I was recently privileged to be part of the 60th anniversary celebration for the Vancouver Japanese Gardeners Association.
The association was formed in 1959 when the Nitobe Memorial Garden was built at UBC, and members have remained very active in the community, volunteering their time building gardens to contribute to the beauty and culture of the Lower Mainland.
We were introduced to the history of the association by Tim Nishibata who showed us some interesting and beautiful slides documenting the past 60 years of the association.
I spoke about improving the sustainability of gardens primarily through focusing on plant choices that reduce the energy needed to care for the garden.
Vancouver park board commissioner Dave Demers gave an interesting presentation on the practices the City of Vancouver has been implementing to adapt to and mitigate climate change. The municipality’s bylaw requiring a permit before removing trees of a certain size has proven very helpful in reducing the needless slaughter of their valuable trees, he said.
Of great interest to me were the heat maps that have been produced documenting the hot zones where there are very few trees, or none at all. We all really need to care for our trees responsibly by giving them space to live a long, successful life.
More rain gardens are being installed – areas that are created between the street and the sewer where plants slow down the speed at which rainwater reaches the sewer system. Another interesting chart presented by Demers was the city’s documentation of water use. Trout Lake uses the most water in the whole city, as they dilute the lake with tap water to make it safe for the public to recreate in! The city is also making good progress in opening former streams, some of which are now functioning salmon runs, and there is a hope to re-establish wildlife corridors throughout the city.
David Suzuki was the keynote speaker at the event. He talked about our situation in the midst of the climate crisis and likened it to bacteria doubling themselves and running out of room and food in their test tube.
No one seems to want to face the problem we are in, he stated, maybe because we feel helpless as to what we as individuals can do.
I left with the feeling that something needs to be done immediately but feeling like the problem is so massive that what I can do as an individual will make little difference.
I also feel baffled by the fact that Canadians just missed an opportunity to elect federal representatives who would care as much about the health of the planet as they do the economy. As wildfires rage in much of Australia, record-setting floodwaters rise in Venice, and Prince Edward Island loses its own waterfront real estate at an alarming rate, we on the North Shore might want to consider reducing our consumption of plastic junk and sweatshop clothing, especially with the Christmas season upon us.
If we can think of nothing else to do, at the very least we can reduce our impact on the planet by reducing our addiction to consumerism and direct necessary purchases towards locally crafted products that will return to the Earth when their lifespan is finished.
Heather Schamehorn is a certified residential landscape designer, educator, sustainability advocate and acupressure therapist. Contact via www.perennialpleasures.ca
