Students growing gardens

In an article written by Amy Dove, outlines that teachers from the WestShore Teaching Garden are providing hands-on education in a small-scale agriculture system. This course is teaching basic skills upon which many years ago our society needed to be able to survive and thrive off of the land. Students are being educated gaining firsthand experience working with the land; even carpentry students have built planter boxes, a compost bin and a bench for the garden. Regular students from all over will take part in this community garden, and even take field trips to local farms to learn about pruning, preserving and other value-added products to make farming viable.

This course all though small is encouraging community participation through various facets from regular citizens, students and even business which are donating products and funds to help the gardens growth. The article didn’t say if the course was mandatory, but if it was voluntary you run the risk of trying to find people to continuously upkeep the garden, but community donations have helped the garden to flourish.

Exert from: Goldstream Gazette: Wed Feb.11/09, article “Garden to Cultivate green thumbs, business skills”

CRD involving the public

In continuation to my “Stop asking questions, you’re confusing me” blog, Judy Brown came into our class to discuss the CRD’s core liquid water plan, indicating the problems and goals this project is planning. As I mentioned in a previous blog, they weren’t involving the public in the discussions, but from Judy’s talk it seems there are ready now to begin talks and getting the word out on the project. This of course is an excellent move to do, as the more people feel their involved in a project the more they will participate. One could say it took them to long as they do need to talk to people about this issue and begin community engagement.

Problem with community engagement is most people don’t think long term, and the perceptions of wastewater can be outdated or skewed. So crossing these borders is a difficult task many municipalities and organizations are in the middle of.

Options to encourage community engagement (ideas generated from Royal Royal classmates):
· Instead of inviting people to take part, go directly to them
· Radio spot to get some of the younger listeners
· Talk to younger people in school, as school’s are a means to reach parents
· Go to pharmacies or talk to doctors
· Enlist some Co-op students that go door to door to spread the word
· Add information on a community bulletin board, and if it is hand written it can make it more personal
· Use social networks such as facebook to talk to people and spread the word.

Exert: Judy Brown, Community lecture at Royal Roads University (Feb.20.09)

Rebel Yell

In continuation to my “Stop asking questions, you’re confusing me” blog, it seems as of late the city of Colwood is withdrawing from the massive sewage treatment project discussed earlier. It appears the city may be in talks to develop its own plant, as the mayor believes it would cost taxpayers less to have private developers build communities similar to Victoria’s own Dockside Green, which treats its own sewage waste rather than pay a share of the regional system. There is even talks that Colwood may even leave CRD as a whole, and a municipality leaving an organization like the CRD is not a common occurrence and brings up many questions if a municipality should have the right to or not.

Now do you blame Colwood for their actions? Colwood appears to trying to branch on its own and form its own entity and exist outside of their pre-existing community with the CRD. The mayor of Colwood is serious about this detachment and feels the costs associated with being part of the CRD are not adequate with the benefits. Whether this is the right action or not is to be determined. If I were the CRD, I would potentially be worried that other municipalities may follow suit and leave the CRD and branch out making their own individualities. Nothing is concrete yet, so we will have to see how this develops

Exert from: Times Colonist: Fri Feb.14/09, article “Colwood could pull out of CRD sewage project”

Is economic equality possible?

In the world today there are many aspects of inequality between nations in comparisons to poverty, education, crime, etc. Some nations don’t have the luxury of others may have, which can potentially create animosity between the two nations. Now is it possible to improve a nation’s situation and create a more equal landscape for all? In theory yes it is possible; but in reality it most likely won’t occur…or for now at least. Generally a society looks at how much you have and what you do as a way to measure success. So the more you have the more successful and important you are. This mindset is not exactly sustainable, but this continues to be a common mentality in society. Even a wealthy nation can have economic inequality, as currently in the United States and even in Canada the gap between the lower classes and upper class is increasing with each year.

To potentially compensate for this inequality, social capital should be improved.. Social capital can involve involvement of community actives, and creates connections, trust and safety, create levels of tolerance of diversity and most importantly improve the value of life. Like I mentioned above in theory it’s possible to improve inequality, but to create a complete equality system is not likely. In today’s society getting people to participate in activities is increasingly more difficult due to as a whole were becoming more “coach potatoes” so this makes it hard for a nation to increase ones social capital. In the future it may be possible, but the mindset of the world needs to be changed from having more is good to a more sustainable belief.

Exert: Chris Ling, Community lecture at Royal Roads University (Week 5)

Old Growth Forests

British Columbia is home to many ancient forests that even stretch out along its major cities. These old growth forests support a unique ecosystem of trees, plants and animals. In a more urban setting it is all the more important to protect the old trees because the ecosystems have already been compromised by development. Due to the logging industry these old growth forests are at risk and even those some of these trees are located on federal, provincial and private land, they aren’t protected by provincial legislation. In order to compensate or that local governments and individual land owners are doing their part to ensure the trees are protected, such as some municipalities, like Metchosin and Victoria, have bylaws protecting trees on city and private land. Even landowners are doing their part, by placing covenants on land or donating it to land conservancies.

Many communities are banding together in order to halt the removal of the old growth trees starting committees and petitions to help protect their ecosystem. This is a positive movement as harvesting old growth trees is not sustainable and can dramatically impact the natural and social lifestyles of the surrounding areas. It’s nice to see communities banding together in attempt to help conserve their natural environment.

Exert from:
Dove, A. (2009, February 5). Last of the Old Giants. Retrieved February 5, 2009, from
http://www.bclocalnews.com/vancouver_island_south/goldstreamgazette/news/39113964.html

Add me...if you want to be my friend

Networks are a form of communication people use to contact a variety of individuals using their own network to spread into others in attempt to reach a broad market. You know the old saying, “a friend of a friend” is essentially a quote relating to how a network works. If you tell one person then they tell another, and so on and so forth till the message has spread through a variety of people. Depending on how large your network is a means to spread a great deal of information to countless people even in a short period of time. If you can change one person to perhaps live a more sustainable way, they may change another and so on and so forth as the individuals talk to other people about what and how they have altered their way of life.

My father and brother both are firefighters working for the municipality in Barrie, so when I had to complete an 8 month co-op for school I used their network to help me get a job with the wastewater treatment. Since they work in the municipality, they knew people who I could contact to help get my feet in the door and to provide me an opportunity that I may not have had if I didn’t have access to that network. Are networks unfair? They can be, but having a broad network can definitely take you places you may need to go and can use them to help change others or use them for your own personal benefit.

Exert: Chris Ling, Community lecture at Royal Roads University (Week 4)