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Creekside Rainforest fundraising — almost there!

Help us cross the finish line! The Salt Spring Island Conservancy is in the home stretch of fundraising to acquire and protect Creekside Rainforest, 15.5 acres of rare coastal temperate rainforest right here on our island. Thanks to the immense support of our community, and a major grant that the Conservancy applied for and received, only $17,100 is left to be raised to complete this important conservation project. Creekside Rainforest feels, smells, and looks different than the drier rainshadow landscape we are accustomed to on the Southern Gulf Islands. The land’s deep ravine, higher than normal rainfall, and northerly aspect combine with the continuous forest canopy to create an exceptionally cool and moist microclimate. The forest is rich in biodiversity and home to numerous species associated with older rainforests, including many at risk. Also found on the land are two ecosystems that are provincially classified as imperilled. The land is home to Western redceda…
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ASK Salt Spring with MoTI Area Manager, Owen Page on all things Salt Spring roads

Fourteen gathered in the United Church Meadow (for the last time: see below for news of our new location!) to welcome our Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure (MoTI) Area Manager, Owen Page. Although he has only been our Area Manager since this spring, he offered us a wealth of information at this ASK Salt Spring gathering. After our Territorial Acknowledgement, we learned a bit about Owen’s scope of responsibility as our Roads Area Manager. While we all believe that Salt Spring should be his most important responsibility, we learned that he coordinates MoTI initiatives for a large area, including all the provincial roads in the expansive CRD. While normal road maintenance is the responsibility of the maintenance contractor, Emcon, Owen works closely with them to ensure conformance with their contractual obligations and assist them in identifying and prioritizing maintenance activities. He also works with them to plan, organize, and implement the delivery of vari…
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2022 General Local Election Candidate Profile - Tisha Boulter

The 2022 General Local Elections are on October 15, 2022. Election profiles on the Salt Spring Exchange feature candidates who are running for local office. These short interviews are structured so that we can quickly and easily learn more about each of the candidates and a bit more about why we might consider voting for them. All candidates have been invited to participate. This profile is from Tisha Boulter who is running as a candidate for School Board Trustee. Tell us a bit about your background: I grew up on an Organic Farm which taught me a strong work ethic and deep connection to the land. After operating a successful Massage Practice in Salmon Arm for 4 years I moved to Salt Spring Island in 2001 and worked for several Spas including Hasting House and the SS Centre of Yoga. Over the years I have enjoyed many community connections with my volunteer work with DAISSI, IWAV, the 4H club, the Co-op Preschool, my neighborhood emergency POD, School PAC's + DPAC and th…
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2022 General Local Election Candidate Profile - Laura Patrick

The 2022 General Local Elections are on October 15, 2022. Election profiles on the Salt Spring Exchange feature candidates who are running for local office. These short interviews are structured so that we can quickly and easily learn more about each of the candidates and a bit more about why we might consider voting for them. All candidates have been invited to participate. This profile is from Laura Patrick who is running for re-election as a candidate for Islands Trust Trustee. Tell us a bit about your background: My family moved full time to Salt Spring in 2006, after living here part time since 1995. I am tremendously proud of my daughters and believe that their growing up on Salt Spring shaped who they have become.  As a professional geoscientist, I had a career in environmental management, environmental impact assessment and international consulting. Prior to running a successful consulting firm, I was the manager of the environment department at YVR, where I le…
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2022 General Local Election Candidate Profile - George Sipos

The 2022 General Local Elections are on October 15, 2022. Election profiles on the Salt Spring Exchange feature candidates who are running for local office. These short interviews are structured so that we can quickly and easily learn more about each of the candidates and a bit more about why we might consider voting for them. All candidates have been invited to participate. This profile is from George Sipos who is running as a candidate for School Board Trustee. Tell us a bit about your background? I was born in Budapest, grew up in London, Ont. and have lived in BC for the last fifty-six years, apart from a couple of years in England where I got an MA, married, and had our first child. I was a teacher for a number of years – at UBC, Quesnel Junior Secondary, and the College of New Caledonia in Prince George. For 17 years I owned the best independent bookstore in BC (next, of course, to Salt Spring Books and Duthie’s). At the end of those years I became General Manage…
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2022 General Local Election Candidate Profile - Nancy Macdonald

The 2022 General Local Elections are on October 15, 2022. Election profiles on the Salt Spring Exchange feature candidates who are running for local office. These short interviews are structured so that we can quickly and easily learn more about each of the candidates and a bit more about why we might consider voting for them. All candidates have been invited to participate. This profile is from Nancy Macdonald who is running as a candidate for School Board Trustee. Tell us a bit about your background: I grew up near Horseshoe Bay and later lived in Kitsilano while attending UBC (B.A. M.A. and PDPP). I lived in France for a year, and then became a French Immersion teacher when the program was in its infancy. My husband and I moved to SSI in 1983 where we began the long project of building a house in the south end. To add to that chaos we had 3 children and worked full time, he at UVic and me here at SSE, teaching grade 6 and 7 French Immersion. There were over 400 kids…
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The seduction of sustainability

Words are powerful and fluid. We know that. Their meanings are subject to time, place, and situation, and they pick up and discard interpretive nuances in what sometimes seems like whimsy. This makes it possible to suggest that statements made even a generation ago mean something other than what they were originally intended to mean. Here’s an example close to home: The Trust Object lays out the mandate of the Islands Trust in this compact sentence: “The object of the Trust is to preserve and protect the Trust area and its unique amenities and environment for the benefit of the residents of the Trust area and of British Columbia generally, in cooperation with municipalities, regional districts, improvement districts, First Nations, other persons and organizations and the government of British Columbia.” One phrase in particular has been subject to intense scrutiny, to see if the mandate of the Trust might be reinterpreted to facilitate changes in policy. Supposedly these wor…
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Obituary: Marjorie Leckie

Marjorie Ruth Leckie (Marge) passed away peacefully on September 15th, 2022 at the age of 98. She left her beloved Salt Spring, surrounded by family, in a family member’s garden, by way of Medical Assistance in Dying. Mum was a long-time member of Dying with Dignity and we are so grateful to her personal physician and the MAID doctor and nurse who provided her the means to go when she knew it was time. Although she could no longer help weed the flower beds, until very recently, she still walked the grounds at Meadowbrook where the staff and residents made her feel at home. Mum was the sharpest card player in the family. She always had a twinkle in her eye when she came from behind to win. Her keen desire to be independent and useful meant she was seldom idle, finishing her final project, sewing a sail cover for her son and daughter-in-law’s boat, days before she passed. In her kind and gentle way, as a wife, mother and teacher, Mum's social conscience, streng…
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