Metro Vancouver Ecological Plan to Save At-Risk Plant and Animal Species

Metro Vancouver has done a fantastic job of working with citizens across 22 municipalities, through events and forums, to manage growth, development, and sustainability for the region.  Their efforts to save 112 species of at-risk plants and animal species in parklands and ecologically important areas should be commended.

I am hopeful that the B.C. government, municipal governments, and other agencies will act in order to protect the region’s ecological health.  A Metro Vancouver report, released earlier this year, stated that “the district’s coastal location, climate and varied physical geography contains a rich variety of ecosystems [having] specific value in terms of human ecology and contribute to the economic prosperity and overall quality of life in the region”.

However, the Liberal provincial government’s Pacific Gateway Project runs counter to the region’s sustainability plan, the Livable Region Strategic Plan, adopted in 1996.  Their plan is to expand Highway 1 and pave it through farmland and Burns Bog — a massive peat bog and carbon sink — to increase vehicle traffic, spewing carbon monoxide.

Read:

*  “Metro Vancouver Makes Plans to Save At-Risk Plant and Animal Species“
    — by Gerry Bellett, The Vancouver Sun (April 27, 2009)
    http://www.vancouversun.com/Technology/Metro+Vancouver+makes+plans+save+risk+plant+animal+species/1539548/story.html

*  ‘Livable Region Strategic Plan‘
   — Metro Vancouver’s regional growth strategy
   http://www.metrovancouver.org/planning/development/strategy/Pages/LivableRegionStrategicPlan.aspx

*  information on the Pacific Gateway Project and the Livable Region Coalition,
   a coalition of citizens and sustainable transportation advocates dedicated to the
   Livable Region Strategic Plan and sustainable transportation
   http://www.livableregion.ca/

*  information on Burns Bog by the Burns Bog Conservation Society
   http://www.burnsbog.org/index.shtml

*  “Critics Say Premier Gordon Campbell is Wrong on Gateway Program“
    — by Mathew Burrows, The Georgia Straight (April 16, 2009)
    http://www.straight.com/article-214392/critics-say-premier-wrong-gateway 

*  “Progress without Brakes: Monster Road in Delta Runs Over Local Rights“
    — by Rafe Mair, The Tyee (June 4, 2007)
    http://thetyee.ca/Views/2007/06/04/Progress/

*  “Gateway Opposition Grows“
    — by Mathew Burrows, The Georgia Straight (April 5, 2007)
    http://www.straight.com/article-82905/gateway-opposition-grows

*  “Greenwashing Gateway“
    — by Paul Keeling and Christopher Barrington-Leigh, The Tyee (March 19, 2007)
    http://thetyee.ca/Views/2007/03/19/GreenwashingGateway/

*  information on B.C.’s agricultural land by Smart Growth BC
   http://www.smartgrowth.bc.ca/AboutUs/Issues/AgriculturalLand/tabid/111/Default.aspx

*  “Pressure Builds on Agricultural Land Reserve“
    — by Pieta Woolley, The Georgia Straight (December 30, 2008)
    http://www.straight.com/article-177711/pressure-builds-farmland

*  “BC Farmland Reserve Blocks Sprawl“
    — by Shane Simpson, Alternatives Journal (Summer 2003)
    http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb6685/is_3_29/ai_n29028067/

*  “Lost Food Security: A Gateway to What?“
    — by the Western Canada Wilderness Committee
    http://gatewaytowhat.org/node/10