Issue 1 - Winter 2006
Celebrating the Wisdom of the Elders
Elders Gathering 2006 Announcement
The First Fifty Years: The Bill Merilees Project
A Legacy for Parks
BC Park Pioneer Peter Heron
Mentoring: Sharing Skills for the Future
Celebrating the Wisdom of the Elders
Established in September 2004, the Elders Council for Parks in BC is a society for individuals who have dedicated a significant portion of their lives to parks and protected areas systems in BC.
Our purpose is to recognize those who have led or continue to foster the creation adn continuing stewardship of parks in BC and to build public support for our parks systems.
The society aims to lead or participate in specific volunteer projects to ensure the long term well being of our worl-class parks system.
We provide peopel who have helped create the system the opportunity to continue to support it when they reture from full-time work.
Individuals are encouraged to make a financial contribution to the best of their abilities. This way we ensure that the work of the Elders Council can be accomplished.
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Elders Gathing 2006: Join us in Pentiction May 27-28
Just imagine - it was only a year ago that the Elders Counci inaugural event occurred at Government House in Victoria. A few months before that, it was just a thought in someone's imagination. We are very happy to report that the Elders Council is thriving.
Last November, we honoured the pioneers of BC's parks systems. What an event! Now, in Pentiction, May 27028, we're going to honour those people or groups who built on the work of the pioneers to put our great parks systems - regional, provincial and national - together. Her Honour, Lieutenant Governor Iona Campagnolo will host once again. As elders we recognize that many individuals, groups and governments worked together to build our parks systems and the awards will reflect this mix.
We are compiling important history about the development of our parks systems. Under the guidance of people such as Derek Thompson, Jim Anderson, Bill Merilees and others, we are slowly putting the story together. Our goal is to have documentation complete for 2011, the centenary of BC parks. In the meantime, Mel Turner has arranged far a Heritage Interpretation Centre in Seymour Provincial park and he is looking for volunteers to help him develop displays and begin to prepare education programs about why parks are important.
Bob Peart has received confirmation that the University of Victoria will serve as our official archives, so we have a place to organize and portect all that memorbilia you have stored in the basement. If you have material you think is suitable for the archives or display, please contact us. Also bring your stories, photos and boxed of stuff to share in Penticton.
In June, we plan to host a "park future forum" in partnership with the provincial government. WE will bring together great park conservationists to help us endure a bright future for the park system given the changes in today's society and the environment. Park systems need our innovative and chear-headed wisdom. We are ready to help!
We look forward to seeing you in Penticton.
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The First Fifty Years: The Bill Merilees Project
The purpose of BC's first parks was to conserve large expanses of natural, scenic landscape. When STrathcona became our first provincial park in 1911 its founders hoped it would become a world-famous destination, renowned for its beauty, natural wonders and protected status.
Forty years later, when a 1953 meeting of BC Parks "staff of the day" was convened in Victoria, Strathcona had long since been opened to natural resouce extraction and the provincial park system was still a subordinate of the Forest Service, whose mandate was to grow and harvest timber.
At mid-century the government of BC was just beginning to make the distinction between park management and forest management; the Department of Recreation and Conservationwould be created in 1957 and by the mid-1960s the government finally had a Parks Branch.
Bill Merilees, a veteran of 18 years with BC Parks, is fascinated by this early period in BC Parks history. Since 1995, he has been working on a narrative history of our provincial parks system, focused on the people, places and accomplishments of its first 50 years.
That 1953 meeting in Victoria brought together many of the men who are now considered pioneers of the park movement in BC: Chess Lyons, Davie Davidson, Ole Johansen, Bob Ahrens, Lloyd Brooks, Yorke Edwards, David Stirling and Ian McTaggart Cowan among them.
On the day of the meeting, Chell Lyons took a photograph of each delegate. Me. Merilees discovered the photos in the BC Parks library and they have become the central hub of his research. Over the last several years he has been interviewing the men in those photos and recording their memories.
Alongside the personalities, anecdotes and histories emerging from these recorded conversations, Mr. Merilees is collecting photographs, cortoons, sketches and clippings to illustrate his narrative. He plans to donate all this research material to the Northwest Collection of the Vancouver Island Public Library in Nanaimo.
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A Legacy for Parks
The Elders Council provides a way for those who have dedicated their lives to our parks and protected areas to continue to contribute to the long-term well being of our world-class parks systems.
Faced with growing threats to BC's environment from urban and industrial encroachment on our precious wild places, the knowledge gathered by our Elders through decades of service is more important now than ever. To ensure this work continues, we invite you to consider leaving a legacy gift in your will (a bequest), a life insurance policy, gift securities, or gift annuities.
Planned gifts are particularly useful since they provide the Elders Council with financial stability and the ability to make necessary long-term commitments to conservation in British Columbia.
By providing a planned gift to the Elders Council you can help conserve the ecosystems that you draw inspiration, health and enjoyment from today and preserve it for your children and grandchildren to experience and share.
We suggest you discuss your plans with your lawyer or financial planner. They will help you determine which approach is best for you and your family.
Each member of the Elders Council holds a lifetime of knowledge. Donations will ensure the history and wisdom of BC's park founders and crusaders are preserved for the benefit of parks and generations to come.
If you have already included the Elders Council in your will, thank you. Please contact us at 604-685-7445 ext. 23 to ensure your gift will benefit the projects and places that mean the most to you.
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BC Parks Pioneer Peter Heron
Peter Heron, on eof the original founders of the Elders Council for Parks in British Columbia, passed away on Saturday, Sept. 17, 2005.
Dr. Heron was one of the first permanent naturalists in Canada's national parks system. He was one fo the key people who kept the Olympics out of Banff National Park in order to protect the park's wilderness.
He left parks Canada to become head of education at Alberta provincial Museum, but continued to advocate for parks. He was one of the first presidents of the organization that would become the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS). In retirement he continued to fight for local parks in Victoria.
We are grateful for the wisdom, knowledge, guidance and ideas Mr. Heron contributed to the founding of the Elders Council.
If you would like to donate to the Elders Council in Dr. Herson's memory, please send a cheque to CPAWS-BC and mark it as "a donation to the Elders Council for Parks in BC".
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Mentoring: Sharing Skills for the Future
As Elders we have both experience and expertise to share. We want to ensure that the whole parks system is healthy and active. Parks Canada, BC Parks and communtiy groups like CPAWS need to be strong and these groups are only as competent as their staff and volunteers.
John Block is in the process of developing our mentoring program and how, as elders, we can share our wisdom with those individuals who are yound and keen but haven't yet got broad experience. John is working with BC parks to develop a pilot program. We also need any of your thoughts and ideas about how we might work with community conservation groups to train them in effective campaigning.
If you are interested in helping to develop this project, please contact John Block at hjblock@telus.net or Bob Peart at bobpeart@shaw.ca.
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Questions?
You might find the answer you're looking for on our Q&A page. If not, please contact the Elders Council at: info@elderscouncilforparks.org or call 604.685.7445.
To make sure you don't miss the next issue of the Elders Council Newsletter, contact us today. |
