No nuts at Halloween
For Whistler's peanut allergic children Halloween is more then
scary, it can be deadly.
Please consider choosing peanut-free candy when donating to
Halloween events this year.
Thank you to the parents and local schools for their support in
keeping our children safe.
Thank you to Whistler-Blackcomb for a peanut free Whister Kids
program.
You are lifesavers!
Michelle Williamson
Whistler
Many hands make great soup!
The Alta Lake School would like to thank all the Whistler
restaurants and businesses who helped make this year's annual Harvest Soup
Contest the most delicious one yet! The outstanding soup lineup included The
Dubh Linn Gate Irish Pub's "Irish Clam Chowder", Thai One On's yummy
"Tom Yum", The Fairmont Chateau's "Ginger Pumpkin with a Chai
Infusion", The Beet Root's "Sweet Thai Chili Corn with
Cilantro". The winner of the most popular soup was chef Neil Kearns, from
Quattro at Whistler's, "Roasted Butternut Squash with a Lillooet Honey
Creme Fraiche". Marketplace IGA supplied the fresh rolls and Slopeside
Supply donated spoons for all.
Thank you to everyone who came out on the beautiful
Thanksgiving afternoon to eat, serve and help with set-up and clean-up. In
three hours just over 400 bowls of soup were served. It was especially pleasing
to hear from so many people how the event has become a part of their family's
Thanksgiving tradition.
Hope to see you all again next year!
Peggy Vogler
The Alta Lake School
Fish group
wraps up
The Whistler
Fisheries Stewardship Group is wrapping up after another fantastic season. We
would like to thank all of our volunteers and supporters who helped make this
year a success, including The Whistler Blackcomb EnviroFund and the American
Friends of Whistler for funding our instream work projects and the Whistler
Blackcomb Habitat Improvement Team without whom we would not be able to carry
our projects out; our many sponsors and supporters of our annual Rivers Day
celebration, the Resort Municipality of Whistler for lending their time and
expertise to our habitat improvements on the River of Golden Dreams, Pique
Newsmagazine and Whistler Question for covering our news articles, and finally,
our many dedicated volunteers who have helped make the Whistler Fisheries
Stewardship Group great. Thanks for a great season, and see you next year.
Betty
Rebellato
Whistler Fisheries Stewardship Group
Draw the line now
I have a challenge for you and the community. The challenge will go against human nature, especially for those of us who have lived in Whistler for the last 20-odd years. The norm has been rapid development and change. Go, go! More, more!
This challenge, if taken, will create the most subtle, yet powerful and economically avant-guarde legacy of great importance to our children, ourselves and the world. This legacy is not another building or a bigger transit system. It’s a line.
Draw the line here in the Callaghan Valley and let the grizzly bear be. It is a line that we have been given the responsibility to draw or not draw.
The challenge is to do nothing, not to put in more trails or any other human development that will encroach on the Callaghan grizzly bear habitat. Show our children and the world that we take the stewardship of our “neck of the woods” seriously. That we will take the responsibility of co-existing, by keeping the grizzly habitat, a great gift, as far south as possible. Keep them from finding other existing pristine wilderness than their homes now in the Callaghan Valley.
Leanne Niewerth
Whistler
Thank you Whistler and Pemberton!
Over the summer I held two stretch classes, a.k.a. "Get Bent" fundraisers, in Whistler and Pemberton to support Cardio for Cancer, an annual event which raised funds for Toronto's Sunnybrook Hospital this year.
Thanks to the very generous support of the Pemberton Community Centre, Meadow Park Sport Centre, Body Storm, Whistler Gymnastics, and all my friends and clients, Cardio For Cancer was able to raise over $40,000 on Sept. 24th for research and new equipment at Sunnybrook Hospital.
Thank you all so very much for contributing to this very worthy cause.
Shanon McMillan
Pemberton
Give Steelhead a chance
This letter was addressed to Environment Minister Barry
Penner. A copy was forwarded to Pique.
I am writing to express my concern over the plan to not release
all of the Steelhead smolts that were captured from last year’s brood collection
as part of the Steelhead Recovery Plan from the CN Rail spill.
I was informed by Greg Wilson, the Region 2 Steelhead
Biologist, at our most recent Squamish to Lillooet Sportfish Advisory
Committee that the Ministry of the Environment now has 35,000 to 37,000
Steelhead fry at the Abbottsford hatchery but plan to only raise 20,000 to
smolts to release in the Cheakamus River.
I am very concerned that given the severity of the CN spill and
its enormous impact on Cheakamus Steelhead that MoE should be using all of the
fry to raise to smolts for release in the Cheakamus River. You also have to
factor other severe impacts that have occurred on this same Steelhead brood
year, including the 2003 flood and the recent oil spill. It would be very
risky not to raise all 37,000 Steelhead fry to smolts and release them in the
Cheakamus River.
The risk of residualization of Steelhead smolts is low but as
Dr. Marc Labelle (who conducted the independent review ordered by Minister
Penner) told me, you can virtually ensure all smolts that are released in the
Cheakamus River migrate out to the ocean and avoid any kind of residulization.
His idea was to use one of the side channels that feed into the Cheakamus River
at the North Vancouver Outdoor School. Either the MyKiss channel or Big
Garbuska channel would be ideal release sites. By fencing the channel you
could remove any residual smolts before they enter the main stem.
Recent years have seen very poor ocean conditions for Steelhead
smolt survival and their return as adults. It’s not known how many
Steelhead adults will return from the released Steelhead smolts. It
exposes the Steelhead population to a much greater risk to only use 20,000 of
the possible 35,000 to 37,000 Steelhead smolts. If ocean conditions
continue, with the current trend of low ocean survival, we could end up with
very few returning hatchery adult Steelhead. This could spell disaster as
we already know that the CN spill killed off 90 per cent of 3 year classes of
future wild adult Steelhead.
The more sensible approach to releasing the Steelhead smolts
would be to use the full 35,000 to 37,000 smolts. If in three or four
years time swim counts and angler surveys on the Cheakamus indicate a high
abundance of hatchery adult Steelhead MoE can then remove some of the marked
hatchery Steelhead by angling or netting them. If MoE does not release the full
35,000 to 37,000 Steelhead smolts and only does 20,000 we have no chance to
gain back these valuable returning adult Steelhead at a time of critically low
returns.
I commend your ministry for undertaking the brood capture last
spring. I hope that the Cheakamus River will see the maximum benefit from
this program.
I look forward to hearing from you in the very near future as
this is a time sensitive issue.
Dave Brown
Vice-Chair Squamish to Lillooet Sportfish Advisory Committee
Whistler
Fungus festival fulfilling
Thanks to all the volunteers and participants who made the
Fungus Among Us mushroom festival so enjoyable.
Ophra Buckman cooked up a storm and everyone left with smiles on
their faces and fungally-full bellies. Our presenters and walk leaders did
yeoman duty scaring up a huge variety of mushrooms (65 species in all,
including 29 new ones!) in spite of the dry year. Lynn and Dennis at Millennium
Place and volunteers from the Naturalists did a great job organizing things.
Thanks to Nesters for the wild mushrooms and other supplies
used in the cooking display, and also to the CFOW, AWARE, and Whistler Resort
and Club for their ongoing support of Whistler Naturalists' events.
We hope everyone will block off time on their calendars for
next year's event, again scheduled for the weekend after Thanksgiving.
Bob Brett
Whistler Naturalists
