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Built-in sustainability Why are we losing sleep and wasting newsprint on "Sustainability?" We will always have sustainability. It's called Vancouver, Seattle and Big Daddy.

Built-in sustainability

Why are we losing sleep and wasting newsprint on "Sustainability?"

We will always have sustainability. It's called Vancouver, Seattle and Big Daddy. All will perpetuate the winter ski and boarding, and summer golf/outdoor season.

What mountain in North America has a combined population of 4 million people who can be on site within 1.5 to 5 hours? A town with the largest per capita property tax base in North America.

And where can you find a Big Daddy who builds staff housing, valley trails and paved roads… a Big Daddy who says "we will work closely with our contractors, the Ministry of Highways and the Resort Municipality of Whistler to minimize disruptions to the public."

In case you haven't determined Big Daddy's identity… his real name is Intrawest. And although he's running out of cheap crown land to develop, he has major income from lift operators, equipment sales and other divisions to keep him around for a while. Fortunately, Big Daddy is not afraid to spend money to make money on quality construction, roads, a modicum of employee housing and promotion.

And if there is another way to fatten the bottom line, and it's called sustainability, Big Daddy will be there.

In addition to those three legs that support the Whistler stool, we have another sustainability that none of the other three can take away. The opportunity to jump on a bike, go for a hike, take a swim, or skate on a lake are there for the asking. And they're free. Whistler will always be the King of the Hill when it comes to world skiing events, world snowboarding and world mountain biking.

So let’s not lose any more sleep about sustainability. Let's concentrate on housing for those who wish to stay around and raise a family. (Employee Housing is for singles and couples.) And if they do get a house, let's fight for fairness in property taxes. Those are the last two pieces in the Sustainability Puzzle.

Al Eaton

Whistler

 

So long to a Whistler icon

This week, one of Whistler’s most colourful characters is moving east to Toronto (or the TdotOdot as she calls it). The gal is none other than Kristen Robinson, or KR as she is known to most.

She did it all (and then some) during her 11 years in Whistler. She started out filling the sniffle stations at Blackcomb and moved on to become the voice on the snowphone. She waitressed at Citta’s, the Longhorn, Settabello, Trattoria, Caminetto and the Delta. She travelled the Sea to Sky Highway as the Mountain FM Mountain Patroller, wrote the "Kristen’s Kronicles" social column in the Pique in the early days, was the weather fairy on Blackcomb TV, and worked on practically ever festival that would have her, from Winterstart to SkateSpace, Cornucopia, Alpine Concerts and the World Ski & Snowboard Festival. Starting off as a volunteer with the festival when it began in 1996, KR spent the past seven years building the music and outdoor concert series and events. She is most memorable as the chick on the mainstage usually in some flir shouting "Whistler, do you wanna rock?" KR was and remains a Whistler icon.

KR, you are always entertaining, ever inspiring and predictably dramatic. You have the most hilarious collection of verbiage (next to JAR), and you undoubtedly have the most eclectic wardrobe this town has and probably will ever experience. You are a great friend and co-worker and a talented producer. You are the rock in rock ’n’ roll, baby. And you will be missed by many.

One more thing is for sure... no one can ever take the Whistler out of KR or the KR out of Whistler.

Best of luck, Rockstar! We'll be standing by (with a cold Kootenay awaiting).

Shauna Hardy & Friends

Whistler

 

The view from here

Re: "See Thru Windows" Letter to the editor

As a resident of Whistler and the Manager of Whistler Transit, I agree with the concerns expressed in the Aug. 2, 2002 letter "See Thru Windows." It has unfortunately become a routine for the drivers each Monday morning to let me know, not whether or not a bus shelter has been damaged, but which one and how many windows have been broken.

Fulltime Whistler residents should be aware the damage is not limited to weekends, though particular shelters are far more likely to be damaged than others. The most frequently and severely damaged is the bus shelter at the base of Glacier Drive. The shelters at the intersection of Blackcomb Way and Nancy Greene Drive, and the Matterhorn Drive bus shelter are also vandalized quite often. I am not aware of a bus shelter, which has not at some point been vandalized.

Most of the damage is broken windows, which though costly, can be repaired fairly quickly. The graffiti is very difficult to remove and it is for that reason that Whistler has chosen bus shelter windows which it is possible to break (with quite a lot of force) but more difficult to deface.

I welcome any suggestions of how to decrease or eliminate damage to the Whistler bus shelters. Likewise, anyone with information regarding damage or vandalism to a bus shelter, please contact me directly at 604-938-0388.

Scott Pass

Manager

Whistler Transit Ltd.

 

Too far

This time they’ve gone too far!

On Aug. 2, Conservation Officers killed bear #4 in Whistler: a small 2 year old sub-adult accessing food scraps in a parkade. The reason: to protect officer safety. With all due respect, I have a great deal of difficulty believing this little bear could threaten the personal safety of two male adults. It’s just the same old standard rhetoric Conservation Officers are pre-programmed to deliver to the public. The bear was described to be snorting and blowing and at one point stood on its hind legs before continuing to eat the garbage. These behaviours are not aggressive and indicate the bear was behaving in a non-life-threatening manner.

A bear contained in a parkade is a perfect opportunity to apply negative conditioning and give the bear a clear message that his behaviour is inappropriate. In all likely hood, the young bear would have learned a lesson. However, alternative action was clearly not a consideration.

The Conservation Officer Service’s resistance to take part in the non-lethal program baffles the mind. Why tie one hand behind your back? Why wouldn’t you arm yourself with as many options as possible? The program doesn’t exclude the use of lethal force when necessary, but simply provides alternative tools to manage bears without always killing them.

For the past six years, the J.J. Whistler Bear Society has done their utmost to encourage a good, co-operative working relationship with the Conservation Officer Service. We have watched our p’s & q’s even when we adamantly disagreed with policy. It hasn’t gotten us anywhere!

Let me clarify our position: we firmly believe that humans and bears can coexist. We were a key player in developing a bear management plan for the community, which includes bear-proofing waste containment, educational programs, bylaw enforcement and non-lethal bear management. We continue to ensure that the initiatives therein are being carried out. We have implemented extensive educational programs to ensure that residents eliminate non-natural attractants in their backyards and behave in an appropriate manner when they encounter a bear. We believe in a proactive approach, but are aware that no matter how hard we all try, some situations will still arise where humans and bears are in conflict. When these situations arise, we encourage the use of non-lethal alternatives whenever possible.

We are very proud of the Whistler RCMP’s commitment to use minimal force to mitigate conflict situations when human safety is not at risk. The Conservation Officer Service, however, has failed us in that respect. They continue to kill bears that have in no way threatened human safety.

Negative conditioning is highly successful if it is applied more often than the bear obtaining a positive food reward. Since Conservation Officers don’t have the resources or manpower to deal with conflict resolution in this manner, the most cost effective alternative is chosen – eliminate the problem by killing the bear.

In fact, killing bears has proven to be an ineffective long term solution to resolving human-bear conflicts. Over 1,000 "problem" bears are killed each year in B.C. alone, yet the number of conflict situations is generally increasing. Killing the bear only provides a new habitat niche for another bear to move into. Bears will continue to occupy productive habitat. Teaching bears how to live with us, through negative conditioning, is the only hope we have of coexisting with minimal conflict. It is the most cost effective, economical long term solution.

Unless we’re prepared to kill every last bear in the province, we had better take a second look at alternative bear management strategies. Relocation has had very limited success. It is clear that killing is ineffective!

I do not agree with current Conservation Officer Service policy and am truly ashamed to live in a province whose government supports such an archaic policy with no scientific basis and doesn’t consider the advice of independent human/bear conflict specialists or professional biologists.

Sylvia Dolson

Executive Director

J.J. Whistler Bear Society

 

We’re not there yet

Re: New library to be one storey

On behalf of the boards of the Library and Museum, I thank the Pique Newsmagazine very much for your continuing coverage of our $10 million fundraising campaign to build our new Library/Museum & Archives building. Owing to a typographical error, the current total sits at $5.6 million, rather than the reverse, which would be better!

Anne Fenwick

Campaign Chair

 

Home to make housecalls

As one of the three political refugee's from America and as a botanist and a patient I only have one thing to say. Can I also get one of those cool mirrors on a headband to wear with my stethoscope?

If you will give me that and no Gestapo I can be there next week, and we have a couple of real MDs who would come with us also!

Would be nice to have a real home again as I am beginning to feel like a tumbleweed in the desert.

Steven Tuck, MS

Humboldt Research Institute