We begin 2007 with the support of our members and
community at an all time high with 850 Conservancy
members, an increase of 125 members in the past year.
Thank you to all of our members and donors for your
support, and a warm welcome to all of our new members.
2006 was another busy year for the Conservancy. Many
of our regular monthly educational events were sold-out,
including our 2nd Sustainable Home Building Forum. With
the assistance of the Salt Spring Earth Festival Society, the
Forum and the second annual Salt Spring Eco-Home Tour
were an overwhelming success with 650 participants on
tours to ten Eco-Homes led by local homeowners.
In addition to these events, we successfully completed
two projects this year; the first was a Species at Risk
Stewardship Project, which focused on the protection of
locally endangered and threatened species and ecosystems.
We received funding from the Salt Spring Island Foundation,
Bullitt Foundation, and the Government of Canada Habitat
Stewardship Program for Species at Risk for our “Habitat
Protection and Stewardship of Species at Risk on Salt Spring
2006” project. This project allowed the Conservancy to do
vital inventories of Species at Risk on Salt Spring by working
with local landowners. Islanders learned how to identify
habitats on their land through site visits, and protect their
land through stewardship agreements and land management
plans. Rare species locations were verified and four new
Sharp-tailed Snake populations were found. The project
contacted 162 residents with Garry oak ecosystems and
Species at Risk on their land, and completed 85 site visits. We
worked closely with our partner organizations, such as the
Garry Oak Ecosystems Recovery Team (GOERT). The project
hired Robin Annschild as Project Biologist and Christian
Engelstoft, Sharp-tailed Snake Biologist, who verified snake
sighting with landowners and gave presentations.
Founding member Ann Richardson and Lugh Annschild assist with
violet research
Spring 2007
Director’s Desk
Sharp-tailed Snake
The second project was a ‘Stewards in Training’ program,
funded by a local donor, the Wildlife Federation, and the
Shell Environmental Fund. Coordinators Kate Leslie and
Deborah Miller continued ecological field trips with Gulf
Island Middle School students and this year added all of Salt
Spring’s Grade four and five students. 525 students were
led by 60 adult volunteers on guided hikes and interactive
hands-on activities, about ecology, succession, and common
and endangered plants. Students went to the Conservancy’s
72-acre Andreas Vogt Nature Reserve and Channel Ridge
for Garry oak stewardship activities, Ford Lake for wetland
activities, and Burgoyne Bay for seashore activities. Students
removed invasive species, and identified ecosystems and
plants. Sarah Bateman and Kate McEwen have been hired
as program Coordinators for the 2007 Stewards in Training
which will begin this spring.
I would like to acknowledge the hard work of our staff
members this year: Robin Annschild, our staff Biologist and
our office assistants Linda Horsfall and Sabrina Aven. My
sincere gratitude to all of the hardworking volunteers last
year who helped at education events, the Saturday market,
the fall fair, and the Eco Home Tour and forum; our office
helpers, the Board of Directors, committee members, project
advisors, volunteer stewards, and everyone who helped in
any way. Thanks to Linda Quiring and Bill Goddu for the
refrigerator.
2007 will see the Conservancy running a third Eco-
Home Tour on June 17, a garage sale, a musical event, and
another Stewardship project if funded. The Fundraising
committee has decided not to raffle a bench this year, but
we still hope to be at the Saturday market with information
about stewardship and the Eco-Home Tour.
– Karen Hudson

Natural History
Preludes to Sustainability
When I need cheering up I can rattle a few bonbons out
of almost any newspaper. Tucked among columns of war
and tragedy I’ll see a note about an inventor or entrepreneur
trying a greener idea. Sunday editions can be a trove (hard
news apparently never happens on Sunday), highlighting
sustainable city design, sustainable tourism, sustainable
transportation, forestry or farming, green architecture, even
the bemusing offers of sustainable growth.
Eventually the chocolate high fades. A few of the projects
turn out to be green paint on a rusty idea: someone hoping
to cash in on small change and big hoopla. A few are solid
successes, like second-generation stewards of organic farms
and selectively harvested woodlots. Most, it seems to me, are
well meant but both untested and narrowly limited.
Think, for instance, of a new city conference centre
featuring the best green design. It has state-of-the-art
structural materials, it is snugged against a good public
transportation system, and it will use far less energy and
water than the 20th Century dinosaur it replaces. But the
project still wobbles on foundations of sand. Its financial
success depends on more growth in a city that already is
far too big, part of the global urban-growth bubble. Make-
or-break users will fly in from far away, adding to the gassy
shield under which we’re already overheating. The project is
snared in the global grid: power from dams far up-country,
banquet food from thousands of kilometres away, material
from distant mines and factories.
Or, suppose you want to fish for a living, sustainably.
You build a sailboat that uses solar panels for heat and
refrigeration, wind for lights. You are careful of all the details,
like nets that degrade innocuously after reasonable use. Still,
you’ve financed the idea with money earned or borrowed
from the common economy; you sell through chains of
processors, packagers and distributors immersed in our
petroleum-greased system. Your customers will pay the price
of good food with earnings from the everyday, unsustainable
economy. Meanwhile, the ocean under your boat continues
to degrade under the assault of poisons and overfishing.
My hat is off to every experiment in sustainable living,
but what will it take to link your venture with millions of
others into an enduring web? Like the late J. Swift, I have a
modest proposal: six steps toward global sustainability. None
is impossible, though several are a bit daunting.
Peace. Makers of war come and go, win and lose,
but war is always against nature. The vortex of war robs
resources from human and environmental betterment and
spews out a legacy of hatred given teeth by new technologies
of aggression. War, directly destroying nature, also releases
society from the peacetime restraints meant to protect it.
War makes an enduring society and continued life for other
creatures impossible.
 The Acorn - Newsletter of the Salt Spring Island Conservancy
Fewer People. Six-point-something billion people
– 600 billion pounds of appetite - are more than Earth can
bear. Two billion could live better, more equivalently to each
other, and less desperately close to the brink of disaster, than
we do now. Our companions, the creatures of land and sea,
would breathe easier. I came across a horrifying estimate
recently of how thoroughly humans have displaced nature.
At the start of the agricultural age, 6000 to 8000 BC, people
and their stock comprised 2% of the biomass of vertebrates
on land. Now we, our pets and livestock amount to 98% of
land vertebrates biomass.
Smaller Cities. A bigger share of population reduction
should come from big cities than from towns and rural
areas. City people don’t think or know much about
nature – they are told it isn’t of concern – and the bigger
the city the deeper the alienation. No society can endure
with so vast an ignorance about its home, or so flimsy an
emotional and spiritual attachment to the reality that props
up their existence. Moreover, cities must, and do, dominate
landscapes. Their lives depend on it. Control of rural places
lets cities accumulate profits to build and maintain the
infrastructure of their survival as well as the cultural wealth
that is their justifiable pride. Today’s megalopolis not only
dominates local and regional landscapes but many others
half a globe away about which they have no concern beyond
utility. Smaller cities look closer for resources, creating better
conditions for essential city-country partnerships based on
shared local experience.
Redesigned Economies. Modern economies need
more and more customers every week, an incredibly silly
foundation for human or nature’s welfare. A sustainable
economy has to be jerked away from growth and greed.
Competent economists have been thinking about this for
some time now: the names Boulding, Schumacher, Mishan,
Daly and Henderson come to mind. So far they have been
ignored. I could only shake my head when the 2006 Nobel
Prize in economics went to an academic who commented
that continued growth was the sine qua non of a successful
economy.
Land Tenure. We buy land and treat it as our exclusive
property. The community then taxes it as if it were yielding
the highest monetary returns possible under local conditions.
Owners and community can think only of the short term.
Neither sees land in its precious and complex wholeness but
as isolated elements of immediate value. Land as geography
will outlast humanity, but land as a living entity in full,
evolving and productive beauty is fast disappearing. In any
enduring relationship the land should make us humble, not
the reverse.
Science and Technology. Science can be a good thing but
lately it has run with the wolves. The “wolves” (my apologies,
Canis lupus) pay for science that produces technologies of millions of them. If they didn’t all want to save electricity
yielding power and profit, an alliance that produces a lot of they would light up the night sky.
mischief. Neither the priorities of science nor the long-term We should remember the prophetic reforms of a
consequences of technologies have been subject to effective generation ago that still engage the hearts of many. Do you
veto by broad community welfare; we don’t know how to, or recall Roszak’s counterculture (1969), Reich’s greening of
don’t want to, the evidence tells us. With each invention the America (1970) or Schumacher’s discovery of beauty in
springboard for dozens more, change has far outdistanced smallness? A full generation of practice has improved and
good sense. Sustainability at heart is not a condition but an invigorated the permaculture vision of Mollett and Holmgren
ability to adapt. The precious necessity for either cultural back in 1978. Remember Ferguson’s “Aquarian Conspiracy”
or biological evolution is time, precisely what unbridled (1980), modelling a networked, not hierarchical, society?
technology steals from us. How about bioregionalism, promoted by Gary Snyder’s
Science as an ideology is arrogant, denying spirit, soul, poetry, Kirkpatrick Sale’s essays and Peter Berg’s organizations?
mystery and the divine in favor of mechanism. Science, I “They’ve disappeared,” you say.
think, has to be re-conceived as an endeavour of the whole “Because they aren’t media novelties any more,” I reply,
human, not just the rational fragment of our selves. As “Not because they are dead.”
Roszak put it, science must become sacred. Most scientists, I “But,” you snap back, “they haven’t made any
think would join the enterprise. difference.”
So here you are: six steps to the threshold of the great “Have you looked?” I ask.
adventure, the conscious invention of sustainable life. How I find something positive and important in the fact that
are they to be taken? the lights now newly aglow aren’t part of a grid. They don’t
If doom-mongers are right, we could just wait and see even have a grand idea in common beyond the rudimentary
what survives the inevitable collapse. Too risky. Besides, I’m feeling that the forces of big power are making shambles
not suited to standing around and waiting. everywhere, and that local initiative is the way to change.
Think back to the bonbons. Flawed as they may be, Local means diverse; in nature and culture diversity trumps
each project represents people convinced of the need to sameness every time. Moreover, suppose a centrally-
change and of the broad direction it has to take. Someone controlled movement were to confront globalization, each
in another era spoke of such people as “a thousand points of with a framed ideology, dogma and top-down control. The
light.” From what I’ve read there are, today, tens or hundreds result would be a bullfight. No matter which combatant won,
it would be a bull.
History has been
too full of bullfights.
Let thousands of ideas
have their day on home
turf. Some will succeed
and spread as far as they
work in new country.
The bigness
responsible for our
present fix, never
confronted, will crumble
away. There will be pain
in the failure of “small”
but the pain will be
local, an experience that
produces another try.
I heard a metaphor
for this not long ago.
“Goliath may dodge a
silver bullet, but he can’t
escape a bunch of BBs.”
Eco-Home Tour – Bob Weeden

Spring 2007 
Conservancy Events
Upcoming Events
February 23rd (Friday): Mystery Mammals of the
Night: Bats of the Gulf Islands with Mammalogist,
David Nagorsen, co-author of Bats of British Columbia.
Bats are remarkable, but mysterious animals. With ten
species inhabiting the Gulf Islands, bats are our most
diverse mammals. 7pm at the Lion’s Hall. To make bat
house kits: Deborah Miller (537-4797).
March 9th (Friday): Natural Areas Protection Tax
Exemption Program talk. Kate Emmings of the Islands
Trust Fund will explain how to get a 65% property tax
reduction on your land with a conservation covenant. 2
– 4pm at the Lions Hall.
March 22nd (Thursday): Protecting our Water. On
World Water Day we are co-sponsoring an event with
SSI Water Preservation Society and the Cusheon Lake
Stewardship Committee for a Cusheon Lake Management
Plan presentation. 1-3pm at the Green Room, Harbour
House.
April 19th (Thursday): Solutions to Global Climate
Change Slide show and talk by Guy Dauncey author
of Stormy Weather: 101 Solutions to Global Climate
Change. We are co-sponsoring with I-SEA, and SSI
Energy Strategy. 7:30 - 9:30pm, Community Gospel
Chapel
May 11th (Friday): Salt Spring Island Conservancy
Annual General Meeting. AGM with guest speaker Blair
Hammond, Canadian Wildlife Service, Environment
Canada, who will speak about Eco-Gifts. 7pm, Lion’s
Hall.
 The Acorn - Newsletter of the Salt Spring Island Conservancy
Event Notes
Mammals of the Night: Bats of the Gulf
Islands
David Nagorsen
Mammalia Biological Consulting
Bats are remarkable, but mysterious animals of the night.
With ten species inhabiting the Gulf Islands and nearby
Vancouver Island, bats are actually our most diverse group
of land mammals. Yet despite this diversity, few people
are aware of bats and their habits. Many people find bats
threatening, frightening, or even demonic.
On February 24, Dr. David Nagorsen will provide an
illustrated presentation about the bats of British Columbia,
with a focus on Salt Spring and the Southern Gulf Islands.
Dr. Nagorsen is the author of Bats of British Columbia (a
Royal British Columbia Museum Handbook) and is currently
a consulting scientist in the field of mammalogy.
In his talk, Nagorsen will dispel many of the myths and
misinformation associated with these ecologically valuable
animals. Using slides, recorded sounds, and personal stories
from his many years of research as a Curator with the Royal
B.C. Museum, Nagorsen will reveal many aspects of bat
natural history including their ability to fly, their use of sonar
to navigate and track prey, where they roost, and how and
where they hibernate in winter.
Bats are of special concern as indicators of the health
of ecosystems. Nearly half of British Columbia’s bat species
are considered to be at risk or of conservation concern by
the Provincial Conservation Data Centre. Dr. Nagorsen’s
talk will explore the various threats to bats, and a variety
of conservation measures including the construction of
bat houses and bat–friendly methods for exclusion from
buildings.
The presentation is on February 23, at 7:00 pm in the
Lion’s Hall.
Third Annual Eco-Home Tour
June 17th
The Eco-Home Tour will be held on June
17th from 10am to 4pm. Plan now for
this unique opportunity to visit ten of Salt
Spring’s eco-homes.
 Features

Mount Erskine Provincial Park

Announcing Mount Erskine Provincial Park: Today we can celebrate the creation of a new 107
ha (268 acre) Provincial Park in the northern part of Salt
Salt Spring’s Fourth Provincial Park
Spring thanks to the many islanders who generously made
donations and contributed their time and energy to the
Cabinet approval has recently been given for the establishment
Conservancy campaign as well as to BC Parks for ensuring
of Mount Erskine Park on Salt Spring Island, and the Province
that these significant pieces of Crown land will be protected
will vote on legislation of the park boundaries when the
in perpetuity. With the Conservancy’s Manzanita Ridge
provincial government sits again this spring. This fulfils the
(20 ha) and the Islands Trust Fund Mt. Erskine Nature
hopes many of us had during the Conservancy campaign
Reserve (22 ha), the northern part of Salt Spring now has
in 2005. This new provincial park encompasses the 40 ha
a green area that is almost 150 ha (400 acres), with trails
summit property and the two adjacent Crown land parcels
connecting Collins Road to Toynbee Road that islanders can
which, although owned by the public, were not designated
use forever.
as park at that time and thus were potentially at risk.
– Peter Lamb, Charles Kahn and Jean Gelwicks
When the opportunity first arose in late 2004 for the
Conservancy to purchase the summit property, we realized
that this key parcel was critical to the protection of significant
natural features on Mount Erskine. The Conservancy had
already acquired a 20 ha parcel on the southeast edge of
the Crown lands, and the Islands Trust Fund held a 22 ha
property to the north.
During the Conservancy’s very successful private fund-
raising campaign, the Nature Conservancy of Canada agreed
to contribute funds through the provincial Trust for Public
Lands program for a 20 percent interest in the land. We
also realized (with some persuasion) that the participation
by BC Parks in the purchase of the summit property would
enhance our goal of protecting the Crown lands as part of
a new provincial park. Accordingly, we reached agreement
for the contribution of government funds and a 20 percent
interest by BC Parks in the ownership of the land.
The final agreement was reached with BC Parks for their
long-term lease of the 40 ha parcel with their assurance that
they would use their best efforts to secure the adjacent Crown
lands as part of a new Category 1 park. This has now been Photos by Gordon White
achieved. Once the boundaries of the park are secured by an
act of legislation, Mt. Erskine’s status as park is unlikely to be
changed by future governments.

Spring 2007 
Inside SSIC

Good Stewardship at Cusheon Lake

Robert Frost mused about a time in our continent’s history, learn more. Right now I invite you to share my admiration
a time arguably not past, when European colonizers claimed for what the Cusheon Lake residents have done. Remember
possession of the land but were not yet possessed by it. the 4H guide to living: Head, Heart, Hands, and Health?
Owning land, we act upon it as seems in our best interest. Or neighbours have carried them all into the breach – the
We expect a return: copper, cabbages or Kleenex. Possessed breach of our covenant with nature. Their work extends far
by land – making room for it in our heart of hearts – we give beyond the facts uncovered and remedies offered. Possessing
part of ourselves to it without expectation of personal gain. the land, they have been possessed by it. That kind of mutual
Some of the people who rise each morning to watch possession isn’t a matter of ideals, platitudes or statistics. It
the shimmering reflections on Cusheon Lake clearly feel involves a real moment, real people, real action, a specific
possessed by the Lake’s lively beauty. place. It is local.
You know Cusheon Lake, cupped by two modest ridges, I admire the familiar admonition to Think Globally,
the place where a raindrop from mid Island highlands stops Act Locally. Yet, the slogan hides dangers. One is that the
a while before going home to Cusheon Outlet, half-way up temptation, having thought globally, is to act globally. To
Ganges Harbour. (It doesn’t stay long, a year or so, because do this is to give your power away to the big structures,
the Lake gets more incoming water than St. Mary Lake but governmental and corporate, that delight in acting globally.
has only 1/15th of St. Mary’s volume.) A well-used road skirts The other risk is to forget that acting locally requires thinking
Cusheon Lake’s northeast shore almost at the stoop of small locally. The only suitable bases for action are those grounded
cottages built years ago beside the Lake. The facing shore in specific experience in specific landscapes, carried out by
seems thoroughly verdant, although the firs and maples people whose hearts are in thrall.
shade a number of homes. – Bob Weeden
It has been a dozen years since residents formed the
Cusheon Lake Stewardship Committee to express their
concern and caring, and only a few years less since a
subgroup formed, the Cusheon Watershed Management
Steering Committee, to take action. Entering Long Harbour photo by Brian Smallshaw
Blessed with leaders of bulldog perseverance and
unwavering hope, and with several equally dedicated scientist-
residents expert in the chemistry and hidden life of lakes, the Thank you to our business members:
Steering Committee has pulled off a minor miracle. As you Anchorage Cove B&B Neil Morie, Architect
read this, they have offered to the community a thorough- Baker Beach Cottages Pharmasave
going report and call to action. The report documents that Balmoral By The Sea B&B Pretzel Motors
Cusheon Lake is becoming eutrophic – newly loaded with Barb’s Bakery & Bistro Raven Isle Graphics
enough nutrients, mainly phosphorus, that algae blooms Barnyard Grafix Rock Salt Cafe
become more common and begin to dominate the life of Beddis House B&B Sandra Smith, Royal LePage
the Lake. The phosphorus comes from soil particles washed Blue Horse Folk Art Salt Spring Realty
overland and via streams from surface disturbances in the Bold Bluff Retreat Salt Spring Books
whole watershed (52%), and from faulty septic systems and Bootacomputer Salt Spring Centre of Yoga
soil disturbances at shoreline homes(23%). The call to action Creekhouse Realty Ltd. Salt Spring Centre School
asks watershed residents and contractors to take more care Don Jenkins Excavating Salt Spring Cinema
in land clearing, driveway and home construction, and farm Duck Creek Farm Salt Spring Coffee Co.
operations to keep soil particles out of waterways. It asks Elsea Plumbing Salt Spring Island Chamber
cottagers to repair or replace faulty septic systems. Flat Earth Photography of Commerce
It isn’t that simple, of course. Whether enough residents Green Acres Resort Salt Spring Kayaking
and contractors voluntarily will change their behaviour is a Island Escapades Salt Spring Seeds
risk, head-butting against the deeply ingrained belief that Island Star Video Saltspring Soapworks
owners can do what they want with their land. Regulatory Karen Dakin, Accountant Spindrift at Welbury Point
incentives and penalties probably are needed. Over a half- Mouat’s Trading Co. Sprague Associates
dozen local and provincial agencies are involved in various Morningside Organic Stowell Lake Farm
Bakery & Cafe Terra Firma Builders
regulatory arenas, and most of them need to make changes,
Murakami Auto Body & Windsor Plywood
too.
Repairs
You can read the report and go to public meetings to

 The Acorn - Newsletter of the Salt Spring Island Conservancy


Good Stewards: Dorothy Cutting
Dorothy Cutting, grandmother and activist, first came to Salt
Spring over 14 years ago. Fueled in part by disgust at the
first Gulf War and in part by a passion for kayaking, she
decided to sell her Seattle houseboat and come north. By
some bizarre stroke of fortune, her home was located on the
same dock where they filmed “Sleepless in Seattle,” and she
was able to demand enough cash to buy a waterfront home
here.
A supporter of the SSI Conservancy since its inception,
Dorothy more than qualifies as a Good Steward. This is a
woman who doesn’t just fret about the state of the world; she
takes action. Whether by keeping her cat Luke Skywalker
harnessed when outside to protect local bird populations,
or by researching and delivering information on climate
change to friends and politicians alike, Dorothy is active in
her stewardship at all times.
Some of you are perhaps aware of Dorothy’s cross-
Canada adventure of a few years back. In an effort to bring
awareness to issues of climate change, she drove her hybrid
car to Ottawa to personally deliver a copy of Robert Hunter’s
book 2030 to every member of Parliament. “I came back from
that trip full of hope,” said Dorothy. “We’d just signed the
Spring 2007
Inside SSIC
Kyoto Accord, and here on Salt Spring people like Elizabeth
White, Marion Pape and Bob Weeden were working on an
energy strategy.”
Things changed, however, when Dorothy loss a very dear
friend to lung cancer. Falling into a depression, for the first
time she didn’t kayak at all that summer. To make matters
worse, she then loss the dog who was her companion on her
big road trip, and her favorite cat. It’s no wonder that she
“lost focus on what was going on.”
Dorothy says she was “blindsided by the Iraq War,”
adding, “It’s a nightmare what George Bush has done just
by fighting that so-called war – invasion! He’s done more
to hurt the planet in a short time than is imaginable. And
the billions spent that could have been directed at climate
change …”
In the meantime, Dorothy continued to receive emails
about the issues of the day, including reviews of James
Lovelock’s controversial book, Gaia’s Revenge. She was
“shook up” by Lovelock’s claim that the dangers of a nuclear
power disaster were minimal in comparison to where global
warming was heading. Another influence was James Hansen,
a NASA scientist who courageously spoke out against Bush’s
claims despite the president’s efforts to silence him. Hansen
says we have less than a decade to turn things around before
the tipping point of dangerous, runaway climate change
occurs.
A photo revealing the shrinking polar ice cap further
spurred on Dorothy, who wrote an angry article for the Sierra
Club that blasted everyone from industry to environmental
groups for their failure to act and withholding the truth. To
her surprise, the Sierra Club actually published it. Then she
decided to get more active again, and do what she knew
best – getting in her hybrid car and driving. This time, she
decided to head to the Arctic to really investigate and draw
attention to what was happening there.
Dorothy left for that trip just last year, in the summer
of 2006. The attention on the 75-year woman traveling on
her own to change the world was excellent, with the Sierra
Club alerting the media at her every stop. To her lasting
disappointment, however, she only got as far as Whitehorse,
as she contracted a mysterious, life-threatening virus en
route. Subsequently she’s been left with a mountain of
research she’s not sure what to do with, although she vows
to continue “doing everything legally and morally possible
to change things.”
“This is how I got into this mess of too much reading, too
many emails, all dealing with important things that have to
be dealt with,” Dorothy explained. “The problem is humans
have made this mess, and now humans, with all their flaws,
will have to solve it.”
For now, Dorothy is still very active in finding and
Continued on page 14

Stewardship
Island Landowners Save Property Taxes
January came as a shock to many
Gulf Islands landowners as BC
Assessment notices arrived with
another increase in property values.
Property assessments in the Southern
Gulf Islands went up an average of
15.5 percent this year according to
BC Assessment’s Brian Hawkins,
Capital Area Assessor. The largest
increases were seen on the outer Gulf
Islands (Galiano, Mayne, the Penders
and Saturna), but Salt Spring still has
the highest property values in the
islands. The average 2 acre, non-
waterfront, single family dwelling
on Salt Spring goes for $415,500,
while waterfront properties average
$846,300.
Recognizing that landowners,
faced with high property taxes, are more likely to develop
or log their properties to pay their bills, the Islands Trust
developed the Natural Area Protection Tax Exemption
Program (NAPTEP). Launched in 2005, NAPTEP rewards
landowners who place a conservation covenant over part
of their land with a 65% property tax exemption on the
protected portion of their land.“NAPTEP provides a unique
opportunity to eligible Gulf Island landowners,” says Islands
Trust Chair Kim Benson. “By volunteering to protect
ecological features on their property they can leave a legacy
for future generations while also saving money on their
property taxes.”
Ilse Leader photo by Briony Penn
10 The Acorn - Newsletter of the Salt Spring Island Conservancy
“NAPTEP provided the incentive I needed to protect my
land,” says Salt Spring Island property owner, Ilse Leader. “I
recouped the costs of entering the program in the first year.”
Mrs. Leader said that she would recommend the program
to other land owners adding that “land owners entering
the program should be aware that the primary intention of
NAPTEP is to protect land with high ecological values.”
NAPTEP participants report that they are saving between
$1,300 and $3,700 annually on their property taxes because
of these new covenants while protecting areas ranging in size
from 1.8 hectares (4.4 acres) to 23.7 hectares (58.5 acres).
The Islands Trust Fund is now accepting NAPTEP
applications from landowners
wishing to start reducing their
taxes in 2008. To be eligible for the
program, properties must be in the
Southern Gulf Islands or Gambier
Island Local Trust Area and must
have high ecological value. The
2007 deadline for application to
the Natural Area Protection Tax
Exemption Program is April 1st.
More information is available
by visiting the Islands Trust
website at www.islandstrust.bc.ca
or by phoning the Islands Trust
Fund at (250) 405-5186 (toll free
via Enquiry BC at 1-800-663-
7867) or come to the NAPTEP talk
on March 9th 2-4pm at the Lion’s
Hall.
– Kate Emmings, on behalf of the
Islands Trust Fund

Islands, Harbours and Other Comforts
Today a snowstorm envelops our village and farm. It is mild
by standards of our latitude but notable in this soft corner of
Canada. The snow chased me indoors yesterday; I imagine
its pleasure at finding a place it almost intimidates.
The opaque snow has shrink-wrapped my little kingdom
to a chair, a desk, and bookshelves. I thumb a well-sifted
pile of verbal kindling, starters for a piece of writing still
undefined. There are words I wandered with a few weeks
or years ago, going nowhere. “Island” floats into view,
accidentally, perhaps, but it feels akin to my storm-borne
sense of isolation. I let my mind follow the word.
All things are islands, I reason. To exist as something
describable is to be surrounded - - defined, really – by
something else.
Consider this: There is an islet, very small, in Siskiwit
Lake on Isle Royale, Michigan. The Isle’s hem is fretted by
constant waves of Lake Superior, whose bulk is dwarfed by
the surrounding continent. North America has been an island
since 1914 when water flowed through the Panama Canal.
Continent and ocean together are enveloped by the planetary
atmosphere, making Earth an island within a galaxy that is
itself an island in our universe. Is that universe, once thought
unique and not needing a name, an island within others?
There are other sorts of islands all around us. A prairie
may be an island in a sea of trees; a wood may be an island in
a sea of grass. Love is an island in a sea of indifference, which
in turn is surrounded by our inescapable sociability.
“No Man is an island,” John Donne wrote, “entire of it
self.” His thought pulled us all, including those who come
kicking and screaming, into the human family. We are not
entire of our selves. With equal truth he could have asserted
that no island is an island. Every island, whether geographical
or metaphorical, must have a threshold where it ends and
something else begins, but no island is ever impenetrable.
My musings move from the general to the personal. This
Island is not any island, but the one that is home. This storm
is not any storm, but mine, different from the smothering
turbulence engulfing the mainland.
I’ll throw down the gauntlet: What, if anything, does
our Island edge keep in or out? It bars neither death nor
taxes, not sun or air or far-travelling seeds or birds. It does
not stop our soil from sliding and washing slowly into the
sea, nor bar the evaporated and wind-blown ocean water
from falling as rain on our hills. The shoreline keeps out
nothing humanity says; I wish fervently that it could block
the telemarketer’s call at supper hour. People come and go,
impeded only by will and circumstance. No wall diminishes
the traffic of economic goods and bads or shelters us from
war, terror, discovery or creativity.
The only thing common to all boundaries is that they
have holes.
Spring 2007
Features
My skin keeps me in, mostly,
And you out, mostly,
Confining entry to a few hiati
And hidden rules of engagement.
If there is an aspect of islandness that endures such
argument it is in the realm of human perceptions and the
actions that follow from them. My Island, Chu’an or Salt
Spring Island, is of a size that any person can encompass in
repeated personal experience. It can be known, intimately
known, as it is at any moment and as it changes through our
lifetime. Vancouver Island, next door, is too big to be known
in that way. Our deep and mutual personal experiences lead
to shared responsibility. Here the sea is the edge of local
planning, fire, police, emergency, education and health
services. Businesses, non-profit groups, churches and
our weekly paper centre on the Island. The water around
us concentrates our caring. Without seriously barring our
travels or confining our interests, it defines and embraces
community.
Three of the “hiati” that breach the boundary of our
Island are our main harbours. An image of one shines now
in my mind. I see the sparse winter flock of boats at marinas,
ducking under the north breeze. Snow thickens on their
decks but melts back from the water heat at their gunnels.
Lights are on in the village. Reflections bob and slant in the
restless water. Our village creek exhausts itself in the tide.
Beyond it, lights thin out, increase a bit at the sailing club
docks, grow sparse and finally disappear in the park that
once was a seaside farm.
Harbours are a joy. They are more than inlet, cove, or bay,
the cool, neutral terms of the geographer. They are not ports,
where commerce tramples nature. Harbours are defined by
balance, by warmly human sheltering and secure residence
in some right and pleasing proportion with interwoven and
nearby nature. People live, worship, work and do business
there. Yet amid that activity brooks freely reflect the stars as
they meet the tides. Children slip and slop in search of sea-
treasure at the ebb. Unseen, ocean life moves from shallows
to deeps and back as ancient rules demand.
In less than 200 years human numbers have gone
from 1 billion to 6.4 billion today. Thousands of harbours
have become ports. In each instance village became town
and town became city. Fill made estuary into land, dredges
reshaped depths, docks blurred shorelines. Streams dove
into culverts far from the sea, emerging like pariahs in the
perpetual shadow of cement, steel or timbered pilings.
Big boats shoulder aside small ones, commerce outbids
Continued on page 14
11
Inside SSIC

New Nominating Committee

We have a new process for finding nominees for directorships,
one of the most important tasks the Conservancy undertakes
each year. The work is now in the hands of a Nominating
Committee drawn from the general membership; until now
we have left it to the Board’s Executive Committee. The
benefit, we believe, will be a slate of candidates with a good
balance of fresh faces and experienced leaders.
The 2007 Nominating Committee consists of Larry
Appleby, David Denning, Donna De Haan, and Bob Weeden.
Just appointed, this committee will find candidates for six
vacancies on the Board; they have been asked to find seven
or more people for the slate, ensuring that members have
a meaningful choice. (Don’t forget that any member at the
AGM can nominate a candidate from the floor, too, as long
as the nominee is a member of SSIC and agrees to run!)
If the new committee asks you to stand in nomination,
please give it serious thought. Nothing is more important to
our long-term health than a capable, hands-on Board.
The slate will be sent to members in April, along with
notices of resolutions to be offered at the May 11, 2007
AGM. Phantom Orchid photo by Robin Annschild

Looking south-east from Mount Tuam photo by Brian Smallshaw

Land Trust and Stewardship Seminar Series 2007

10th Anniversary Celebration of the Conservation of BC's Special Places

March 16-18th, 2006, Cowichan Lake Outdoor Education and Conference Centre
* 3 full day workshops to choose from March 16th (including site visits)
* 15 Seminars on Conservation and Stewardship – led by BC's leaders in the field
* Guest Speakers: internationally renowned scientists and nature writers
Robert Michael Pyle and Bill Merilees (includes new book sales and signing)
The Land Trust Alliance of BC 204-338 Lower Ganges Road
Salt Spring Island, BC V8K 2V3 250-538-0112
Further Details and registration at
www.landtrustalliance.bc.ca

12 The Acorn - Newsletter of the Salt Spring Island Conservancy


Imagine Salt Spring
Planning for the Future
A Speaker Series Contributing to the OCP
Part of the allure of Salt Spring Island is being isolated, away
from populated centres. But to plan for the future, we need
to consider the influences of cities around us, make use of
experiences of similar communities from BC and around
the world and increasingly important, consider future
uncertainties.
The Island has just begun an overdue and important
Official Community Plan (OCP) review. A limited number
of community members are actually involved in the focus
groups but the planning for the future of Salt Spring is of
interest to all islanders. To assist OCP focus groups and all
other interested residents think and plan for our islands
future, the Institute for Sustainability, Education and Action
(I-SEA) is sponsoring a series of talks called, Imagine Salt
Spring: Planning for the Future. I-SEA hopes this series will
expose the community to new ideas about planning and
inspire us to think and plan thoughtfully and sustainably for
our islands future. There are two talks left in this Speakers
Series that started in January with Sebastian Moffatt, an
international researcher and consultant on energy efficiency
and ecologically based community planning.
Continued from page 
loves to hike, cycle, cook, garden, do yoga and volunteer.
She has been very involved with Fulford School’s Nature
Club and has been volunteering for the Stewards in Training
school program since its conception.
Cate moved to Salt Spring Island from the Yukon over
10 years ago with her partner Gavin Johnston and two
children, Liam and Seanna. She holds a B.Sc. (Ecology)
from Guelph and a M.A. (Environment and Management)
from Royal Roads University. Cate melds her experiences
in field biology, interpretation and education to work with
learners in ecological education. Like many members of
the Conservancy, her personal interests and professional
pursuits in natural history merge as one passion – an ongoing
awareness and wonder about the natural world. She works
this into the fabric of her teaching. Cate has trained teachers
and worked in classrooms through the GLOBE Program,
an international environmental education program based
in experiential field science. She is especially keen about
bringing ecological understanding into the context of the
evolution of the universe, the tremendous time frame this
places us within and the interconnection of all life. She is
co-founder of the Fulford School’s Nature Club and has been
an active volunteer with the Stewards in Training School
Program.
See what I mean! We are very fortunate having these two
Spring 2007
Inside SSIC
• February 15, Elisa Campbell will be speaking on
Sustainable Development in an Island Context. She will describe
community planning projects she has helped to facilitate in
other BC communities.
• March 15, Deborah Curran will speak on Protecting
Our Green Infrastructure. Curran is Founder of Smart
Growth BC. Her law firm is dedicated to developing legal
strategies for sustainable growth by assisting clients to
implement innovative approaches to resource management
and development.
Both talks will be held at the Community Gospel
Chapel at 7:30 – 9:30 pm (doors will open at 7:00) and
are FREE to the public. There will be time for discussion at
the end of each talk. It is a poignant paradox of the modern
era that at a time when decisions by leaders and citizens
are having increasingly long-term impacts, time frames for
decision-makers appear to be shrinking. Can we double
our population and be sustainable in the next 25 years? Will
the buildings and infrastructure that we are now planning
be appropriate for a world exposed to rapid changes in
technology and climate? How can we design for the future?
Come hear, think, discuss and Imagine Salt Spring.
Contact: Maxine Leichter 537-1577, or Margery Moore
537-4400 if you have any questions.
as our new School Program Coordinators and are looking
forward to April when the program will begin. The program
already includes grades 4 – 7 and this year, we hope to add a
new program for grade 2/3 and 8. The Conservancy hopes in
the very near future to have an experiential field trip program
for grades 2 – 8, so every year students will be exposed to the
different ecosystems in their own back yard and understand
the true meaning of being a good steward of the land. Sarah
says she is really looking forward to expanding the program
so that more children on Salt Spring can experience increased
curiosity and connection to this beautiful island.
That is what this program is about... connecting with
nature in a way that makes students know they must and
want to care for it. It will be Sarah’s and Cate’s job to come
up with this year’s new curriculum and organize the program
which will include finding and training volunteers. This
program cannot exist without its volunteers. Volunteers in
the past have raved about this program: “I wouldn’t have
missed the experience for anything; thanks to your superb
creativity and organizational skills it was great for both
volunteers and kids.” “The day was wonderful. A highlight
was seeing mosquitoes emerge from their aquatic pupae into
flying adults…You have organized a great program.” And
“I learned so much and I am so glad I was a part of this
Continued on page 14
13
Continued from page 
distributing information that will help. She is known for
buying tens of copies of books such as George Monbiot’s Heat
and lending or giving them to anyone who will read them.
In the week I spoke with her, she was also hosting national
Green Party leader Elizabeth May and going to a Vancouver
dinner to meet Stéphane Dion, in between attending two
different evening talks on sustainability here on Salt Spring.
Indeed, in spite of her claim that she is forcing herself
to slow down because her “personal life is shot,” she has
far more on the go in both arenas than I ever do. And
despite some occasional lapses into pessimism, generally she
remains hopeful if realistic about our capacity to change in
time. One event that Dorothy is currently excited about is
The 2010 Imperative: Global Emergency Teach-in featuring
Dr. James Hansen, among other experts. The teach-in will
be web-casted live from the New York Academy of Sciences
on February 20, and available to Salt Springers at I-SEA’s
Ganges headquarters.
Another exciting event is a day of action planned for
April 14, where groups across the United States and the
world will participate in extreme physical demonstrations
to enforce legislation to address climate change. Dorothy
encourages everyone to visit the Step It Up web site, http://
www.stepitup2007.org for more information.
The good news, Dorothy says, is that when you have a
strong passion you can always find other people who share
it, and Salt Spring is a hub of activity in that regard.
– Elizabeth Nolan
Yellow Montaine Violet
Continued from page 11
waterside residence, and no child dares play. The shore is
not for living.
This hasn’t happened to our Island and I don’t think it
will. Not wanting it, our community will make a different
dream real.
Falling now among our fruit trees, the snow rounds the
garden’s outline and whitens our roof. It muffles the cries
of the larger world. I turn off the desk light and climb the
stairs. I am soon in bed. In that delicious confusion just
before sleep I pull the Island and its harbours like double
comforters to my shoulders, light as snow.
– Bob Weeden
14 The Acorn - Newsletter of the Salt Spring Island Conservancy
Continued from page 13
program.” You too could be a volunteer... please. If you would
like to volunteer to help in anyway with the school program,
please contact Sarah or Cate at the Conservancy Office at
538-0318. Kudos go to Kate Leslie and Deborah Miller (our
past coordinators) for setting a high standard. Thank you
again for the hard work, creativity and enthusiasm they put
into this program. All money received from being a part of
the Thrifty Food’s Smile Card Program will go towards the
School Program. Pick up a card at the Conservancy Office
Tues., Wed., or Thurs. 10:00 am to 3:00 pm or at Thrifty’s
courtesy desk.
– Jean Gelwicks
Just Pull It!
Any time is a good time to pull or cut invasives
like broom and gorse, but the wet months are
especially good for pulling. Call the Conservancy
office (538-0318) or Brian Smallshaw (653-4774)
to borrow a broom puller.
Continued from page 
to smother good land with sterile roadways, with parking
lots, service stations, carports, manufacturing plants and
strip mines. We would surely perpetuate suburban sprawl,
maybe increase it. Millions of animals would continue to be
flattened – some of them named Homo sapiens by hopeful
early-day taxonomists – on highways every day. Moreover,
every new fuel proposed to replace petroleum has more than
one set of bones we can hear rattling in the closet. Where,
for example, will the water come to grow 50 million acres of
corn to replace US gasoline demand with ethanol?
What should we do about global warming? Follow
the pepper flakes. Global warming could be our last best
chance to re-think the whole human project. However, that
isn’t nearly enough by half. Global warming isn’t humanity’s
problem, it is life’s problem. And it isn’t a problem concerning
some species and some habitats, it is a Gaia problem. It is, as
James Lovelock said not long ago, our most serious affront to
a planetary system that is entirely interdependent, possessed
of both self-healing and self-destructing processes, and hence
fatally vulnerable to small but widespread changes, of which
atmospheric carbon level is one.
A strong wind blows. In this ultimate and only house
that we call earth, we and our companions in life feel the
shudder of the tempest. Let’s keep safe our house and the
dwellings of the community of all living beings.
– Bob Weeden
 Essential details

Office Update
Garry Oak Seedlings Items Wanted:
Thanks to a very generous donation by Paul Linton, the Donations of any of the following gratefully received.
Conservancy now has about 600 Garry oaks, gathered as Office Items Other Items
nuts in 04, planted, and now potted in 8” pots in good Air Miles Saws, clippers
dirt. We are selling them as a fundraiser for $10 each, or Speaker phone Canadian Tire $
3 for $25. We encourage Salt Spring landowners that live Field guides Hand secateurs
in current or former Garry oak ecosystems to plant oaks,
and we can provide information on the best way to do so. We would also appreciate donations of gifts, such as new
Please call 538-0318 to arrange purchase of oaks, or for books or items related to nature or conservation, to give to
more information about endangered Garry oak ecosystems our educational speakers, who volunteer their time.
on Salt Spring.
Small Things Help!
Help Wanted: Please remember to put your shopping receipt in the
• Do you like talking to landowners? green Conservancy receipt box at GVM and you can
• Are you interested in endangered species? get a Thrifty Foods SMILE card at the Conservancy
• Do you have 4-8 hours a month that you could office and 5% of your purchase will go to our School
volunteer to the Conservancy? Program.. You can also credit the Conservancy when
We need YOU to volunteer for our Stewardship Project! you take back your bottles to the Salt Spring Refund
Please call Karen 538-0318 for more information. Centre (Bottle Depot at GVM). Every little bit helps!
 
The Acorn is the newsletter of the Salt Spring Island Conservancy, a local non-profit society supporting and enabling
voluntary preservation and restoration of the natural environment of Salt Spring Island and surrounding waters. We welcome
your feedback and contributions, by email to ssiconservancy@saltspring.com or by regular mail. Opinions expressed here
are the authors’, not subject to Conservancy approval.
Editor: Elizabeth Nolan
Layout: Brian Smallshaw Membership Application Volunteer Opportunities
Youth (Under 16) 1 yr @ $15 _ We have a Volunteer Application Form
Board of Directors:
Samantha Beare (Treasurer) Senior or Low-Income: 1 yr @ $20 _ 3 yr @ $60 _ that best describes areas you wish to
Maureen Bendick Regular Single 1 yr @ $25 _ 3 yr @ $75 _ help in. For now, which areas interest
Nigel Denyer Regular Family 1 yr @ $35 _ 3 yr @ $105 _ you? Please check off:
Charles Dorworth
Jean Gelwicks (Secretary) Group/School 1 yr @ $35 _ 3 yr @ $105 _ r Office Work
Ashley Hilliard (Vice-president) Business 1 yr @ $55 _ 3 yr @ $165 _ r Landowner Contact
Maxine Leichter r Information Table at events
Steve Leichter
Deborah Miller Name: _ ______________________________________ r Education Events
Linda Quiring Address: _ ____________________________________ r Eco-Home Tour
Brian Smallshaw _ ____________________________________________ r Information Table at SSI Fall Fair/
Ruth Tarasoff
Bob Weeden (President) Postal Code: __________________________________ Craft Fairs
Doug Wilkins Phone:_ ______________________________________ r Joining a SSIC Committee (Land
Email:________________________________________ Restoration & Management,
The Salt Spring Island
Conservancy Fundraising, Covenants,
#201 Upper Ganges Centre, r Please send me the Acorn via e-mail. Acquisitions, Education,
338 Lower Ganges Rd. (We NEVER give out member’s email addresses to anyone!) Stewardship, or Environmental
Mail: PO Box 722,
Salt Spring Island BC r This is a renewal for an existing membership Governance)
V8K 2W3 r Other: _______________________
Office hours : Tues/Wed/Thurs
10 am - 3 pm
Donations
Phone: (250) 538-0318 In addition to my membership fee above, I have enclosed
Fax: (250) 538-0319 my donation in the amount of:
Email:
$50 _ $100 _ $250 _ $500 _ $1000_ $2500 _ $5000 _
ssiconservancy@saltspring.com
Web site: Other ___________ Ganges PO Box 722
www.saltspringconservancy.ca Tax receipts will be provided for donations of $20 or more. Salt Spring Island BC
V8K 2W3

Printed on 18% recycled paper Spring 2007 15

Ganges PO Box 722
Salt Spring Island BC
40026325
V8K 2W3