The Rural Divide, Part 2

by hanspetermeyer


I recently wrote about the so-called urban/rural divide, and the relative invisibility (or unsightliness) of rural/production to urban eyes. An end-of-summer drive up Vancouver Island reminded me that there's another kind of rural divide in BC these days. This divide, unfortunately, isn't going to be remedied by our new-found foodism and the kind of "change your mind" approaches I suggested in my earlier article.


The rural divide that quickly became evident as I drove north of Campbell River on Vancouver Island relates to things like:

• the dramatic changes in rural resource economies in the past 25 years;
• tech change and its impact on the number of men and women working;
• and the impact of amenity migration and tourism;
• the capacity for communities to re-imagine their futures.

Most rural areas in the province are hurting because of bad commodity markets. Every industry that once employed many workers now puts more money into the efficiencies of machinery. But some rural and small town areas have maintained jobs (even if siginficantly lower-paying) and economic activity because they're within reasonable commuting distance from urban centres OR because they are so attractive (climate, geography, environmental features generally) that people will invest the place even if it's not so easy to get to.


Living the life of Riley... coasting on amenity migration
I live in the Comox Valley. This used to be a forest industry community. Today, with the exception of Mike Hamilton's shop on the Dyke Road, and few pickup trucks around town, the industry is invisible. What's driving our economy today is our beautiful vistas, our pleasant and safe residential areas, recreational amenities and services that make us a retirement and tourism destination. It helps that the local airstrip is big and that WestJet has regular flights.

The Comox Valley isn't alone on the Island: from Tofino to Qualicum Beach, from Campbell River to Cobble Hill – "pretty" places are experiencing the dynamic: urban folk with enough cash or equity (and time to travel) to invest in "nice" places to visit or live, without necessarily having to worry about making a living in these places.


North of Campbell River...
As I drove out of Campbell River, however, things got a lot less pretty. I've been visiting Sayward since the late 70s. The recently completed road through to Port Hardy had meant that Kelsey Bay was no longer the southern terminus for the Prince Rupert. That was a relatively small setback: the town still hosted a couple of very big logging operations; people were building big houses; they were still clearing land and investing in farming; the commercial fishery was still thriving. In the late 70s the Sayward Valley was intimate, beautiful, prosperous. By some it was seen as a kind "Comox Valley North." Wetter, but agricultural, with a strong forest industry foundation. It was a place with a sense of future.




30 years haven't treated Sayward - or the rest of the north Island - very kindly. The forest industry jobs are largely gone, along with the most accessible and profitable big stands of first growth timber. The fishing industry is in the tank. People have, by and large, been pulling their investments out of the region. This became even more evident as we drove north.


The 95km Nimpkish Valley is the "largest watershed on Vancouver Island." It still boasts a logging railway, but 30 years ago the Nimpkish Valley was also home to a handful of  large logging camps, with attendant communities tacked on to them: Woss, Vernon, and Nimpkish.

Image by hanspetermeyer.ca via Flickr

Of the three, Woss still retains some presence. It's still a small town surrounded by the forest. But the industry doesn't need men the way it once did (it'll be another 25-50 years before the 2nd growth is harvested), and so young families aren't attracted to the place. The Woss school only just made the minimum number of students to stay open this coming year. As for Vernon and Nimpkish, over the years they've shrunk to chainlink compounds with an office and machine shops and a fleet of pickup trucks at the centre.

Further north, Port McNeill still hosts two "motor hotels," a handful of restaurants, a clutch of retail and commercial outlets. There is still enough logging going on that at least one house was being built in the local subdivision. Evidently it remains a place with enough frontier energy and enough promise that some people are prepared to sink roots.

But that bit of hopefulness evaporated as I drove into Port Hardy. With the end of mining and the shift in the fishing industry, Port Hardy has been hit very hard. The waterfront I knew as thriving was now derelict. It was hard to imagine the distance between this harbour and the one's I'd only just left in Campbell River and Comox.

The north Island wasn't without it's bright spots. We did take in the reinvention of picturesque Telegraph Cove, from logging and fishing post to eco-tourist destination.

Visions of being the "next" Tofino

Surprisingly, a similar bright spot met us in Zeballos at the end of a long and rough logging road. It was a sunny day, not a cloud was in the sky... it's hard not to enjoy Zeballos' fjord-like setting, and it's streets and buildings dating from the 1930s. Fishing, mining, logging – once its reason for being, were being replaced by the promise of a new kind of tourism. The owners of the recently burned Zeballos Hotel were even re-investing, building a the new and imposing Post and Beam Lodge. While we ate some of the best ceviche I've tasted, a staffperson suggested that Zeballos was going to be "the next Tofino."

Does Zeballos have the kind of transportation linkages that even a relatively remote place like Tofino offers, ie. a paved road, needed to be that much of a draw? I don't know. What I do know is that that someone in Zeballos, like some folks in Telegraph Cove, has identified a new natural resource: it can capitalize on it's environment and its picturesque setting, and perhaps enjoy some limited kind of amenity migration - even if that's only of the short term tourist variety, to sustain itself.

The imaginary divide
And having said that, it seems there's another rural divide. Not just between those communities that are part of the current amenity migration/tourism economy (on Vancouver Island, communities south of Campbell River on the east coast and Tofino on the west coast), but between those that are already re-imagining themselves as part of a post-resource-extraction economy and those that are still firmly inside the remnant coastal forest industry. The trees and ocean are what bring us our wealth in our coastal communities. For the post-extraction communities, the wealth now comes from hosting visitors or attracting new residents, investors, and retirees who come to see the trees still standing, the whales and fishes still swimming - or caught and released to swim again. It's a different way of looking at the woods we live in.

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Stewardship and Conservation Collaborations Deliver Performance

by Tim Pringle, Director of Special Programs, Real Estate Foundation of BC

editor's note:

Tim Pringle has been working with stewardship and conservation groups for over 20 years, through is work at the Real Estate Foundation of BC. This article draws observations from Tim's experiences, and focuses on those organizations and collaborations whose work influences policy makers and planning processes at the regional and local levels. As Tim says, "This critical work helps the public, governments, land owners and developers to appreciate the relationships among green infrastructure, ecological health and community well being."

Context

The wealth and well-being of communities is tied to the land and surrounding ecology. It should be no surprise that that 30% of the current statues (164 of 538 acts, not counting attached regulations and schedules) comprising BC Law substantially address these resources. This reality describes the commons values of BC residents in the lands of the province. Having credible stewardship and conservation expertise available to measure the condition of ecological and environmental values in the local government context as well as more widely, supports holistic approaches to planning for use and conservation of lands. This intelligence exposes the weaknesses of historic land use strategies, which tended to discount the value of natural capital.

Introduction: advocacy, but also expertise

The stewardship and conservation (S&C) sector in British Columbia is known for its strong roots in advocacy – the birthplace of Greenpeace, conservation in the Carmanah Valley, and the recent success of the Rainforest Solutions Project. This results of this work protects some of BC’s unique and ancient ecological systems. The sector also comprises another leading group of organizations that have proven their beneficial capacity to influence management of settlement change in the province. These S&C practitioners work in the local, regional and senior government contexts. Their research, mapping, public and professional education, as well as other services wisely support policy and planning to address ecological diversity concerns. In the last 20 years these organizations have become, in several regions, the primary source of expertise about regional and local ecological assets. What has supported this trend and what guidance about successful practices might be observed?

One reason the S&C sector’s expertise gains recognition is the commitment of conservancies and stewardship organizations to their values. As non-profit, usually charitable societies, their constitutions declare their primary values as does the history of their work. Their missions align with protection of public trust values concerning stewardship and conservation – subjects that often are on the minds of communities. There are a growing number of successful projects, among many. For instance, Darkwoods at Kootenay lake, the “largest single private conservation project in Canada” (see Kingfisher, Vol. 18), was realized by national heavy weight, the Nature Conservancy (BC) and regional collaborators working with an owner favouring conservation of bio-diversity.

A second defining characteristic of the sector’s expertise stems from the collaborations and networks that these organizations often build to carry out their work. Among the most influential regional groupings are organizations such as the South Okanagan Similkameen Conservation Program, the Grasslands Conservation Council of BC, the Okanagan Collaborative Conservation Program, and provincially, the Land Trust Alliance of BC among others which provide educational, leadership, convening, and research services. These alliances can produce powerful results as evidenced by the role of the East Kootenay Conservation Program when it spearheaded the initiative that resulted in the Columbia Valley becoming the first community in Canada to adopt a “comprehensive conservation fund tax” (Dec. 2008). BC’s largest membership conservation organization, The Land Conservancy, collaborates widely and constantly pursues innovation. Currently TLC is exploring the use of numerous financial incentives to encourage community agriculture.

Successes built on a practice of forging regional collaborations

These commitments to mission and successful forging of multi-partner initiatives with innovative strategies make the regional collaborations unique. Their qualities have attracted a constellation of funders. Federal and provincial ministry programs, foundations based in BC and elsewhere, local governments and businesses have provided financial support. Very importantly, the funding has been accessible over a number of years, although the amounts rarely have been enough to keep up with the growing need. Over the years funders have conferred occasionally about the importance of the work carried out by the regional collaborations. The repeated funding commitments confirm that the funders have valued the services delivered.

These groupings focus on regional biodiversity and work with all relevant land practitioners to fulfill their mandates. The Real Estate Foundation has funded six S&C collaborations, some for several years, to support their development and services for regional communities. This long-term involvement has made clear a third key strength that they have. Like most of their colleagues in the S&C sector, the regional collaborations focus on outcomes. This is the performance-based bias and it can be a very effective fit in the local government context. .

In contrast, local government agencies carry out their operations with a “regulatory bias,” which stems in part from specific statutory responsibilities under the Local Government Act, Community Charter, and other laws. At the same time, local governments also see the advantages of employing performance-based approaches to deliver their mandates. With their attention on outcomes, the regionally-focused S&C collaborations can work effectively with local governments that may be seeking expertise to support planning fro management of ecological assets in the broader land use context.

Nonetheless, a number of local governments engage in performance-based, creative strategies to manage use and conservation of land. The City of Victoria accessed internal leadership to encourage the Dockside Green project and reach a planning and management process that served both the developer interests and those of the city. The City of Langford has taken a performance-based path with several development areas. The District of Maple Ridge engaged in a “Smart Growth on the Ground” planning charrette program to achieve a community-supported plan for redevelopment of the urban core. The plan contains a number of performance-based criteria.

Inevitably, any performance-based negotiation will differ considerably from what has been the usual development review process. Risk increases because the number of actors tends to be greater; outcomes have to be mutually defined; all parties need to access expertise to support their case in the negotiations. And, some subject matter may be unfamiliar to one or more of the actors involved.

Rewards increase as well. The Province of BC has espoused a “green cities” agenda, including the "Climate Change Action Charter" which requires local governments to commit to plans to reduce the carbon footprint of operations. In response to these and other indicators, cities and towns want to accommodate green buildings – including LEED certified; they value “design with nature” strategies and local/urban agriculture projects now capture their attention.

A growing appetite for local government - S&C partnerships

Increasingly, local governments in particular welcome joint ventures where S&C organizations may be cooperating agents to help carry out research, provide public and professional education, and work on new or revised policy concerning protection of the ecology. The regional collaborations in particular have considerable ability to enable and support performance-based strategies in the local government context of managing development and conservation of land. Certainly this is a trend that merits support.

There are several examples of effective joint-venture strategies employed by regional stewardship and conservation partnerships. The South Okanagan Similkameen Conservation Program, which has 50 partners, is a collaborator with six local governments to enhance planning services concerning the regions ecological values. Three of the government partners contribute to the funding that provides a shared “environmental” planner and supports a roundtable for implementation of performance-based strategies.

In the Comox Valley on Vancouver Island, the Comox Valley Land Trust (CVLT) and its partners in the sustainability Centre have researched and published the report Nature Without Borders. The quality of the research supporting the report’s recommendations has enabled the CVLT to act in an expert capacity in the Regional Growth Strategy (RGS) process. Presently, the local governments in the Valley are pursing a joint implementation strategy concerning the RGS. The CVT is a collaborator in this process as well.

As a final example, Wildsight based in the East Kootenay region (reported in Kingfisher Vol. 19), offers a five-year success story in the “Healthy Lake Windermere” Project. This venture includes science and development of methodology to support community stewardship of this important recreation lake in the Columbia Valley. Other regions now use the Lake Windermere model to engage stewardship practices concerning lakes providing key ecological and recreational values.

These critical partnerships demonstrate the need for collaboration between local governments, use of performance-based approaches in planning for management of the built environment and protection of the natural areas with their ecological goods and service. They provide an effective fit with local and regional government needs in the context of community and regional planning.

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©Real Estate Foundation of BC / 2010. We encourage the reproduction of articles on this website non-profit educational purposes. Please notify the Foundation and the author of all reproductions, including in-house uses.

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Whistler's Naomi Devine talks about her Climate Project training

image courtesy of ©SayZu

Who is Naomi Devine, and why is she of interest to CITinfoResource readers? Here's what her bio at the BC sustainable Energy Association says about her:

"Naomi is a climate change and sustainability policy advisor … responsible for overseeing the Whistler2020 community process and working on Whistler’s Official Community Plan review. In her previous position as the Sustainability Coordinator for the Resort Municipality of Whistler (RMOW) she worked on the creation of the Carbon Neutral Operations Plan, and created the Climate Action Innovation Fund, which directs carbon tax money into commercial and municipal emissions reductions projects. Prior to this, Naomi worked in the University of Victoria’s office of Campus Planning and Sustainability, creating the university's first sustainability policy and action plan.

"In November 2007, Naomi was appointed to British Columbia's Climate Action Team, which offers the Government’s Cabinet Committee on Climate Action policy advice on measures to achieve legislated greenhouse gas reductions. She is a co-founder of Common Energy at the University of Victoria, an organization that works to move organizations 'beyond climate-neutral' and is a co-author of the report: Building on Progress: A Plan to move the University of Victoria Beyond Climate-Neutral. Naomi is currently a Director with the BC Sustainable Energy Association, and founding chair of the Victoria Chapter."


Naomi Devine is one of a handful of people in the province of BC dedicated to working on issues related to climate change and how small-to-medium sized communities can adapt to and mitigate the changes that are taking place.

In late June Naomi was on her way to Tennessee. She talked to hanspetermeyer about her trip to Nashville, Tennessee to train with Al Gore as part of the Climate Project. What's the Climate Project? From their site..."The Climate Project supports more than 3,000 diverse and dedicated volunteers worldwide who have been personally trained by former US Vice President and Nobel Laureate Al Gore to educate the public and to raise awareness about



What's next?
Now that Naomi has completed her training and returned to BC she's looking for opportunities to practice what she's learned: giving a version of the Al Gore "Inconvenient Truth" climate change presentation to communities in BC. She'll be wanting to connect the larger climate change picture to what's happening in our communties, in terms of the kinds of changes we'll be seeing, and also the kinds of climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies we're putting together.

If your community has gone through, or is about to start a sustainability planning process you might consider getting in touch with Naomi. She's a smart, dynamic, and passionate individual with lots to add to whatever sustainability conversation is happening in your community.

Following Naomi
One of the best ways to get a handle on who Naomi is and what she does is to follow her on Twitter - that will also give you a way to get in touch with her. She can also be reached via the Resort Municipality of Whistler.

©Real Estate Foundation of BC / 2010. We encourage the reproduction of articles on this website non-profit educational purposes. Please notify the Foundation and the author of all reproductions, including in-house uses.

Tim Pringle talks about the Organic Farming Institute of BC

In 2006 the Organic Farming Institute of BC received a large grant from the Real Estate Foundation of BC. Tim Pringle, currently Director of Special Programs at the Foundation, was Executive Director at the time. He talks to hanspetermeyer about the Foundation's reasoning behind it's investment in OFIBC and how soil health relates to larger land use and real estate concerns.

This is part of a series of podcasts on rural community issues sponsored by the Real Estate Foundation of BC through its Communities in Transition program. For more information visit the Foundation's website at REFBC.com.

©Real Estate Foundation of BC / 2010. We encourage the reproduction of articles on this website non-profit educational purposes. Please notify the Foundation and the author of all reproductions, including in-house uses.

Tim Pringle talks about Crown land and rural community interface issues (pt 2)

In June 2010 the town of Smithers, BC hosted a conference on Crown land and rural community interface issues. Tim Pringle attended the conference on behalf of the Real Estate Foundation of BC, as part of the Foundation's ongoing work with rural communities in BC. Tim talks with hanspetermeyer about the conference, the highlights, and the issues.













This is part of a series of podcasts on rural community issues sponsored by the Real Estate Foundation of BC through its Communities in Transition program. For more information visit the Foundation's website at REFBC.com.
©Real Estate Foundation of BC / 2010. We encourage the reproduction of articles on this website non-profit educational purposes. Please notify the Foundation and the author of all reproductions, including in-house uses.

Related articles …

• Gene Miller talks about Gaining Ground and Sustainability #2 (communitytransition.blogspot.com)
• Creating more effective rural economic development in bc (communitytransition.blogspot.com)

Kathy Bishop talks about water and leadership on Vancouver Island

Kathy Bishop is Curriculum Chair with Leadership BC Central Vancouver Island. Her organization hosted a dialogue on water and leadership in Nanaimo. She talks to CITinfoResource editor and manager hanspetermeyer about leadership, water, and why Leadership BC Central Vancouver Island has chosen water sustainability as the theme for its leadership dialogue series.

For more information about CAVI go to Convening for Action Vancouver Island (CAVI).

CITinfoResource is a program of the Real Estate Foundation of BC.

©Real Estate Foundation of BC / 2010.
We encourage the reproduction of articles on this website non-profit educational purposes. Please notify the Foundation and the author of all reproductions, including in-house uses.

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• MaureenLeBourdais talks about BC's Rural Summit (communitytransition.blogspot.com)
• Karin Kirkpatrick talks about changes at the Real Estate Foundation of BC (communitytransition.blogspot.com)

Anna Milner talks about planning in the South Okanagan-Similkameen region

Anna Milner is an environmental planner contracted through the South Okanagan-Similkameen Conservation Program (SOSCP) to provide planning services to small communities in the region. A unique partnership agreement between local governments, facilitated by SOSCP, and funded in part by a grant from the Real Estate Foundation of BC enables Anna to do planning work and "capacity building" in communities facing significant land use challenges. Without this partnership approach these communities would be unable to do imporant environmental and developmental assessment work in one of Canada's most sensitive ecosystems.


For more information about SOSCP visit www.soscp.org. CITinfoResource recently interviewed SOSCP coordinator Bryn White here. CITinfoResource also features Bryn's overview of Anna's project here.


©Real Estate Foundation of BC / 2010. We encourage the reproduction of articles on this website non-profit educational purposes. Please notify the Foundation and the author of all reproductions, including in-house uses.

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• Creating more effective rural economic development in bc (communitytransition.blogspot.com)
• Gene Miller talks about Gaining Ground and Sustainability #2 (communitytransition.blogspot.com)
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• Karin Kirkpatrick talks about changes at the Real Estate Foundation of BC (communitytransition.blogspot.com)

SOSCP – Building Capacity in the Region

by Bryn White


The South Okanagan-Similkameen Conservation Program (SOSCP) and community partners (Keremeos, Oliver, Summerland, Regional District Okanagan Similkameen) have worked collaboratively to establish the South Okanagan and Similkameen Local Government Ecological Standards and Practices Capacity Building Initiative. This is a collaboration is supported by the Real Estate Foundation of BC Communities in Transition Program. Phase I is underway. Here are the highlights:

• The SOSCP is a collaboration of organizations including senior governments, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and local governments that has increased the partnership level and engagement of rural/non-metro communities over the past few years on land use planning and conservation;
• Local governments are a "high priority" partner to work with because they have great influence over land use and conservation;
• SOSCP created a regional environmental planning table that brings together planners and resource people to learn, identify priority issues and needs for support, and a forum from which to advance sustainable land use planning;
• Our research and partnership development clearly pointed to the fact that there wasn't the capacity for communities to move forward on challenges around the use and conservation of land – including implementing and improving ecological standards and practices in their planning and land use decision making processes; 
• SOSCP and communities agreed that it was imperative that capacity be addressed to be able to advance sustainable land use practices that protect wildlife, healthy ecosystems and the goods and services they provide human communities.

Collaboration
SOSCP and communities established a collaborative approach to capacity building – they pooled exisiting funding resources and worked together to apply for external funds from Real Estate Foundation of BC CIT program, as well as from other sources such as the federal Habitat Stewardship Program (HSP). This enabled the establishment of a shared environmental planning contractor, that works within the communities to assist them in achieving their environmental planning objectives. In addition, there are other resource people and mentors that work to support that environmental planner. The SOSCP administers the contract and guides the workplan in concert with the communities according to their needs.

The environmental planner's work consists of:

• Creating consistent baseline information across the region to address ecological values. This includes ecosystem mapping, identification of environmentally sensitive areas, and in some cases, recognition of special features and hotspots.
• Providing leading edge information pertinent to land use bylaw provisions (official community plans), development permit areas (derived from ecosystem mapping) or other suitable mechanisms to protect ecosystem values.
• Establishing sources of ecological expertise for local governments engaged with the development community at the neighbourhood or site plan level, thus helping ensure recognition of sensitive ecosystems/ connective corridors in the planning approval process.

Interesting points

• This isn’t an approach widely applied – communities within regions rarely share resources;
• It is a challenging position for the environmental planner – three distinct communities with different needs and issues;
• Environmental planning is a skill set that is rare – it is imperative that there be a community of resource people/projects/examples from which to draw;
• Internal environmental planning expertise is absolutely necessary for communities – it is hoped that they will recognize this need and find a way to resource it in the future – hopefully collaboratively;
• It has increased the trust and strengthened the relationships between the conservation community (gov’t and non-govt) and local governments/development/private industry.

For more information about this project or the South Okanagan-Similkameen Conservation Partnership, please contact me directly.


Bryn White, ManagerSouth Okanagan Similkameen Conservation Program
102 Industrial Ave.
Penticton, BC V2A 7C8
Tel: (250) 490-8225
Fax: (250) 490-2231
Email: bryn.white (at) gov.bc.ca
Web: www.soscp.org

NOTE:

In 2008 the Governors of the Real Estate Foundation of BC granted $150,000 to The Nature Trust of BC (one of the partners in the SOSCP collaborative) to support the program coordination, research, education, and land use planning functions of the South Okanagan-Similkameen Conservation Program through 2008-2011. For more information on recent grants approved by the Governors of the Real Estate Foundation of BC please click here.

©Real Estate Foundation of BC / 2010. We encourage the reproduction of articles on this website non-profit educational purposes. Please notify the Foundation and the author of all reproductions, including in-house uses.

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Welcome to the JUNE 2010 postings from the Communities in Transition Information Resource

Summer's here...

Long days and warm nights. Good for growing food and enjoying the beauty of BC's rural landscapes.

Before you settle into the garden (or the garden chair), we hope you'll be inspired by some of the conversations about land use, conservation, and sustainability we've gathered in this posting of CITinfoResource.

The June 2010 Issue

Since our last editorial dispatch in mid-May we've posted a number of items that reflect some of what the Real Estate Foundation of BC does in non-metro BC communities. In her overview of the Organic Farming Institute of BC administrator Sarah Clark outlines how Foundation investments are translating into smarter, more sustainable agricultural practices in BC's Okanagan and Similkameen Valleys – and beyond. As this is being written, Tim Pringle is attending the Interface 2010 conference in Smithers. In our interview, Tim talks about what the conference is about and why it's important to non-metro communities. 

Tim is also the co-author of George Penfold's latest post on creating more effective rural economic development in BC's regions. George also responds to Maureen LeBourdais' post on the BC Rural Summit, and comments on his joint post with Tim in this audio post. 

A lot of what happens on the community side of the Foundation's investments have to do with sustainability. BC has a number of experts on sustainability – and a number of people who are still puzzling over what that means "on the ground." We recently interviewed Mark Holland and received a great – critical – response from Vancouver Island resident Charnal Macfie. In his most recent appearance at CITinfoResource Mark continues the dialogue. Gene Miller is another of the experts on sustainability we've had the pleasure to work with here at CITinfoResource. Gene's particular expertise is related to organizing one of the premiere sustainability conversations in Canada: the Gaining Ground Summit series, which the Real Estate Foundation of BC has helped to sponsor on a number of occasions. Our video interview with Gene looks at the 2009 Resilient Cities event, and forward to the upcoming October 2010 event in Vancouver. Finally, I weigh in with some thoughts on what Tim Pringle has described as the "rural/urban divide."

Coming soon...

CITinfoResource will host a number of posts over the summer, following up on themes we've presented during the year. We've got an interview with Kathy Bishop of Leadership BC's Central Vancouver Island chapter, talking about the June "Dialogue in Nanaimo" about water sustainability. We'll be posting about the environmental planning initiative coordinated by the South Okanagan-Similkameen Conservation Program. We're also going to be talking to Tim Pringle about the outcomes of the Smithers Interface 2010 conference. As you recline lakeside or gardenside during these summer months, take a moment to see what else is being posted about activities related to investments by the Real Estate Foundation of BC in non-metro BC communities! 

Investment in community sustainability

The Real Estate Foundation of BC funds a wide range of land use related projects in non-metro BC communities. In 22+ years the Foundation has been involved in over 1500 projects across BC, with more than half of these outside the Lower Mainland and Victoria. CITinfoResource is one way that the Foundation is extending the reach of these projects, recirculating it through CITinfoResource via our blog, Facebook, and Twitter posts. You can also connect with the Foundation at its website and its new Facebook page. 

Our goal at CITinfoResource is to "stimulate and support the conversation about land use, conversation, and sustainability amongst land-use practitioners in non-metro BC communities." Check us out. Use and circulate our resources and posts. Let us know if we're having an impact in your region or organization. 

hanspetermeyer

Editor,

CITinfoResource

– 30 –

©Real Estate Foundation of BC / 2010. We encourage the reproduction of articles on this website for non-profit educational purposes. Please notify the Foundation and the author of all reproductions, including in-house uses.

The Rural/Urban Divide, Part 1

by hanspetermeyer


I write extensively about living in a small city in a rural context, particularly from a "sustainability" perspective. Every once in a while I'm reminded that what I see as a continuum – from deep rural to deep urban – is experienced by others as a great divide: the city on one side, the country on the other. An example is the exchange that took place in the "comments" section after a post by Janine de la Salle and Mark Holland here at CITinfoResource.com

Does it have to be this way? And is the perception of a rural/urban divide standing in the way of the kinds of transformations we need to see, in both urban and rural landscapes and communities?

Two romances...
There is a romance to rurality. Give me land, lots of land, under starry skies above. Give me a ride-on mower and chainsaw to manage it – and a four-wheel drive pickup to drive to town in. Above all, do not fence me in with the language of the town or the city or with pretty words about "protecting the environment" at the expense of my livelihood (and with it, your urban standard of living, by the way).

On the urban side, the romance is about the pastoral idyll or untouched wilderness. All that open land and starry skies stuff is there to be enjoyed for its own sake – as an aesthetic respite from urban life, and as the source of ecological services (water, air) that make sustain our human settlements. I'll hug the trees – and protect the future of your kids and mine, rural and urban.

Romance and reality
These are generalizations. But the reality of living in rural BC does mean being close to the source of the province's historical wealth; it means living with logging, mining, the mess and dirt and smell of farming. But this dirt isn't a smudge on the rural romance; it's "honest dirt," the mess and muck of producing livelihoods for families and a high standard of living for the entire province, urban and rural.

As much as many of us are becoming aware of how destructive our rural resource extraction practices can be, our communities – including our urban communities – are still hugely dependent on them. As city dwellers, we still want our high standard of living; many of us also want to "protect" the beauty of the hinterland; and all of us have an interest in sustaining the natural systems that provide clean air, water, and mitigate the impact of climate change.

A shared – but complicated – romance?
In recent years I've seen some closing of the distance between the rural/urban divide. It's not that the romances have changed; it may be that a new romance is emerging, one built on food.

Urban dwellers have complained about the completely natural odour of their agricultural neighbours at times. But I've noticed a sea-change in how people look at even this issue, at least in my region. Nowadays there is a certain cachet in being reminded of food production in the neighbourhood. I think it has to do with the new "foodism" – a combination of concerns about "food security," "food sustainability," health, and gourmandism.

George Penfold has much to say about our recent interest in food. He's been a farmer, and he's widely esteemed as an academic and professional involved in rural and agricultural land use issues across the country. He's written for CITinfoResource on these topics, in May of this year and in September 2009. What he says isn't always that easy to stomach for someone, like me, who grew up in a rural context, worked on farms, but is now loving and living a much more urban foodie life.

George's comments are echoed by people like Gary Rolston, an agricultural consultant on Vancouver Island. I interviewed Gary in 2009 about "food sustainability and the Comox Valley." Our region is one of two major agricultural centres on the Island. But Gary suggested that our recent ag renaissance is a bit shakey. For one thing, locals who say we support increased local food production are, by and large, entirely unaware of what this will mean for demand on our already taxed water resources. We also have an over-developed imagination when it comes to how much food can be realistically produced. And, as George's comments on "food self-reliance" make clear, we will always be trading for many staples – unless we dramatically change our eating habits (dried fish and salal berries anyone?).

George identifies several forces at play here: continued high dependence on food production that is subsidized by (short term cheap) fossil fuels (and mechanization and transport), (short term) cheap access to land and water, a romantic and boutique approach to food purchasing, a standard of living that supports the latter and is built on the former. The forces are at play; they may soon - as with Gary's water issue - be in conflict.

An urban/rural rapprochement based on food is, then, not without it's problems. It's a good thing to support our farmers' markets and local food producers; but this really doesn't get to the heart of what ails our agricultural economy. And as George and Gary's insights suggest, a lot of our new-found urban foodism is a cleansed urban romanticist version of what food production is really about.

Having said all of that, I still believe that our faddist foodism is a potential bridge between urban and rural ways of looking at the land and our communities. Contact with food producers is opening our eyes somewhat to the messiness of production and rural life. There is an exoticism to this of course, but even as exoticism, it means we may be starting to appreciate the experience of rural food producers – and maybe, through them, their experiences as loggers, miners, etc. In short, food becomes a doorway to an interested rural/urban conversation, something that wasn't there a generation ago.

Getting visible
The rural/urban divide is a problem of conflicting romantic stories about what "rural" means. It's also a problem of invisibility. Our busy and self-contained urban lives don't have much of a view of the rural areas on which we depend for food, fresh water, our ecological systems of support, not to mention the resource industries that support us financially. Typically, our trips into rural areas are about recreational or spiritual retreat: we want and see only the pastoral idyll that gives nourishment; we ignore or reject the messiness.


People from outside the city are often also afflicted with a blindness – not to urban ugliness, but to the many good things that cities and urban neighbourhoods have to teach us about living together and about sustainability. Our shared romance with food (on both the consumption and production sides) is creating an opportunity to actually see a richer, more complicated relationship between urban and rural realities. If we're serious about the future of our communities – urban and rural – we need to be looking for this richness in each other's realities and in each other's romances.

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Organic Farming Institute of BC

The Organic Farming Institute of BC: an investment in land and community

by Sarah Clark

Organic farming practices based on biodiversity, sustainability, and conservation-oriented land use practices have a long history in the  Similkameen Valley, stretching back to the 1960s. Twenty years later, in 1986, the Similkameen-Okanagan Organic Producers Association (SOOPA) began certifying farms to organic standards. Since then, South Okanagan-Similkameen growers have been leaders, in BC and beyond, in the advancement of organic principles and in recognition of the values of land conservancy. Currently, the Okanagan-Similkameen region is home to 20% of the certified organic enterprises in BC, with 40% of the farms in the region certified organic. The region also boasts the “Organic Farming Capital of Canada” in the community of Cawston.

In 2003 the extensive knowledge and experience of organic farmers in the region was identified as an opportunity to advance organic farming beyond the practices of individual farmers and the region. The vision was to develop an institute through which the region's knowledge could be shared. 

What is the Organic Farming Institute of BC?
The Organic Farming Institute of BC (OFIBC) was launched in 2005. A founding board of regional representatives, including organic farmers worked with the Regional District of Similkameen-Okanagan's economic development function to develop a business plan and solidify a mission to support the vision for the institute. The mission: to share the collective organic farming knowledge through on line courses and field training to expand and improve the use of organic food production methods.

Organic farming is based on a number of principles that revolve around producing food in a manner that minimizes the impact of agriculture on the environment. Organic methods include: 

• reducing pollution and soil degradation; 
• recycling and using renewable resources where possible; 
• and using methods that promote and maintain the health of soil, plants, animals whilst optimizing productivity. 

Maintaining biological diversity is also a key tenet of organic farming. 

Organic farming practices take a long-term approach to using the land base. It recognizes and balances two factors: 

• the value of the land as a finite resource, 
• the need for food production and the impact of farming on the environment. 

Soil health
Soil health is one of the fundamental factors in a healthy and sustainable ecosystem; it is also a foundation of organic farming, and hence a primary focus for the Organic Farming Institute of BC. Through support from the Real Estate Foundation of BC (financial and consultative), the OFIBC  developed the first three courses concentrating on organic soil management. A $35,500 grant from the Real Estate Foundation of BC in 2006 helped OFIBC develop is current soil health curriculum.

Good management practices ensure the soil can provide a full range of functions, such as nutrient cycling, and have the ability to maintain this capacity into the future (i.e. sustainability). When considered from a land use perspective, soil health is a necessity to enable farming operations to function effectively long term, to continue to be productive and profitable for farmers and minimize negative off farm impacts.

The interrelationships between farming operations, well-being of local communities, and the ecology of a region are complex. There are often multiple relationships and steps between cause and effect. Focusing on the health of the soil is a point of leverage, which can have a positive influence on these interrelationships and their effects. Reduced off-farm costs, lessening of negative impact through runoff and erosion control, and improved viability of farming operations and rural communities are some of the short and long term benefits as a result of improving soil health. 

Training at OFIBC

Farmers are a pragmatic lot. During the development of the OFIBC soil courses we recognized that it was very important for the Institute to develop courses that were practical in nature. Online courses had to have an interactive, practical element to hold our target audience. This became the focus for OFIBC work made possible through Real Estate Foundation of BC funding. Using video, narrated presentations, interactive quizzes and games, in addition to readings and assignments, the students actively participate in the learning process, making it more useful and effective in the practical lives of farmers. To further support online learning, the Organic Farming Institute developed a field-training course that reinforces online knowledge through learning-by-doing. The field-training, while accessible to new or prospective farmers, is also aimed at those already actively farming with knowledge in the subject matter.

Generous support from the Real Estate Foundation of BC has enabled the OFIBC to develop its first three courses and open its doors to students in the summer of 2009. Since that time, students from across BC and one from Chile have studied with the OFIBC. In May 2010 OFIBC Certificates for ORG 101 Introduction to Organic Soil Management and Nutrient Cycles were personally awarded to two local Okanagan students on completion of their first courses at OFIBC. To date the OFIBC has awarded 10 certificates of completion to students.

Interested in studying at OFIBC?
We welcome students from around the world. Currently OFIBC offers three core courses: 

• ORG 101 – Introduction to Organic Soil Management and Nutrient cycles
• ORG 102 – Organic Soil Management Practices and Transitioning to organics 
• ORG 101F – Organic Soil Management Field Training (weekend course) 

Courses are open for registration on a monthly basis. For more information, please contact the Organic Farming Institute of BC at www.ofibc.org or call 250 938-7634. We are based in Keremos in the South Okanagan.

The support of the Real Estate Foundation of BC has been very important to the development of OFIBC and our goals of advancing the practices of organic farming. We believe this approach to agriculture is a sustainable form of land use. By promoting biodiversity on the farm and reducing negative off-farm effects it contributes to the health of rural communities and supports conservation activities. 

About the author...
Sarah Clark (BSc, Botany and Microbiology) is the administrator for the Organic Farming Institute of BC (and the Certified Organic Associations of BC.). Her involvement in the organic agriculture sector is relatively recent but she has been involved in agriculture and environmental issues for many years, with periods of work in the wine industry in Australia and Canada and in quality management. The need for quality practical training options aimed at expanding organic food production is what drew Sarah to the OFIBC.

©Real Estate Foundation of BC  / 2010. We encourage the reproduction of articles on this website non-profit educational purposes. Please notify the Foundation and the author of all reproductions, including in-house uses.

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Tim Pringle talks about the Interface 2010 conference in Smithers, BC

Tim Pringle is Director of Special Programs at the Real Estate Foundation of BC. He talks to CITinfoResource editor hanspetermeyer about the upcoming June 16-18, 2010 Planning for the Crown-Settlement Interface Lands conference in Smithers, BC.

Tim's focus in this conversation is on hedonic pricing of lands and real estate in rural communities. He emphasizes the importance of communities understanding their values and values-based planning as part of the strategy to deal with Crown-Settlement interface issues.

CITinfoResource is an initiative of the Real Estate Foundation of BC with a purpose of supporting and stimulating the conversation about land use, development, and conservation in non-metro BC communities. For more information visit our blog at CITinfoResource.com.

©Real Estate Foundation of BC  / 2010. We encourage the reproduction of articles on this website non-profit educational purposes. Please notify the Foundation and the author of all reproductions, including in-house uses.

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