A-Peace-iation Night - Thursday, Feb. 5.

It's another A-Peace-iation Night Coffee House!

Thursday, February 5 at 7 p.m.
Whole Wheat & Honey Café
(corner of 100 Street and 100 Avenue, Fort St. John)

With special guest: Wayne Sawchuk!
Wayne is a long-time logger (skidder owner/operator), guide, trapper, sawmill worker, contractor, and wilderness advocate. He is a lifetime resident of northern British Columbia. Wayne has made numerous pack horse trips in the northern BC wilderness up to 85 days, and he owns a wilderness trapline 100 km south of Muncho Lake, BC.

Sparked by logging plans in the Mount Lemoray Pine Pass wilderness area, Wayne began working as a volunteer in environmental issues in 1990. In January 1993, he became a full-time conservation representative, and since 1998, Wayne has been self-employed as a conservationist.

During the past 15 years, Wayne has been active in grassroots networking among environmental, outfitting, trapping, conservation, First Nations, and other interests. He has also particpated in land use planning processes, consultation processes, the development of a Protected Areas Strategy, as well as forestry and natural gas exploration issues.

You can read more about Wayne Sawchuk and his activities at the following site:

Wayne Sawchuk

A-Peace-iation Nights create an opportunity for people to come together and share stories and thoughts, or songs, poetry, photos (or whatever you want!) about the Peace River and its valley. Anyone is welcome to bring something to share, or to just come and listen and chat with people.

Thanks once again to Whole Wheat & Honey Café for the generous use of their wonderful venue!

Need more info? E-mail: cusp-bc@telus.net or phone: 250-785-1490

DON'T MISS OUT! COME JOIN THE FUN!!!

Mark this NEAT event on your calendar!

Thursday, January 29th at 7:00 p.m.

at Whole Wheat & Honey Café (corner of 100 St. and 100 Ave., Fort St. John)

There will be a free film screening and discussion. This night is generously being sponsored by Urban Systems.

This month we’ll be watching the acclaimed documentary The End of Suburbia. This film examines the (North) American Dream—-specifically its expression in the form of suburbia—-and underlines just how unsustainable this form of growth is. As one of the film’s contributors states, "We’re literally stuck up a cul-de-sac in a cement SUV without a fill-up."

This film identifies the need for immediate action—-on individual and collective levels-—to help build sustainable communities.

Fort St. John has just undergone a sustainable neighbourhood planning process, so now is the perfect time to start dialoguing as a community on this issue.

Bring your questions, ideas and knowledge. NEAT doesn’t pretend to be the expert on all things carbon-related, so we’re counting on our community to help us fill the gaps.

We hope that the ideas and questions generated at this NEAT Night will be fuel for a follow-up event where we can start to identify some workable, regionally relevant solutions. Please pass this notice along to anyone who might be interested or have knowledge in re-localizing our community’s food, money, culture, energy, governance, media, and more.

For more information, contact:

Sally Emory
Executive Director
Northern Environmental Action Team
10027-100 Street
Fort St. John, BC V1J 3Y5
P. 250-785-6329

Endangered Rivers List

Thanks to PVEA (Peace Valley Environment Association) for the following item.

The nomination process for the new 2009 Endangered Rivers List is now commencing and will run through March 7. The new list will be released in late March or early April, 2009.

Nominations can be sent directly to Mark Angelo (mark_angelo@bcit.ca). The list always receives a great amount of media coverage and helps to increase public awareness while also profiling important river issues.

The list is also based on feedback from tens of thousands of British Columbians.

On the 2008 list, the Peace River was in fourth place, particularly because of renewed interest in Site C. Last year's endangered rivers backgrounder is available at www.orcbc.ca/

Brohm Creek News Feature on You Tube

And in case you missed a recent broadcast on Global News concerning the steelhead fishery on Brohm Creek near Squamish, check out this You Tube link for a quick-but-informative look at development concerns there...
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2zT3N7-wY4&feature=email).

Site C's Impact on Humans

Besides the impact on wildlife (see previous posts), the proposed Site C dam would have many detrimental effects on people.

First Nations
Much of the land to be flooded is under treaty, and all of it is traditional territory of First Nations people. Treaty 8, signed in 1899, promises the aboriginal people that the land given to them will be theirs forever "for as long as the sun shines, the grass grows and the rivers flow." (For more on this, see Steve Roe's upcoming article in the Northeast News, Jan. 21.) Flooding this land would be a breach of the hope that they were given. With pressure being placed on them by various types of industry and development, the loss of the river and valley would be devastating to their culture.

Loss of agricultural land
Site C would flood high quality farmland, an increasingly valued natural resource. The Peace River Valley is home to the only Class One agricultural land in northern B.C., and much of the land within the proposed flood zone is Class One and Two. The loss of this land would threaten food security in the north of the province, where people would be forced to rely mostly on food shipped from distant places.

Watch for more on the human impacts . . .

Get the Message Out in as Many Ways as Possible!

From the Northeast News, Dec. 17

Click on the image to make it larger.

Open House at MLA Richard Neufeld's Office

Richard Neufeld is having an Open House at his Fort St. John Constituency Office from 4:00 p.m. until 7:00 p.m. on Friday, December 19, 2008.

This is a good opportunity to voice any concerns or opposition towards the proposed Peace River Site C Hydro Project.

Mr. Neufeld's constituency office is located at the corner of 100th Street and 101 Avenue. The address is 10104 - 100 Street.