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The Climate Crisis and Extreme Wildfire Risk on Gabriola Island
A 30-year veteran Gabriola Island Trustee with Islands Trust (IT), Susan Yates shares her concerns about the climate crisis. Yates believes a development permit system would prevent land owners from clear-cut logging on their property. She shares her frustration with not having the tools to take action to prevent over-development of the vulnerable island and other islands in the Salish Sea.
In 2019, Islands Trust declared a climate emergency. O’Leary asks what it has done since to act upon that declaration. Yates discusses the origins of the declaration and the way it continues to inform the IT’s deliberations and decisions, including at the local level. She says that its principles will be “right up front” in the new Community Plan for Gabriola.
O’Leary asks why authorities haven’t done more to raise awareness around the need for wildfire preparedness on the island, as has been done for earthquake preparedness. Yates points to information provided by both the Gabriola Volunteer Fire Dept. and Emergency Support Services. She also relates how internal politics on the Islands Trust stymied a proposed plan to better regulate tree-cutting on the islands. She describes the province’s funding for the IT as “dismal” and says that it needs to do more to enable the Trust to carry out its mandate to "preserve and protect."
Yates agrees with O’Leary that a warning about the severe fire risk should be made by the Captain on board Gabriola ferries. In fact, she commits on camera to taking action and she does. Yates is a member of the Ferry Advisory Committee and she raised the issue immediately after the interview with Chair Steven Earle who reached out to BC Ferries in Victoria and within a week the change has occurred. Now a warning will be announced on board both ferries, raising the awareness of all passengers, locals and visitors.
Journalist: Theresa O'Leary
Life on Gabriola TV is generously sponsored by: The Gabriola Arts Council The Haven, Gabriola Island
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Based on Gabriola Island, one of the Gulf Islands in the Salish Sea of BC, Life on Gabriola TV provides programming for Gabriolans, by Gabriolans. We cover events and issues in our own community, including adjacent islands, and in the Salish Sea region generally.
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