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Greening the Games

AWARE to propose a wildlife refuge as a legacy of the 2010 Winter Games In the long list of legacies that Vancouver and Whistler are set to inherit as a result of the bid for the 2010 Winter Games, the Association of Whistler Area Residents for the E

AWARE to propose a wildlife refuge as a legacy of the 2010 Winter Games

In the long list of legacies that Vancouver and Whistler are set to inherit as a result of the bid for the 2010 Winter Games, the Association of Whistler Area Residents for the Environment (AWARE) would have liked to have seen something for the wildlife.

"If this is supposed to be the most environmentally progressive Games of all time, we were wondering where is the real environmental legacy in all of this? Where is the green space?" asked AWARE director Eckhard Zeidler.

Early on AWARE noted that virtually all of the sustainable legacies proposed for Whistler in the Vancouver 2010 Bid package were limited to environmentally-friendly buildings. Projects included a new ice rink and entertainment centre in Whistler, an upgrade to the Whistler Conference Centre, an athletes village, a sliding centre on Blackcomb Mountain, a Nordic centre in the Callaghan Valley, a First Nations golf course in the Callaghan, and a land bank for employee housing that could one day house up to 8,000 residents.

"To us it looks like a lot of houses, a lot of development. It doesn’t look like anything we would call a green legacy," said Zeidler.

To rectify the situation, AWARE decided to table its own ideas for an environmental legacy.

At their monthly meeting on June 5, AWARE presented a proposal for an Olympic Wildlife Refuge in the upper reaches of the Soo Valley.

If Vancouver’s bid is successful on July 2, AWARE will champion the proposal at the municipal, provincial and federal level, as well as the ongoing Sea to Sky Land and Resource Management Plan (LRMP) process.

The goal is to protect a substantial area to off-set the various Olympic developments planned for the neighbouring Callaghan Valley, keeping the upper Soo Valley unlogged, unroaded, and suitable for wildlife.

"If even half of the projects proposed for the Callaghan come to pass, we are going to see a sizeable amount of development up there. The question is, what are we doing to mitigate the wildlife situation? There could be a lot of people in the Callaghan, which is going to have a lot of impact on wildlife. Do we care if they have space?" asked Zeidler.

The idea that the group settled on, under the direction of Zeidler, was a 6,471 hectare Olympic Wildlife Refuge. It will connect to the existing Callaghan Valley Provincial Park over a low mountain ridge that divides the two valleys.

Using government reports, aerial photos and local knowledge to build their case, AWARE determined that the Soo Valley is currently home to moose and goats, as well as reclusive birds of prey like the goshawk and spotted owl.

They also found a study that suggested that the area has a high linkage potential for migrating grizzly bears, of which there have been unconfirmed sightings in the Callaghan Valley.

The slogan for the proposal is "Simply put, if we want to save species, we have to save spaces for them."

Another point in favour of the Olympic Wildlife Refuge is the fact that the area has limited value for resource extraction. Of the 6,471 hectares proposed for the area, only 493 hectares are suitable for timber harvesting. The majority of the area, some 4,576 hectares is rock, ice, marshland and meadows. Other large sections are considered non-operable forest because the trees are too small, or have low commercial value.

Richmond Plywood, which holds the sole timber harvesting tenure for the upper Soo Valley, will have to compensated, Zeidler acknowledges. Still, he believes there are other viable options in the area for the company’s timber harvesting operations, and points out that the Wildlife Refuge only decreases the Soo Timber Supply Area’s timber harvesting landbase by 0.42 per cent.

There are currently no mining claims in the entire valley, and because there are no roads past the lower part of the valley, there is no motorized recreation. Snowmobile access to the Pemberton Ice Cap is through the lower part of the Soo Valley and existing logging roads.

"(The upper Soo) is this really great, completely untouched valley within a valley. Almost nobody goes up there, it’s completely unroaded, and it’s only a short drive from Whistler," said Zeidler. "I urge everyone to just get out there to see it for themselves, and see how quiet it is up there. You usually have to go a lot farther than that to get that feeling of isolation."

More than 70 copies of the proposal, including maps and background information on the Soo Valley, have been sent out to members of all levels of government, First Nations, and members of the Vancouver 2010 Bid Corporation.

Although the Vancouver 2010 Bid Corporation has been made aware of the proposal, it was too late to include it as part of the bid package.

According to Maureen Douglas, the director of community relations for the bid corp., the bid package is a done deal with backing from all three levels of government and corporate sponsorships. Adding an Olympic Wildlife Refuge (OWR) at this point without the backing of all of the bid partners would be a problem.

That said, she acknowledged that there was definitely room in the bid committee for a proposal like AWARE’s.

"In the bid committee, we don’t feel we have as tangible of an environmental legacy as we would have liked," she said.

While it’s too late to include the OWR as a formal component of the bid, Zeidler says it’s something that members of the Vancouver 2010 bid can keep in their back pocket as they head to Prague this summer for the International Olympic Committee vote.

"We feel that this proposal will strengthen the bid for the Olympics," said Zeidler.

The Lillehammer Winter Olympics in 1994 were the first Games to really embrace environmental principles, setting a standard for future bids. In 1995, the International Olympic Committee adopted amendments to the Olympic Charter that made the environment a third pillar of the Games, alongside sport and culture. Environmental planning is now a key component of any successful bid.

Although the provincial government has made it clear that it won’t create any more protected areas through the ongoing Sea to Sky Land and Resource Management Plan process, Zeidler is quick to point out that the proposal is not suggesting the creation of a new park.

AWARE believes the area could be open for some forms commercial non-motorized recreation and ecotourism. Ecotourism, said Zeidler, is the fastest growing segment of B.C.’s tourism industry.

So what are the proposal’s chances? That depends on how it is received and promoted by government and the bid corp., which AWARE has worked with in good faith as part of the bid process.

Ultimately, the decision will be made at the LRMP table, but, according to Zeidler, "Our status at the LRMP table only gets stronger if the bid committee takes this plan to the provincial government and says this is a good thing."

AWARE is in a good position to table the proposal as the only environmental group still engaged in the Vancouver 2010 bid.

Early in the bid process, environmental groups like the David Suzuki Foundation and the Sierra Club decided to step away from the bid. Although they were not thrilled with some of the developments in the Vancouver 2010 Bid Book, AWARE decided to stay involved. As a group they recognized that the bid process and possibly the Olympics were proceeding with or without them, and the best way to secure environmental legacies and push sustainable practices is from the inside.

For the past three years AWARE members have sat on Olympic working groups for the Callaghan Valley development, housing, transportation and the environment.

"Early on we struck on the theme that there was a tremendous opportunity for our small group to leverage our position into a green legacy of some sort," explains AWARE director Brad Kasselman, who chairs the group’s Olympic Bid Committee. "We decided to take the high road. If (the Olympics) become a reality, it’s a reality we have to deal with as a group and a community."

If the bid is unsuccessful in July, AWARE will continue to fight for the proposal in some form at the Sea to Sky LRMP table, said Zeidler. The LRMP process is scheduled to wrap up this fall.

To view the complete proposal, including maps and photographs, visit AWARE’s Web site at www.awarewhistler.org.